Category Archives: Health

Health, Veteran Pals, Veterans Benefits, Veterans' Spouses, Partners & Families

Ministry Helps Veterans Deal With Demons of War

January 25, 2010 Michael Brewer Leave a comment

National Catholic Reporter, by Lynanne Lasota

In 1999 Vietnam veteran Michael Brewer attended a “base camp” in the Arizona desert, an outing sponsored by Point Man International Ministries, a multi-denominational Christian organization that serves war veterans. In 1969, a year and a half after arriving in Vietnam, Brewer had become 100 percent disabled from complications of Agent Orange, a head injury and post traumatic stress disorder. “PTSD meets altar boy,” said Brewer. “They did battle for my soul for nigh on to 30 years.”

At the base camp, led by Don Weaver, an 82-year-old World War II former prisoner of war, veterans sat around a campfire talking about how the first recorded episode of posttraumatic stress disorder occurred thousands of years ago–the story of Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel, and when asked by God what happened, Cain denied the event by asking, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

“Cain disconnected himself from God, became angry and wandered around aimlessly,” said Brewer. “The same signs we see today of veterans with PTSD.”

Brewer recognized a need for a Point Man outpost in Tucson with the ability to minister to the large Catholic population. The Tucson outpost of the organization opened in early 2000.

“It’s exactly what my grandfather did after World War I,” Brewer said. “We’re a modern day version of Catholic War Veterans”–an organization that helped veterans coming home from World War I and World War II.

Brewer meets with approximately 20 clients individually to talk and pray together. He focuses on the Point Man philosophy of acceptance, understanding, recognition and fellowship. “Demons of war are nothing but idols,” he said. “Killing is not something that vanishes–ever. You must deal with it.”

Brewer said he believes God called him to be an outpost leader. He wasn’t going to allow his disability to stop him; instead he would use his energy as an advocate for veterans.

When he returned from the war at age 21, he became an active member of the St. Thomas More Newman Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Today, he wants to start a program at the center for men and women returning from war and for their families, with a similar program offered in the public library system. With veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, Brewer sees a greater need for counseling. He also sees a need for assistance to college students whose parents may be Vietnam veterans. (Next Library Forum: Himmel Park Library, February 28th Sunday. Noon to 4pm. 520-540-7000).

As outpost leaders guide a veteran through spiritual healing, they provide a network of helping agencies and contacts with referrals for physical needs. Needs include medical resources, legal resources, emergency rood and clothing. “Each outpost is autonomous, providing a contact list within their geographical area,” said Dana Morgan, president of Point Man International Ministries.

The mental and physical resources come with a gift of Christ’s love through the spiritual support and help shown in everything the outpost leader does. “We don’t beat you to death with the Bible,” said Dean Black, a Vietnam veteran and an outpost leader in North Carolina. When a veteran “comes out of his shell,” Point Man outpost leaders emphasize, “God did not desert you. You are never alone.”

Many veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder have lost faith in the world and in themselves, according to Black. They are often alcoholics or drug addicts with no self-esteem; some cannot even talk, they are so withdrawn, he said. Black met with a man “bunkered in” in his house for years. “His house becomes his defense system,” said Black. “It took me two and a half years to get him out of his house and today he works at Sam’s Club.”

Black himself recalled that when he visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington in 1997, “I was still in denial of PTSD and didn’t want to go near the wall. I couldn’t deal with seeing my friends’ names. I had to get away.”

Point Man outpost leaders help veterans bring themselves back to the present day. “We make them realize they are loved and valuable people because God made us that way,” said Black. The aim is to help the veteran to learn to function within society and let go of the demons haunting him.

Point Man also recognizes the importance of ministering to the families and friends of veterans with Homefront chapters, led by veterans’ spouses who have experienced the “war at home.”

Brewer’s wife, Lydia, joined an online support group and found she was not alone. “We all deal with near identical issues in our homes,” Lydia Brewer said. “I realized I had a God-given gift for helping other women and to not share this gift would be to ignore my calling by God to be a healer.” She became a Homefront leader in Tucson and moderates an online support group. On a daily basis, she encourages other members, suggests ways to strengthen their marriages, and praises their successes.

