HARPSWELL
Two different veterans’ help groups are joining together to offer a week long residential retreat program for combat veterans afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury.
The retreat, administered by nonprofit counseling services Embrace A Vet and Cardinal Retreats, begins Saturday and will run through Saturday, Sept. 29.
A color guard ceremony will kick off the retreat at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, at the 69 Shore Road home of Embrace A Vet founders, retired Adm. Gregory and Joy Johnson. Numerous sponsors and volunteers have opened their homes and businesses to provide meals, lodging, assistance and funding to ensure that the retreat is free to all of the participating soldiers and their families.
A close relationship is the only condition: Veterans must be accompanied by a family member, loved one or close friend, according to a statement released by Joy Johnson. Statistics cited by Camden-based lead therapist Candace Green, executive director and founder of Cardinal Retreats, indicate that including a significant other in the treatment process can increase the odds of healing by as much as 50 to 80 percent.
“We’ll be exposing them to alternative therapies,” spokeswoman Dean Paterson said Thursday. “We’re feeling a deep sense that communities need to do more for these people, because they’ve given so much and because veterans’ groups alone aren’t doing it all. They just can’t.”
Some of the alternative therapies will include kayaking, hiking, massage therapy, acupuncture, Native American ceremony, Reiki, wood carving, art therapy and yoga.
Neither Johnson nor Paterson revealed how many veterans were slated to attend the retreat.
For more information, contact Embrace A Vet and Joy Johnson at 720-0225, or browse www.cardinalretreats.com.
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