Key Takeaways
- Holistic therapies, which encompass nontraditional therapies that address your mind, body, and spirit, can be especially impactful in helping veterans achieve whole-person healing from mental health and addiction challenges.
- Entrenched societal stigmas can cause veterans to be skeptical about holistic therapy or prevent them from getting professional help at all.
- At Defining Wellness Centers, our Rally Point dual diagnosis treatment program is designed specifically to help veterans overcome their struggles and reclaim their lives.
As a veteran, you may wrestle with the idea of getting professional help for your mental health or addiction struggles. And among your treatment options, getting holistic or alternative therapy for veterans may be last on your list. After all, you may naturally view such treatment as soft or ineffective. However, in reality, holistic therapy for veterans is helping them rediscover balance and purpose—and it can do the same for you, too.
What is Holistic Therapy?
When participating in a comprehensive mental health or addiction treatment program, you often will experience a variety of therapy approaches on the road to recovery. Some of these will utilize the conventional therapies that you’re familiar with already. These may include medication-assisted treatment and forms of talk therapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy.
While these traditional therapies are very important, they can only do so much. Considering veterans’ complex needs, there’s often more needed to achieve true, whole-person healing in recovery. And this is where holistic therapy enters the picture.
Holistic treatment provides a complementary, alternative therapy for veterans. These nontraditional, evidence-based therapies are considered holistic as they help address the mind, body, and spirit in the healing process. By focusing on the mind-body connection, holistic therapy can better position you to achieve positive overall wellness. As a result, you’re more likely to stay healthy long-term. Some examples of holistic therapy for veterans include:
- Equine therapy
- Art therapy
- Music therapy
- Mindfulness meditation
- Outdoor therapy
- Yoga
- Fitness and nutrition
Veterans’ Holistic Therapy vs. Entrenched Stigmas
If holistic therapy is so impactful, why then are many veterans not pursuing it? As mentioned earlier, entrenched societal stigmas can often get in the way. Stigma is just one of the many treatment barriers that keep veterans from seeking the help they need.
The Government of Canada defines stigma as the negative attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors toward someone based on their situation in life. Stigma acted out may involve discrimination, judgment, and stereotyping those targeted.
Within the military community, stigma can make veterans look unfavorably toward addiction and mental health issues like PTSD and needing to get help for them. Veterans struggling with these issues may face public stigma from others, leading to negative perceptions, mistreatment, and beyond.
Consequently, stigmatized veterans may also experience self-stigma, according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA). They may struggle with internalized shame and negative attitudes toward their condition as a result. Due to stigma, military veterans may view the idea of getting professional help as weak, or they fear career repercussions. So, they choose not to seek treatment.
Valuing strength and resilience, veterans who actually do get professional treatment for their struggles may only want to pursue conventional methods. Holistic therapies may be met with skepticism or perceived as ineffective and soft. This keeps veterans from getting the in-depth, comprehensive healing they need and deserve.
How Alternative Therapy for Veterans Helps With Whole-Person Healing
The stigmas above can make alternative, holistic therapies at times dismissable in the eyes of veterans looking for help. Yet when veterans actually do participate in holistic therapies, they often find that this type of treatment is actually very effective. But how? Here are a few important benefits of holistic therapy for veterans:
- True, comprehensive healing: Overcoming your struggles is about more than just addressing your symptoms or taking medication. Whole-person healing involves your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health, too. Because holistic therapies address your mind, body, and spirit, they complement traditional therapies well. This comprehensive approach to treatment sets the stage for lasting recovery.
- Trauma-informed care: Mental health disorders and addiction are often rooted in unresolved past trauma. And unless this trauma is addressed, your struggles will persist. Many holistic therapies incorporate trauma-informed care into their process, creating space for you to finally heal from your struggles’ underlying causes.
- Empowerment to stay healthy: Alternative therapy for veterans often helps them learn life skills and recovery practices that they can utilize long after treatment ends. Equipped with these resources, you’re empowered to stay the course in recovery and maintain both your health and overall wellness in the years to come.
- Restored balance and purpose: A key aspect of holistic therapy is its emphasis on your spiritual health. No matter your religion, participating in holistic therapy can bring balance back into your life, as well as a renewed sense of purpose. This helps you to reclaim your life after addiction or mental health issues.
