S5E2: Heather Ehle with Project Sanctuary

<p>What we discuss:</p> <p>In this episode Heather shares her story about being a Registered Nurse and her introduction to the challenges military families face. Because the stress of the lifestyle affects whole family she wanted to find a way to help an organization that was caring for the family unit.</p> <p>When she didn’t find one that was serving whole families she created one. Project Sanctuary hosts 6-day retreats that focus on overcoming obstacles: financial, communication, family counseling, PTSD, and more. There are ten different locations and in 2020 there are 32 retreats planned.</p> <p>Two hours a day are spent in therapeutic sessions. There are incredible activities at each location including fishing, white water rafting, horseback riding, ziplining, and snowmobiling. Some of these are once-in-a-lifetime activities while other activities are able to be replicated once the family goes home (hiking or playing board games).</p> <p>Licensed and trained counselors are on-site all week. Break-throughs on the part of both the veteran and the spouses occur at each retreat!</p> <p>Once a family has been on the retreat they are welcome to return as volunteers.</p> <p>Resources and Links: </p> <p><a href='https://projectsanctuary.us'>About Project Sanctuary</a></p> <p><a href='https://projectsanctuary.us/retreat-application/'>Apply to attend a retreat</a></p> <p> </p> <p>PS: Jennifer here... My family was able to attend a Project Sanctuary retreat at Snow Mountain Ranch and I had two personal breakthroughs during the PTSD session. As a Chaplain's wife I figured I'd heard most of the stuff they were going to cover so the fact that I had two major breakthroughs I didn't know I needed was powerful. One is related to a minor change in my husband after deploying twice. After two tours he started bouncing his leg while sitting and it was incredibly annoying. (Still is, to be honest.) In the PTSD session the speaker mentioned that this is a common side effect of combat trauma. I constantly asked h