There is no lack of work as the war on terrorism continues. Outpost leaders currently travel to Iraq and Afghanistan to help young men and women in combat. “If I was in better health I would be over there also,” said Black.

“Everyone has to adjust to coming home from war, whether it’s Francis of Assisi coming home from the Crusades, Vietnam draftees coming home from the jungle, or today’s veterans coming home from the desert of Iraq,” Brewer said. “We’re here to help and let them know there are resources available.”

Footnote:

The Tucson Outpost has an office in La Placita Village downtown. There are many more Iraq and Afghan vets joining our Outpost. Our retreats in Payson, Arizona, in conjunction with the Merritt Center, have become very popular as they enter the fifth year. And they are free!

Contact information at “pointmanchaplain@aol.com”

Health, Uncategorized, Veteran Pals

Veteran Bloggers Unite!

January 22, 2010 Michael Brewer 4 Comments

Eleven veteran bloggers gathered this evening at our second Blogger’s Ball. A fun time was had by all. Does 7 months on the job make us veterans? I guess so, since no one preceded us. LOL!

Healthy food and healthy conversation filled the conference room at the Ward 6 Offices. Downtown blogger, Donovan Durband, and now an Aide to Councilman Kozachik, hosted the newcomers to the Ward offices as the rest of us probed the depths of each others motivations to spend so much time preparing our blogs for no pay. It just shows you how deep runs the energy of vanity!

Our gratitude is extended to Carolyn Classen of, “Carolyn’s Community,” for her efforts in organizing this second gathering for the TucsonCitizen.com contributors. At the risk of a collective narcissism, I might say, we are one fine crop of Tucsonans.

This whole notion of the citizen journalist is not such a bad idea, as it is a wonderful alternative to the mandatory news of the standard dailies. Tapping the life experience, much of it professional, of all of these bloggers, is refreshing, and the accessibility of each of them provides an ongoing community resource that is really not replicated anywhere else in the media.

Let’s hope that our boss, Gannett, whomever they are, and wherever they are, will bless these dedicated contributors with a continuing forum for dialogue with the community. So far it works. I say, bottle it!

One thing is for sure. I went home enriched with new and useful information about Art, Medicare, Law, and Fitness.

I cannot wait for the third Bloggers Ball!

Health, Veteran Pals

My Friend A Teacher Jim Kluger Died

January 13, 2010 Michael Brewer 4 Comments

My lifelong friend, Dr.James Kluger, professor of American History died yesterday at 5:40 pm of kidney failure.

This is not an obituary, I will surrender that task to those who charge $5 a line. Jim, with his seering, H.L. Menken style of humor and brick in your lap common sense, would not have approved of the collection of a fee for a eulogy. He would, of course, enjoyed a free blog and a short little story about a friend. That would be the way of a historian.

I can hear Jim now declaring that the the beginning of the death of the daily newspaper was coincident to the election to charge for Obit’s. In doing so we began to segregate ourselves from the commoners in the community and our sense of place.

Jim Kluger never lost his sense of place, both in the stream of American history and in his beloved Tucson community.

With a singular elan, Jim knew, down to the calcium in his bones, that he was born to be a teacher–to which thousands of his students in American History would testify.

I am but one of those students, as was my son Ryan. To know and absorb the teachings of an American historian like Jim Kluger, is to be an American without pretense and platitudes.

Jim once told me, “it isn’t what you teach, it is what you get them to say.” It is the things that Jim got me to say that forged our relationship in 1971 when I was a numbed out young Marine freshly ejected onto the American scene from the jungles of Vietnam. I was mute and lost on the campus of the U of A as a pilgrim to polite society. There were no transition programs for veterans. There were no welcome home greetings, and for many of us there were no social outlets for our war experiences. In some respects we were all mute strangers in a strange land.

Jim felt that psychic pain that permeated my entire being from dawn to dusk, with sleepless nights. The violation of a moral code learned in my Catholic upbringing,as was Jim’s, and a personal sense of shame I felt from some particular war experiences could not be rationalized in the tavern conversations.