- Honor and person-centered care: Inherently person-centered, holistic therapy honors your voice as a veteran, respects your lived experiences, and actively engages with you in co-creating meaningful solutions for your healing journey, shares the Journal of Veterans Studies.
A Closer Look at Holistic Therapies for Veterans
While nontraditional, alternative therapy provides broad benefits to the recovery process, how can specific holistic therapies individually impact veterans? Let’s take a look at some common nontraditional therapies and how they make a difference:
Mindfulness for Veterans
A simple, straightforward practice that you can utilize the rest of your life, mindfulness involves focusing on your present moment, observing your thoughts and feelings without judgment. Considering that many veterans in PTSD recovery struggle with thoughts from the past, mindfulness can be particularly beneficial. In veterans, mindfulness has been shown to:
- Improve emotional balance
- Reduce stress
- Increase self-awareness
- Help you cope better with chronic pain
- Help with anxiety and depression
Equine Therapy for PTSD
A very hands-on form of experiential therapy, equine therapy requires you to participate in various activities with horses (grooming, feeding, or riding, for example) alongside your therapy team. The unique bond that you form with your horse often facilitates emotional healing and growth.
Research has shown that among veterans, equine therapy for PTSD can really jumpstart the healing process, according to Columbia University. A study of veterans with PTSD found that more than 50% of participants showed a marked reduction in PTSD and depression at post treatment.
Art Therapy
According to the Art Therapy Credentials Board, art therapy combines art media, creativity, and the resulting artwork as a therapeutic and healing process. Through art therapy, veterans can:
- Explore their feelings
- Reconcile emotional conflicts
- Foster self-awareness
- Manage behavior
- Develop social skills
- Improve reality orientation
- Reduce anxiety
- Increase self-esteem
Art therapy is also helping veterans have a safe outlet for expressing their personal feelings, shares the VA. In fact, research shows that positive outcomes have resulted from art therapy even amongst those resistant to other treatments. In time, art therapy helps veterans improve their overall physical, social, and emotional well-being, too.
Yoga
Combining stretches, meditation, postures, and breathing, yoga is common in regular exercise routines. Yet it’s a highly effective form of holistic therapy for veterans as well.
According to a study by Psychological Trauma, participation in yoga has been found to improve veterans’ cognitive functioning related to PTSD symptoms, as well as improve mental health symptoms, sleep, and quality of life. Studies have also found reduced chronic pain and stress among veterans in yoga programs, shares the Journal of Veterans Studies.
Veteran-Focused Treatment at Defining Wellness Centers
Holistic therapies can play a key role in your long-term healing as a veteran, especially when traditional therapies aren’t enough to meet your complex needs. We understand this at Defining Wellness Centers, which is why we have a dual diagnosis treatment program specifically for veterans. Called Rally Point, our Mississippi-based program addresses both mental health disorders and addiction all under one roof.
With specialized treatment for both veterans and active service members, our approach blends clinical excellence with whole-person healing. That means we use traditional methods alongside holistic therapies to help you reclaim your life and your purpose. If you’re ready to achieve long-term healing, call us today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What mental health challenges do veterans struggle with most?
According to Mission Roll Call, the most common mental health challenges that veterans face include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), depression, and anxiety. Substance abuse can often co-occur alongside these issues, making mental health even worse.
What barriers commonly prevent veterans from seeking professional help?
Typical treatment barriers for veterans may include stigmas, logistical challenges, provider access, and stressors associated with transitioning back to civilian life.
What holistic therapies can I expect at Rally Point?
At Defining Wellness Centers, we tailor our treatment to meet your specific needs, so every therapy experience is different. However, some holistic therapies you may encounter include adventure therapy, cold plunge therapy, equine therapy, mindfulness meditation, physical fitness, art therapy, and more.
Sources
- Government of Canada. “Stigma: Why Words Matter – Fact Sheet.” Health Canada, June 2022.
- American Psychiatric Association. “Stigma, Prejudice and Discrimination Against People With Mental Illness.” Patients & Families section, psychiatry.org.
- S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “Mindfulness and Relaxation Resources for Veterans.” Veterans Health Library.
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry. “Horse Therapy Helps Veterans Overcome Trauma.” Columbia Psychiatry News.
- Art Therapy Credentials Board, Inc. “What Is Art Therapy?” ATCB website.
- Mission Roll Call. “The State of Veterans’ Mental Health.” Veteran Voices