For all the healing power that traditional medicine can provide, it doesn’t work for everyone. And for some of those individuals, alternative treatments can be the best medicine.
The Healing Warriors Program offers this to veterans who’ve tried every treatment that traditional medicine offers without success. The Fort Colllins, Colorado-based nonprofit gives five free visits for acupuncture, healing touch, or craniosacral therapy to each veteran who contacts them. If vets want to continue receiving treatment, Healing Warriors offers them at a discounted rate of $30 per session. For many — particularly those plagued with PTSD — the alternative treatments help when nothing else does.
Marine Corps veteran David Sykes has been visiting acupuncturist Abbye Silverstein since August for help with PTSD and a sciatic nerve injury caused by jumping out of helicopters when he was in the service. For years, walking and sitting have been painful. “I was hidden away with my pain and frustration,” Sykes told Sarah Jane Kyle of the Fort Collins Coloradoan. “This has helped me tremendously. I can’t say it will help everybody, but it helps me.”
Sue Walker, the director of the clinic, which is funded by donations, said that 90 different clients have visited Healing Warriors since it opened in last July. “It’s scientific,” she said. “It’s not voodoo. Most anything a veteran experiences on a physical level, acupuncture has been clinically proven to work for.”
Walker’s ultimate goal? To serve as many of those as possible that served our country. With the help of generous donors, she can do just that.
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