Jim was my first post-war mentor, confidante and confessor,(he would chuckle at the last one). But without his intervention and the guidance of the Newman Center on campus I would likely not be here today.

“To the good man to die is to gain” St. Ambrose. Jim’s alma mater was Saint Ambrose in Davenport.

So many, many of us have gained by Jim’s wit and sardonic wisdom. I was a lucky man in the summer of 1972 when Jim and I traveled across America to our respective hometowns, his Davenport Iowa, mine, Dixon, Illinios. It was on the Interstates of the heartland that Jim Kluger placed the soul back in the hollow heart of a young warrior.

Hope brings reality into focus. Did Jim know that by parading all of America—a people of hope, in front of me that he would restore my own hope? I think so.

Did Jim know that by having me read Dostoevsky that I would identify with suffering and thereby release the radioactivity of my own? I think so.

Did he know when we sat on the steps of the College Library in Tyler, Texas and he declared that, “by the time you are 30 you will not feel so stupid and will have a fund of knowledge and literacy of suffering that will benefit many of your brothers in arms,” that he was a prophet? I think so.

Did he know that by assigning me to read T.S Elliot that he would deliver me to that plane? I think so.

“How much reality can humankind handle” T.S Elliot.

Accurate for war eh? When you place a man of letters and humanities next to a Psychiatrist and the topic of existential pain and suffering is the offering, the chances are good that the professor of history will provide the framework for grasping and coming to terms with the exigencies and travails of war. Jim did, and I am a better man, husband and father as a result of a blessed association with a teacher par excellance.

Should all have such a superior system navigator as Jim Kluger, American history may not be so strewn with such tragic decisions.

New learning is always an affront to our inherent narcissism. Jim knew how to crack the crusty shell of self and ego to teach something valuable to the village. Teachers like Jim go straight to heaven in the carpool lane. And Jim….,? Sister Francesca of the Sisters of Mercy does in fact know what you did for eternal salvation…. you performed acts of mercy for the Vietnam Veteran.

“There are two laws discreet–not reconciled
Law for Man and law for Thing
The last builds town and fleet
But it runs wild
And doth the man unking”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I built my career in real estate, that stanza always reminded me of Jim.

“Let man serve law for Man
Live for friendship, live for Love
For Truth and Harmony’s behoof
The State may follow how it can.
As Olympus follows Jove.

“The sense of the world is short
long and various the report
To love and be beloved
Men and gods have not outlearned it,

And how oft’ so’er they’ve turned it
Not to be improved.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though my sins be scarlet I am cleansed and healed by friendship of the sorts of Jim Kluger, my pal. See you on the other side Jim. Mike Brewer/ Student

Jim Kluger’s Celebration of Life will be at the St. Thomas More Newman Center of the U of A campus on Saturday, January 16th at 11am.

Health, Veteran Pals, Veterans Global, Veterans' Spouses, Partners & Families

So What Is A Sense of Class?

January 10, 2010 Michael Brewer 8 Comments

With the psychic fabric of our daily living being tugged at in every way tolerable, financially, politically, and spiritually, there is nothing that demands of us to surrender our sense of class, and decorum.

2010 may well be the year to bring back some semblance of courtesy and class.

In reading through the comments that have been left at this Blogroom since we launched this project in July, I could not help but notice that we have been privileged to attract some very literate and classy commentators.

I mentioned that observation to a few neighbors, family and friends, and they in turn asked me what I meant by a, “sense of class.”

The first thing that came to mind, was a couple of lines out of the movie, ” No Place For Old Men,” when the one retired law enforcement dude says to Tommy Lee Jones, “it all fell apart when we stopped sayin’ yes mam, and yes sir.”

I work on the Old Pueblo Trolley on the weekends and we attract a large number of young men and women in the Armed Forces. They come to town from Fort Huachuca and Davis Monthan for some weekend leisure on the Avenue. It is noticed by all the riders how courteous these young soldiers, airmen and women, and Marines are in their language and demeanor. (I wished I could have said the same about ourselves when we were on liberty from Camp Pendleton!)

