US veterans find combat-related stress relief in holisticmedicine retreat

Ever since 47-year-old Andy Kaufmann retired from the U.S. Army in 2009, scenes from active duty
in Iraq, Bosnia, and the what does a chiropractor do Saudi Arabia and Kuwait border have rattled his
body and mind giving him hyper-vigilance, disrupting his sleep and memory function, and
threatening his marriage of 21 years.
Kaufmann, of Montpelier, Va., thought he had tried everything to shake post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), a condition common among military veterans that will affect nearly 8 percent
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/chiropractic/Pages/Introduction.aspx of Americans at some point
during their lifetime, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). After serving in Iraq,
Kaufmann suffered an injury that required more than 20 surgeries on his back and neck, and caused
short-term memory loss. The father-of-three tried traditional talk therapy and a slew of common
prescription medications, and even tried magnetic resonance therapy, an experimental treatment.
When none of those things worked, Kaufmann developed an alcohol dependency.
It was ugly, Kaufmann told FoxNews.com. My wife basically said, Get help, or get out, and it was on
no uncertain terms.
What Kaufmann hadnt tried was confronting his fears head on while leaning on a group of other
veterans whose experiences he shares.
At Boulder Crest Retreat, a wellness center in Bluemont, Va. that uses holistic medicine to help form
bonds among veterans with combat-related stress, Kaufmann got to do just that. In September, he
participated in their Warrior PATHH program, a seven-day retreat that combines group therapies
and activities to prepare veterans with combat-related stress to lead happier, more productive
civilian lives. Today, he says his marriage is stronger, his sleep is better, and his mind is clearer.
We learned Transcendental Meditation, Kaufmann said. The first session that I had, I started crying,
and [the teacher] said, Are you OK? and I said, This is the first time in probably 10 years that the
music and the forces and the images have stopped it was that good.
U.S. Navy veteran Ken Falke started Boulder Crest and the retreat offers a handful of programs,
each tailored to an area of life, like relationships, personal growth and career. Its Warrior PATHH
program integrates therapeutic peer support and life coaching with yoga, music therapy, equine
therapy, kayaking, gardening and other activities. Veteran military mentors are also on hand to
support participants.
You have that immediate sense of trust and brotherhood, and in many ways theyve have traveled the
same roads, Josh Goldberg, director of strategy at Boulder Crest, told FoxNews.com. For us, theres a
belief that struggle is a universal part of life. We believe as guides and as mentors were simply
serving as role models for what it looks like, and all the ups and downs.
Some studies suggest certain forms of holistic medicine may benefit veterans with combat stress.
The VA has long recommended many of the same types of activities as programs like Boulder Crests
to help ease PTSD symptoms, said Dr. Harold Kudler, chief consultant of mental health services for
the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in the VA. The VAs recommended programs vary by state,
but they include yoga, transcendental meditation, and music and art therapy.

Freud said that the purpose of human life is to work and to love, and I think its very important to ask
that question: Are you able to work and are you able to love? Kudler told FoxNews.com And yet, you
wont hear those questions asked in clinical settings too often.
Where Boulder Crests model differs from other centers of its kind is its immersive nature to try to
prepare veterans to confidently return to civilian life and feel a sense of self-growth, Goldberg said.
The organization calls itself the nation's first privately funded rural wellness center for veterans and
their families.
Falke and his wife, Julia, founded Boulder Crest in September 2013 after hosting veterans with
combat stress in their home inspired them to start an official wellness center.
Since its inception, the retreat has hosted more than 1,500 combat veterans and their families for
free through its Family Rest & Reconnection Retreats and PATHH programs. PATHH, an acronym by
Boulder Crest, stands for Progressive and Alternative Therapies for Healing Heroes.
"It's a band of their own"
Boulder Crest sits on 37 acres surrounded by mountains on three sides. Its extensive facilities are
handicapped-accessible and cost about $10 million to construct, Goldberg said.
Whether youre walking through the labyrinth or doing archery or equine therapy, its designed to
bring that peace of mind and clarity and how youre going to get there, he said.
Boulder Crest aims to have a staff consisting of one guide per participant. For its Warrior PATHH
program it has six to eight guides, or providers, including two therapists, a couple of life coaches,
and several military mentors, some of which have combat stress themselves.
Participants at Boulder Crest do not have to be clinically diagnosed with PTSD, though Goldberg
noted that most would qualify for the diagnosis.
What we dont talk about are diagnoses and disability [ratings] because those arent constructive for
creating confidence and enabling someone to do what they want to do, he added.
Individuals who either have a more severe psychological disorder like schizophrenia or who are
coping with a major substance abuse problem at the time of application are not eligible for Boulder
Crests programs, but the staff refers those who dont qualify elsewhere to receive treatment.
Weve actually had people who were detoxing, maybe from alcohol or they had maybe more complex
trauma, and they were still able to get a lot out of this, Rachel Erwin, lead therapist at Boulder
Crest, who received her masters degree in psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in
Carpinteria, Calif., told FoxNews.com. But what can happen is that sort of takes the attention away
from the larger community of the other people who are here.
Participants in the Warrior PATHH program take an entry survey that queries them on their
experience in the military and their mental health state and results in a PCL score, which is a
standard rating for PTSD in the U.S. military. At the end of the program and in three intervals up to
a year after the program, participants complete a similar survey.
Boulder Crests staff said it has seen a 25 percent reduction in overall PCL scores from PATHH
participants. The organization has also reported a 71 percent improvement in its participants

