When asked to comment on The Warrior Connection's proposal, Natalie Rogers, expressive arts therapist and daughter of psychologist Carl Rogers, said: I am excited by the prospect of finding ways to offer the expressive arts methods to professional who will in turn be able to facilitate this process with veterans. The non-verbal, right brain functions for mind/body/spirit healing is timely and necessary in the field of trauma, PTSD, and grief and loss. Natalie Rogers serves on the Warrior Connection Advisory Board.

Through its trainings and retreats, The Warrior Connection is committed to healing military service-related trauma and loss using the expressive arts, earth-based ritual, psycho-educational instruction, and mindfulness techniques. Trained clinicians play an essential role in The Warrior’s Journey process teaming with mentor warriors, community volunteers, and the community-at-large to provide retreats that promote the use the expressive arts, nature and Native-based ritual, and mindfulness to enhance the well-being of veterans, their families within their home community to prevent harmful outcomes.



Reaching returning veterans as soon as they realize they are experiencing difficulty adjusting to civilian life will increase their ability to integrate and heal from those traumatic episodes and/or challenges endured during their tour of duty that currently interferes with their ability to find inner peace.

As a community-based service, The Warrior Retreat creates a safe haven to work with groups of veterans from any theater, to mitigate loss, decrease suicides, reduce PTSD, depression, and anxiety, improve intimate relationships, increase inner resources, and analyze effective methods to increase reliability.

 

In the beauty of nature, away from the demands of civilian life, small groups of veterans join with trained facilitators and mentor warriors for five days to:

 

• Develop mindfulness skills

• Strengthen inner resources

• Learn self-expression techniques

• Explore the healing power of nature

• Bond with fellow veterans

• Discover the healing power of forgiveness

• Move toward a more silent mind

• Transform military skills

• Find new ways to serve others

​

 

The four broad principles guiding The Warrior Connection are:

​

• Community research and action requires explicit attention to and respect for diversity among peoples and settings

• Human competencies and problems are best understood by viewing people within their social, cultural, economic, geographic, and historical contexts

• Community research and action is an active collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and community members that uses multiple methodologies; Such research and action must be undertaken to serve those veterans, veteran families and community members directly concerned, and should be guided by their needs and preferences, as well as by their active participation

• Change strategies are needed at multiple levels in order to foster settings that promote competence and well-being

​

 

The Warrior Connection is designed to result in the following outcomes:

​

• To reduce the PTSD symptoms of war-zone trauma

• To decrease incidents of isolation and suicide when veterans return to their families and communities by providing safe environments in which to share, to listen, to release, and to respectfully be received by fellow veterans and trained facilitators

• To strengthen and support the veteran’s intimate relationships and increase their ability to openly and sincerely communicate with one another

​

 

Facilitator Training



Clinician training is a three-day training where community clinicians learn The Warrior’s Journey creative exposure methodology embedded within the Nine Station Integration and Healing Map process. At the conclusion of the training, supervised clinicians will be eligible to co-facilitate veteran retreats plus receive skills transferable for private practice use. Training location TBA.

CEUs are offered and a practical training manual accompanies the training model.

 

• TWP  Facilitator Training Outcomes

• Able to replicate The Warrior’s Journey process with veteran populations

• Able to use Creative Exposure Therapy (CET)

• Able to facilitate meaning reconstruction for grief resolution

• Able to use the expressive arts in therapeutic settings

Able to administer pre/post inventories to scientifically inform The Warrior Connection

​

​

Facilitator Training Skills

​

An experiential exposure to The Warrior’s Journey

• To witness the process of anothers creative expression​

• To practice response art while others are creating i.e. publicly or privately and sharing or not sharing in the session

• To facilitate movement, drawing and writing as a vehicle for client use in the expression of the wide range of reactions such as sadness, anger, resentment, relief, love acceptance, re-storying, commemoration, and forgiveness.

• To introduce the use of the expressive arts with confidence and encouragement

• To create a space that is safe and aesthetically supportive of The Warrior’s Journey process

• To tune into and trust intuition

​

Facilitator Training Knowledge

• Gain an experiential understanding of The Warrior's Journey process
• Learn facilitation techniques pertaining to The Warrior’s Journey
• Understanding the theories, objectives, and process of the nine station integration sequence
• Can apply meaning reconstruction for grief processing
• Orientation to The Warrior’s Journey curriculum
• Gain an understanding of individual learning/healing creative modality style

​

​

Facilitator Training Attitudes



• Overcoming any negative personal expressive arts attitudes such as, “I can’t sing or draw. I have two left feet and can’t dance”
• Becoming more accepting of your own creative process.
• Valuing the process more than the product
• Having an increased respect and understand for the ethnic variations and culture
• Diversity in death and dying beliefs/practices of others.
• Trusting the intuition and knowledge of veterans

​

The  Warrior Connection is Looking For Clinicians and Facilitators Who Value the Importance of The Following Clinical Qualities:



• Creativity and creative thinking for therapeutic purposes
• Flexibility

• Current with new research on veteran PTSD and issues
• The ability to create a safe environment
• The capacity to hold exposure/expression and containment
• The ability to let go of any unresolved veteran issues
• Comfortable with group process facilitation
• Encourages emotion regulation
• A willingness to provide a wide range of expressive modalities
• A good sense of humor
• A desire to assist in the grief process 
• The willingness to plan, schlep, aesthetically create a space, permit/encourage “messes,” and clean up after a session
• Trusts and opens to intuitive guidance

​

​

The Warrior Connection invites interested clinicians to participate in a dynamic three-day training to increase our pool of facilitators trained to co-lead groups of veterans in five-day retreats. Here is a golden opportunity for skilled and dedicated clinicians to gain new skills, knowledge and experience to enrich your repertoire as an artist, therapist and group facilitator—and serve the veterans in your home area.

 

Please contact Dr. Anne Black for more information:  drblack@warriorconnection.org

​