They are pretty classy kids. Is it possible that a sense of class is circling back on us to take the place of a decade or so of Simpson’s like languaging and in your face talk radio dialect? Pray tell what the village would be like with common courtesy taking a priority in all our conversations. Could the House and the Senate survive?

So what is a sense of class?

Here is a collage of ideas and impressions of what a sense of class may entail. Some of these are from notes I made for my children twenty years ago. I believe a few may have come from an author, Paul Fussell, a decorated WWll veteran and professor of literature.

Generally speaking, class implies an integrity, compassion and a sense of fairness in manner and speech. A generosity of spirit in conduct. A very individualized congruity with what you say and what you do. A bit different than style, class is somewhat more all encompassing of the person.

The traits of our new 21st Century classy American could be some of the following; lack of hostility, controlled ambition, a disdain for complaining, a tendency toward good luck. A polite consideration of the talents and limits of others. Knowing where you are going. A willingness to let time measure your performance rather then a strident meritorious selling of the self.

A quiet pursuit of excellence. An abhorrence of pretentiousness. Understanding and using the beauty of understatement. Seldom in doubt about the right thing to do. Caring about what is eternal, not just the encore mentality of a programmed consumer.

Not saying what you feel all the time. Not being intimidated by authority. Living without compromise to a set of standards. And going through adversity, like the last decade, without dipping to incessant cynicism.

And last, to be able to live your life without the props of money and status and position, and still maintain your sense of humility in a life that is really quite short.

I am 62 years old. I hope I can pull off a few of these as the trail narrows.

Alternative Care, Health, Veteran Pals, Veterans Events, Veterans Global, Veterans' Spouses, Partners & Families

Veteran Retreat Schedule for 2010

December 24, 2009 Michael Brewer 1 Comment

January marks the fifth year of our free retreats at the Merritt Center in Payson Arizona. These workshop weekends are the vision of the retreat founder, Betty Merritt. The entire weekend, food and lodging and workshop material is free to all combat veterans of all wars.

While the original outreach efforts were targeting just the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the directors and veteran mentors discovered in the third year that the mixture of the very broad demographic base of veterans, meaning WWll, Korea, Panama, Bosnian, Desert Storm, Vietnam, afforded a rather magical setting. War is war, and its psychic residue does not change much through time. Much of what Shakespeare and Steven Crane wrote about could be laid upon the soldier from Baghadad or Kabul.

The Soldier, Sailor, Marine, will not find anything like the Merritt Center in the conventional world of transition programs. One vet tagged this set of workshops as “a very fine dessert, after a superb meal.” I concur, having had the honor of participating for the past four years.

Warriors simply leave this place as a new and improved version, with tools in their psychological and spiritual arsenal that they heretofore did not even know they had available.

The mentors are not third party helpers either. They are all men and women who have been steeped in combat and have an uncanny ability to bond with others. Frankly, they just know the meaning of love.

This is not a Church program, and no one need fear any messy evangelizing. While many of us are affiliated with our own churches, we are not in the conversion business. This program is, straight away, focused on leaving the veteran with a healthy life soul and healthy life style and does so in ways where cognitive therapy leaves off. And did I say it is FREE?

Thanks to a stable of benefactors and grants the Merritt Center Board has been able to maintain this gratis offering. We pray that remains, and are always open to other grant and philanthropic opportunities.

The 2010 schedule is as follows:

January 15-17

March 5-7

May 14-16

July 9-11

The veteran may enter at session #2, after that it is closed. For applications go to the website at “MerrittCenter.org” or call Mike Brewer/USMC at 520-360-6933

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good nights sleep!

Alternative Care, Health, Veterans Benefits

Affordable Acupuncture for Veterans With Pain Issues

December 19, 2009 Michael Brewer 9 Comments

For release: Community acupuncture clinic brings health care reform to Tucson
As Congress debates and devises ways to reform our nation’s health care system, two local acupuncturists are already working to revolutionize alternative medicine in Tucson.