believing they have a meaningful and applicable plan for the future, and a 47 percent improvement
in participants feeling they are able to manage stress moving forward.
At the end of participants stay, Boulder Crests staff helps them identify resources in their
hometowns so they can continue to engage in the activities they resonated with most strongly during
the retreat.
Staff and volunteers involved at Boulder Crest acknowledge the lack of independent scientific
evidence that proves Boulder Crests programs are effective from a clinical standpoint, but they say
that isnt the point.
Weve taken the clinical part out of it, Erwin said. I think medicine can be useful if someone is in an
acute state, and I think theres a place for that. The problem is ultimately if you dont get into those
various things that have gotten stuck in someone, like a state of fear or anxiety or depression, and if
you dont get into that physiological part of a person and [you do] medicate it, youre freezing the part
of the person.
Dr. Bret Moore, a board-certified clinical psychologist, volunteers with Boulder Crest, helping the
staff refine programs, which are not meant to replace traditional health care services but to act as a
supplement for those who have not responded well to medication or psychotherapy.
Moore who served as an active-duty psychologist in the Army from 2003 to 2008, during which he
did a 14-month tour in Iraq said he has seen Boulder Crests model work.
Its not one hour of therapy a week like you traditionally get in the health care system. Its therapy
throughout the day that is not only provided by trained professionals but also by their fellow service
members, he said. Think about how military service works: Its a band of their own, and thats whats
unique about Boulder Crest. People are able to open up more and form bonds more as opposed to
sitting in traditional therapy.
Its one of the most important factors, Moore added. Its one of those factors that the traditional
health care system is trying to maximize and cash out on. Because of the way our traditional health
care system is set up, its too costly.
"Weve gotta change this stigma"
Boulder Crest is working on expanding beyond its single location to 10 different areas in the U.S.,
with early interest in Michigan, Texas, California and Washington state. More immediately, the
nonprofit is creating a technology platform that will help participants of PATHH stay connected with
and accountable for each other as well as their mentors and therapists from the program long after
they have left the retreat.
Mike King, 35, who has been in the U.S. Army Reserve for 14 years, stays in touch with four or five
of the men in his cohort from the Warrior PATHH program he participated in last March.
King had tried for years to suppress his PTSD symptoms until an Army assessment survey revealed
the truth: He was diagnosed with PTSD.
I carried on, and said, Im OK, and now Ive got this excuse to be a mean, gruff sergeant, King told
FoxNews.com. He eventually became dependent on alcohol. This past January, I looked at myself in
the mirror and didnt recognize who I was looking at.

After learning about Boulder Crest, he was skeptical but now says he would go so far as to say it
saved my life.
They basically told me its OK to have this stress in your life. Its normal, King said. But, like, nobody
really told us that it was just, Hey, you went to war, come on, youre in the Army Reserve, youre just
young, youre drinking too much.
Following the program, King continues to practice Transcendental Meditation, sees a therapist
regularly, and has been sober eight months no longer taking any drugs or drinking alcohol as he
works as a land surveyor for a construction company in Ashburn, Va., where he, his wife, Monika,
and their 3-year-old daughter, Margaret, live.
Weve gotta change the view of people and this stigma with mental health issues in the military, he
said. Weve gotta get these guys in there to programs like this. Weve gotta heal them and let them be
themselves again.
Kaufmann, one of the other Warrior PATHH participants, said yoga effected the biggest change in
his sense of well-being. Since leaving Boulder Crest, he practices yoga regularly, and hes now
volunteering at a horse ranch that does equine therapy for children.
Two months after his stay, Kaufmann recalled two art therapy sessions with four other participants
at Boulder Crestone at the beginning of his program and one at the end.
At the beginning, he said, Mine was stop signs and grave markers and death and pain, and at the
end of it, it was a tree the five of us had been there with a river in front and mountains in the back.
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