COCHRANE— The Wayfinders Wellness Retreat held its grand opening at the historic WineGlass Ranch just southwest of Cochrane on Saturday (Sept. 26).
Wayfinders Wellness Retreat is a place for first responders, military personnel, veterans and others who have experienced traumatic events to come and heal with the support of like-minded peers.
The opening ceremony included the stories of a few individuals, who have suffered traumatic injuries and experiences including former Olympian and Canadian bobsledder, Christina Smith, co-founders of the Wayfinders Wellness Retreat, Paul Wagman and Bryce Talsma, and local philanthropist Dan Kroffat.
Wagman said that he was very grateful for the support of everyone who came out to the grand opening of the Wayfinders Wellness Retreat.
“It was perfect, I can’t remember another time when all responders and members of the community so broadly came out to support what we were doing,” he said. “It was quite touching that we had representation from everybody.”
The shared stories from the survivors at the opening ceremony, whether it is PTSD or a deep emotional wound or a traumatic brain injury, all signified the same thing— The need for a space of openness, healing and support of peers with shared experiences.
Talsma explained peer support is central to the philosophy of the program.
“That’s the central hub, where we have peers of police, veterans, firefighters, EMTs, who can all authentically say ‘we’ve been here,’ and that it’s going to get better,” he said.
Wagman noted the peer support model is important not only to facilitating the camaraderie of the program, but also essential in helping remove the stigma of dealing with mental health issues.
“To reach out professionally and say ‘I need help’ can be a detriment to your career, and is very embarrassing,” he said. “To be able to reach out to peers and to say ‘I know you’re experienced detectives, sergeants and inspectors’ ... ‘And you’ve navigated these difficult times,’ it provides hope and it starts to lower that stigma.”
In addition to the support of peers, a number of other professional organizations have got involved to help fill out the retreat’s programming.
“We have these bolt-ons of professional organizations—I call them force multipliers,” he said. “The equine therapy is a breakthrough modality, I’m really excited about the connections we have with the First Nations with potential sweats, we have archery, connections with the veteran hunters as a way of getting people out into nature, music, yoga. It’s a multi-facetted smorgasbord if you will.”
Talsma said the program was designed that way on purpose because everyone deals with trauma in their own way.
“It’s almost a spoil for options because you’re not sure what’s going to work for anyone person,” he said. “The client, as they go through it, they’re not overwhelmed by it because they’re going to be navigated one-on-one to go through and select which is the one that is most appropriate at that time.”
Wagman also noted, in addition to the variety of different healing modalities available at Wayfinders, there is a network of medical professionals involved as well, including doctors, therapists and other therapeutic programs, like transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Plotting and navigating your own pathway back to mental health, Wagman said, is crucial to the process of recovery.
“You’re starting to get some power back, you’re starting to be able to make growth, they call it exponential growth, by making some good decisions and recognizing what you need as opposed to being told what you need,” he said.
The traditional model of dealing with doctors and prescriptions is an important first step, but is not a successful protracted way of managing individuals with an operational stress injury, Wagman said.
“If you introduce a variety of different things and they can choose and it’s custom, then they start to take that ownership. It’s incredibly successful in their healing.”
Talsma is a veteran of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He said the experience left him with his own obstacles to overcome.
“Because of my time in service as a retired captain with the Patricia’s, I have the scars of war, and I had to overcome my own journey with mental injury,” he said. “I believed the lie that I was alone, and it is a lie, and making common cause that that doesn’t have to happen can make it easier. I’ve lost several of my brothers to self-destruction and it tears me apart. If I can save one person, that justifies it.”
Talsma said of his own experience, from mental injury to healing and then to be in a position to help others with that process feels “miraculous.”
“It’s renewing my hope and faith in humanity again. Before, when I was most acute, I despaired at people, I didn’t have any faith in people. Now, seeing people come together in goodwill, there is not just personal hope, but community hope, and I think that’s been a huge thing for me.”
Traumatic brain injuries, PTSD and operational stress injuries, which often go hand-in-hand, are huge contributors to suicides.
According to a study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2014, in individuals diagnosed with PTSD, depression or both were 24 per cent, 29 per cent and 45 per cent more likely to attempt suicide respectively.
“It’s an absolutely critical and life-saving undertaking to be able to deliver this,” Wagman said.
The organization is still looking for help from skilled volunteers with volunteer coordination and administrative tasks, Wagman said.
“We need more administrative help. A lot of our board and a lot of our current volunteers are injured with PTSD, like myself, and we need support in the organization,” he said. “We’ve been very deliberate to build our non-profit to support our injured responders and military from the inside out and if we can get the support that will continue.”