Keith Zabik and Larry Gatti say they founded Tucson Community Acupuncture last year in order to make acupuncture more affordable and accessible for residents in southern Arizona. The clinic, located at 2900 E. Broadway, is one of more than a hundred around the country that is using a “community model” where treatments are conducted in a large open setting and prices are set on a sliding scale starting as low as $15.

“Acupuncturists have been treating in this community-style for millennia in China,” Zabik says. “But in the U.S., private treatments are more the norm and typically cost $60 and up—a price most people can’t afford on a regular basis.”

Instead of treating people in isolated rooms and cubicles, the Tucson clinic treats people in a quiet, common area filled with comfortable recliners. The acupuncturists place hair-thin needles primarily in people’s hands, feet, legs, and arms in order to treat pain anywhere in the body and also to relieve a variety of common ailments.

“It’s like a big living room rather than a typical medical office,” Gatti says. “Many of our patients comment that the group setting is very relaxing and helps their healing.”

Since opening their doors in June 2008 the clinic has given more than 8000 treatments—with currently anywhere from 150 to 200 patient visits each week. Zabik notes that the clinic recently expanded their current operation by 700 square feet in order to provide additional treatment space and to be able to serve more Tucsonans.

“It’s bittersweet that we are one of the few businesses flourishing under such a bleak economy,” Zabik says. “I think it reflects how much people need affordable health care.”

In particular, Zabik and Gatti say they are reaching out to working- and middle-class Tucsonans who have never tried acupuncture before.
“A lot of people don’t realize how much acupuncture can help relieve pain, fatigue, and stress,” Gatti says. “Plus many who already know about the benefits would not try acupuncture due to the high cost. Our goal is to remove financial barriers and help people get better.”

Each time patients visit the clinic they are asked how much they wish to pay on the sliding scale of $15 to $35 (with a additional $10 fee for the first visit). Zabik emphasizes that the clinic does not ask patients to declare their salaries or require any proof of income.

“We recognize that people’s financial situations can change, even from week to week,” Zabik says. “Our sliding scale is one way to remove barriers and empower people in their medical choices—something that doesn’t seem to be happening right now in the current health care system.”

For more information contact:
Keith Zabik, L.Ac. or
Shoshana Mayden
(520) 400-5606 (cell)
(520) 881-1887 (clinic)
info@tucsoncommunityacupuncture.org

VA Health Care Enrollment and Refunds For Combat Veterans

December 17, 2009 Michael Brewer 2 Comments

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 extended the period of enhanced enrollment eligibility and cost-free care for conditions potentially related to the theater of combat operations.

Major implications of this law are:

Any combat veteran currently enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system and new combat veteran enrollees who are discharged from active duty on or after January 28th, 2003, are eligible for enhanced enrollment placement into Priority Group 6,( unless eligible for higher priority group placement, for five years post discharge.

Combat veterans discharged from active duty before January 28, 2003 who did not previously enroll in the VA’s health care system and who apply for enrollment on or after Jan.28,2003, are eligible for enhanced enrollment placement into Prioriy 6 through January 27. 2011.

As a result of the National Defense Authorization Act, veterans who are eligible for retroactive refunds of co-payments they made for medical services and prescriptions associated with treatment related to combat experience.

VA medical facilities are currently conducting reviews to determine applicable co-payments which should be refunded to these veterans.

The Veterans Administration anticipates mailing letters to impacted veterans before the end of the year informing them that they are due a refund which will be issued by the end of December, 2009.

Veterans are asked to contact the VA’s Health Resources Center with any questions at 1-800-0932.

Update data provided by Disabled American Veterans.

I remind our readers that the VA Budget was approved back in October. The first time in 20 years the VA has budget has been signed off on before the end of the year. This is a good thing, as they have spent the last 60 days planning for 2010, which is assured to see a huge influx in the needs of returning vets.

The very reason for this Blog, is to impart information like this that never makes conventional news dailies. I hope you pass it on.

