About

About Returning Home

Returning Home is a Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) retreat for military veterans presented by Dr. Peter A. Levine's Ergos Community Health SE™ and the Somatic Experiencing International (SEI). This retreat demonstrates the value of the Somatic Experiencing® model in addressing military service related trauma and PTSD. The retreat includes a community outreach program to provide post-retreat coaching support for each veteran and a research component to ensure the effectiveness of future SE™ intensive healing retreats for veterans and military service members. Returning Home is part of Dr. Levine's vision for ongoing programs that support those who have given service to our country and who suffer from PTSD.

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Returning Home - Online 2024 TBA

Is a three and a half day specialized online Somatic Experiencing® healing retreat for veterans displaying post traumatic stress symptoms. Returning Home is free to all participants.

The retreat curriculum has been specifically designed to accommodate the online format while integrating the Somatic Experiencing® model with various therapeutic disciplines that unify the heart, mind, and body.

Each veteran will develop skills to decrease post traumatic stress symptoms. An eight-week online SE™ coaching support group will be offered post-retreat to further assist each veteran with practice and integration of SE™ 'tools' and techniques learned during the retreat.

Returning Home - In Person

Is a six-day Somatic Experiencing® healing retreat for veterans displaying post traumatic stress symptoms. Returning Home is free to all participants, including lodging, food, program services, and a travel stipend.

The retreat curriculum has been specially designed to integrate the Somatic Experiencing® model with Equine therapy and other wellness practices that unify the body, heart, and mind.

Each veteran will develop skills to decrease stress-related symptoms while managing physical discomfort. An eight-week online SE™ coaching support group will be offered post-retreat to further assist each veteran with practice and integration of SE™ 'tools' and techniques learned during the retreat.

Dates and Location

Due to COVID-19 we moved our 2021 retreat online. We are planning our next in-person dates for 2025. Attending the online retreat is a pre-requisite to attend the next in-person retreat.

2021 Location: Online

Dates: Fall 2024 dates to be announced soon.

PLEASE REGISTER TO BE PUT ON OUR WAITING LIST TO ATTEND OUR UPCOMING ONLINE AND IN PERSON RETREATS.

Why is Returning Home Important?

According to recent data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the number of suicides among military veterans is 20 per day - nearly one suicide every hour.

There is an acute need for programs like Returning Home. There are now more casualties attributable to suicide than to combat among the military’s active-duty population. Many of those who take their lives have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The demand to address the needs of military veterans with PTSD is so high that last year, the VA Mission Act became law. It directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand access to VA-funded care in the private sector.

This year's Returning Home retreat and future Community Health SE™ and SETI programs will increase access to effective trauma-informed stress reduction techniques and resiliency building practices for men and women dealing with PTS as a result of their military service.

Returning Home Curriculum

Is an intensive short-term Somatic Experiencing® protocol designed to address the life-altering and debilitating symptoms of post traumatic stress and related conditions due to combat and military service.

In order for our vets to experience consistent stress reduction strategies and resiliency building techniques from a Somatic Experiencing® perspective, we’ve developed a ‘toolbox’ of simple and repeatable SE™ interventions. These interventions address basic SE™ concepts of grounding, presence, resourcing, and sensing that will be used with all aspects of the retreat program including individual SE™ sessions, equine therapy, yoga, walking meditation, boating, and during meals.

The daily schedule will also include leisure activities such as hiking, canoeing, enjoying home cooked meals and evening conversation around the campfire.

Individual SE™ Sessions

SE™ offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and resolve these fixated physiological states. SE™ helps to release stored energy as a result of traumatic shock and resolve heightened physical and emotional symptoms by restoring the natural rhythm of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which is key to transforming PTSD and the trauma symptoms of hyperarousal (anxiety), shutdown (depression), and other chronic symptoms associated with nervous system dysregulation.

Veterans will have a one hour daily private SE™ session with a qualified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner. Individual SE™ sessions will be tailored to the specific needs of each participant.

Equine Therapy

Research shows that being around horses can be calming to the human nervous system, helping to decrease the symptoms of trauma and stress in our bodies, while contributing to a greater sense of overall well-being. Pairing Somatic Experiencing® basics with Equine-assisted learning allows for new lived experiences in the here-and-now of grounding, presence, resourcing, and sensing.

Each veteran will attend daily group Equine-assisted learning sessions and will experience one-on-one time with the horses.

Kaiut Yoga Therapy
( k-y-e >>> y-o-o-t)

Each day will begin with a guided yoga practice. This class is designed for people who have no yoga experience and who suffer from chronic pain, limited motion, and decreased flexibility.

The Kaiut Yoga method works with the body in the way that the body was designed by nature to move. This is an inclusive method, using simple shapes to create a format of yoga that is accessible to all practitioners regardless of flexibility, strength, age, or experience. Kaiut aims to deliver consistent long-term healing results as opposed to creating aesthetic poses. It has been designed to work through trauma, chronic pain, physical injury, general aches and stiffness, inflexibility, hyper-flexibility, and is ideal for the aging body.

Shinrin-Yoku - Forest Meditation

Daily silent walks in the Maine woods will be offered with guided instruction to awaken and track sensory experience as a practice to decrease stress and tension. Group discussion after the walking practice will help participants learn from each other through sharing personal experiences.

"Shinrin-Yoku, translated into English as ‘forest bathing', means taking in the forest atmosphere during a leisurely walk. It is a therapy that was developed in Japan during the 1980s, becoming a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine.

Researchers, primarily in Japan and South Korea, have conducted studies on the health benefits of spending time amongst the trees, demonstrating that forest bathing positively creates calming neuro-psychological effects through changes in the nervous system, reducing the stress hormone cortisol and boosting the immune system" (growwilduk.com/blog).

Group Therapy - Psychoeducation

This part of the retreat curriculum will focus on the responses we have under typical and overwhelming experiences from a Somatic Experiencing® perspective. This will include the basics of SE™ theory such as trauma being lodged in the body and nervous system, how responses and subsequent behaviors such as PTSD, anger, depression, and relationship patterns are changeable, and how to increase the window of tolerance for relaxation and activation. The basic principles and concepts of Somatic Experiencing® that will be utilized all week will be introduced and presented didactically and experientially.

Evening Campfire

Each night veterans can gather around the campfire for conversation, storytelling, and playing music. The opportunity to process the day's activities and to discuss the spiritual dimension of war-related injury will be an integral part of the evening.

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