Athena Program

“Validate, Educate, and Transitional Support”

Female veterans returning home from a combat zone face a maze of readjustment issues. The emotionally and psychologically wounded warriors, many of whom in the past were primary care providers for their families, have lived another life in their combat deployments.

The number of Reservists, National Guard, and active Army female personnel returning home will overwhelm the existing health care system if we don’t act now. The lessons learned in Vietnam and the injustice (lack of mental healthcare) to our returning soldiers will be mirrored if we (the American People) don’t help and respond before our heroines return.

This is why the Athena Program was created. The mission is to validate, educate and provide transitional support to female veterans and their families as they return home from combat theaters across the world, with Iraq and Afghanistan the primary focus. The Athena Program provides a safe, compassionate environment in which female soldiers and their families can begin their journey home.

    The Goals of the Athena Program

  • Validate the female combat experience
  • Educate and motivate the returning women warriors as they navigate and clear the emotional minefields or PTSD, combat stress ad compassionate stress
  • Support the transitions home to their families and their return to a civilian career. This process embraces the family and recognizes that they have also suffered and will endure moments of extreme concern about their love one.

The Athena Program is holistic in nature. It includes family, western and alternative medicine, educational guidance, psychological and emotional treatment, spiritual awareness and a safe environment in which time and compassion will interact to heal the loneliness only a trauma survivor knows.

Sisters, mothers, aunts, daughters, girlfriends, and wives have answered the call to duty. Help and support is our purpose.

Using current protocols will be self-defeating. Contemporary treatment must adjust and adapt to today’s specific challenges and include areas that have been taken for granted in the past, specifically the family’s role in the therapeutic journey. For the veteran this is vital.

When I returned from combat, it was glaringly absent from my treatment. My family had to fend for themselves, which left me feeling inadequate, hopeless and alone. As wonderful as my military experience was, when it was over all I had to show for my services was PTSD. My family was afraid, confused, and they didn’t know how to help. We can’t allow our female veterans to have the same fate; we know so much more today. That is why the Athena Program was created.



Athena Program

Greek Mythology speaks of the goddess Athena as the advisor and protector of heroes. Not only was she the goddess of war, but also of peace. She is often seen wearing a warrior’s helmet, but there is another portrayal of her holding the dove of peace in one hand and the olive branch of prosperity in the other.

The Athena Program is designed to do as she has done by protecting and promoting internal peace and providing the oil to light the lamp of interpersonal and family prosperity. The Athena program is based on active realistic therapy, ultimately offering healing through validation, education and transitional counseling.

General Program Description

The Athena Program is based around a core residential treatment center. Our specialty and primary focus is working with veterans who have experienced trauma and PTSD. Our goal is to help the veterans and their families reclaim and improve their lives. We do Smart Therapy. Simply put, we provide support and treatment for:
  • Post Traumatic Stress
  • Combat Stress
  • Compassion Stress
  • (These are identifiable stresses beyond the normal range of the human experience)

Philosophy

We support our veterans by identifying how current behavior can be based in past traumatic events. We believe that treatment and recovery occurs best in an atmosphere of compassion and family awareness. Smart Therapy provides and integrates old as well as new and cutting-edge treatment modalities. Respect and personalized treatment is the cornerstone of our work.

Residential Program

Treatment of our veterans, their families, significant others and their support networks are an integral component to the healing and growth process of our female veterans. Veterans enter our Residential Program for 3-6 months. The program includes: Psychiatric and psychotherapeutic evaluations and treatment The veteran’s individual treatment may include:
  • Acupuncture
  • Chiropractic
  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
  • Hypnotherapy
  • Biofeedback
  • Nutrition Counseling
  • Mind/Body Integration
  • Spiritual Guidance
  • Yoga/Fitness

Family Program

The Family Program is an integral part of the treatment process and helps to initiate the healing process. The Family Program requires all member of the family to participate.

Our philosophy of working with families is based on systemic, structural family therapy, a short-term method focused on the present. The goals of structural family therapy include strengthening parental leadership, clarifying boundaries, enhancing coping skills and freeing family members from their entrenched positions within the family structure.

Upon admission, each family member completes a “Family Assessment Form” indicating their perceptions of the problems and the areas they would like to see improved. The family therapist then schedules a series of interviews with each member, after which a “Family Treatment Plan” is generated.

The Family Program also includes weekly sessions which are scheduled when convenient for the family and therapist. Multi-family groups are also conducted to address issues common to all families, such as communication, conflicts, and healthy boundaries. Individual sessions with residents and their family members are conducted for the purpose of assessing family therapy needs and addressing conflicts that may be to sensitive for a group setting. Large educational groups with other residents and their families provide information on the family dynamics and an overview of the progression and stages of PTSD. These presentations also address roles, rules, and interactions/patterns common in tramatized families.

** Athena Program is a Licensed Proprietary Intelectual Property of LadyVets, Share Outreach Services, Inc.