Health, Veterans' Spouses, Partners & Families

A Holiday Muse

December 1, 2009 Michael Brewer 11 Comments

The Ten Signs and Symptoms of Inner Peace

1. A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fear based on past experience.

2. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

3. A loss of interest in judging other people.

4. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.

5. A loss of interest in conflict

6. A loss of the ability to worry. (Curious idea huh? The “ability to worry” like it is rehearsed!)

7. Frequent overwhelming episodes of gratitude.

8. Increasing tendency to let things happen rather then control everything

9. An increased susceptibility to love, like it is a verb, and the uncontrollable urge to extend it.

10. An appreciation of the talents, strengths and gifts our Creator and creation has bestowed
upon us.

My comments:

And who is the enemy of this path to a harvest of contentment? 24/7 Cable News! Turn off the lathered up news that is all story and little information. Send the radio ranters home for the holidays. Walk the dog, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, write a letter. Take back the Tower of Babel from the Babylon of Media mavens and usher in an era of silence. Prosperity will spring forth from more silence and less rant. It always has.

Alternative Care, Health, Veterans Events, Veterans' Spouses, Partners & Families

Merritt Retreat Center For Veterans of War

November 30, 2009 Michael Brewer 4 Comments

The following was sent to me by our Earth Mother, Betty Merritt who owns and operates a little slice of heaven known as the Merritt Center in Payson, Arizona. Many a man and woman have completed her tailor-made curriculum for healing from that ravages of war. There is simply nothing like it in all the 50 States. It heals. It works. It brings contentment,where there was once psychic pain. It brings love where there was once bitterness and rage. It brings intimacy where there was distrust.

I have had the great fortune to be part of this program for the past 5 years, and currently serve as a mentor and outreach contact for Southern Arizona.

The free retreats start up again in January. Let us know if you know of someone who may want to attend. We can arrange transportation too.

Payson Roundup

One-stop help for vets available at Web site
By Alexis Bechman

November 24, 2009

When soldiers return home from war, they leave behind one battlefield but often find themselves thrust onto a new battlefield — this time fighting enemies in their mind.

The last thing a veteran should have to worry about is where he will get medical care, housing, food or support. But after a recent veterans discussion at Gila Community College, a small group of veterans, therapists and counselors decided Payson combat veterans need more support.

Following that Nov. 12 panel discussion, 13-year Army veteran Miles Hanson, who only moved to town six months ago, stepped up and started a Web site, www.paysonveterans.org. The site gives local information pertaining to employment, housing, medical care, veteran groups, current events, self-help and most importantly, a place for support.

“A one-stop shop for returning veterans and those already here is a great benefit to local veterans and the community as well,” Miles said.

Betty Merritt, founder and owner of the Merritt Center, put on the discussion and said Payson needs to offer its veterans more assistance after they return home from war.

“There isn’t anywhere enough services that you deserve,” Merritt said.

Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Joseph Robinson and Vietnam veteran Kevin Whitaker said they have both dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since returning home from war and found the bureaucratic process for getting help frustrating.

PTSD affects approximately 30 percent of soldiers who spend time in a war zone, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. PTSD develops after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal and can often last years.

Whitaker said he spent the last 22 years living alone in Pine dealing with his own version of PTSD.

“I avoided anything dealing with veterans,” Whitaker said to the group. “I didn’t even tell people I was a veteran. But now I would like to help other veterans.”

Beyond the Web site, the group agreed a bricks and mortar location for assistance would be great along with a veterans advocate for Rim Country veterans.

Miles said he would also like to create a business card with basic information about services that could be placed in businesses around town.

Most importantly, veterans need to feel that the community supports them and there is a place to go for help, Merritt said.

“There is a sense that the community expends little energy at the individual level with veterans,” Merritt said. “There is a need to expand the therapeutic community’s understanding and support of the needs of veterans.”

When people go off to war, they are programmed to be soldiers. When they come back, they need to be deprogramed, she added.

“If we don’t recognize that these people need help, we have reactive outbursts,” she said, pointing to the recent shooting at Fort Hood.

Another case hit closer to home, a February standoff involving a veteran and Payson Police.

On Feb. 1, Gulf War veteran Michael Gene Robinson, 52, began a nine-hour standoff by barricading himself inside his home and shooting at police officers.

Talking with police negotiators, Robinson said that the officers in front of his house were Iraqis and therefore his enemy. Robinson eventually told negotiators he was suffering from PTSD. Eventually Robinson surrendered and no one was injured.

Although Army Reserve sergeant Ken Moorin was never violent like Robinson, he was diagnosed with PTSD after he returned from Baghdad in 2004. Moorin suffered panic attacks that were especially debilitating during thunderstorms. Seeking release, Moorin attended Merritt’s free retreat for veterans in Star Valley.

“I felt a sense of peace being with other veterans,” Moorin said. “Talking was so helpful because there is so much anger and sadness.”

“It has to go somewhere so it might as well be health,” he added.

Merritt founded the non-profit Merritt Center in 1987 to offer renewal and empowerment workshops.

Spread over four weekends, veterans work through a series of activities including trauma-release exercises, which allow veterans to release tension stored in the sciatic nerve during combat.

Merritt was inspired to start the Merritt Center after experiencing her own release during a massage. At the time, Merritt was a successful executive with a large corporation.

“An hour into the message I started breathing differently and I felt a white light in my body,” she said. “It said ‘Let go’ so I quit my job the next week.”

Not knowing what she was going to do, Merritt meditated on an answer and saw fields of pansies. In August 1986, Merritt started a cross-country drive looking for the field of pansies she had envisioned. After 36,000 miles, Merritt ended up at the lodge in Star Valley, where she found a field of Johnny jump-ups blooming.

At the time, a doctor was using the center as a retreat for cancer patients. In 1987, Merritt took it over.

For the last five years, Merritt has offered retreats free for veterans.

“So often they come back and try to numb the pain through either alcohol or other stuff,” she said. “We don’t just shake it off so we need to learn how to release it.”

The first two weekends of the retreat involve bonding with other veterans who have gone through the program.

“A talking circle is introduced in the first session and used throughout the program to provide the foundation for creating trust. With others in the circle acknowledging their traumatic experiences the vet is willing to explore his/her own and before the circle ends or definitely before the first weekend ends, the vet is willing to share a piece of the experienced trauma,” she said.

At the end of each weekend, veterans are given activities to practice at home.

During the third weekend, veterans let go of the traumatic event during a Native American sweat lodge ceremony. During the sweat, Merritt said she keeps the door open more than it is closed.

At the end of the sweat, some veterans exit the lodge feeling reborn.

After letting go of the trauma, veterans replace it with something positive, Merritt said.

During the final weekend, veterans create new life goals. In the past, one veteran expressed a desire to write a book and another wished to give whale tours.

Whatever the dream, Merritt encourages veterans to follow through.

“I am living proof of making your dreams come true,” she said.

Visit the www.merrittcenter.org for the free online workbook, Basic Training for Life, a self-help program for returning veterans.

Originally published at: http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2009/nov/24/onestop_help_vets_available_web_site/

Health, Veteran Pals, Veterans Benefits, Veterans Events, Veterans Global, Veterans' Spouses, Partners & Families

Upcoming Veterans Forum/ Himmel Park Library

November 14, 2009 Michael Brewer 10 Comments

On Thursday, November 19th, 2009 from 5:45pm to 7:45pm at Himmel Park Library, located at 1035 N. Treat Ave, near Tucson Blvd. and Speedway, there will be a Forum for dialogue with the community about veterans of war returning home. The topic is:

VETERANS OVERCOMING TRANSITION ISSUES OF EXITING WAR AND ENTERING POLITE SOCIETY

Join us in a “Coming Home” dialogue that intends to inform and engage the whole community in learning new ways of viewing the veterans you know and love. This is the first in a series of panel discussions and is intended for veterans of all ages and families from all generations. An extensive question and answer session is scheduled.

For information call Sue Parker at Himmel Library 520-594-5305 ext.3

Veteran Veritas