First Responder Wellness believes in doing hard things – whether it’s breaking a sweat, paddling across the bay, or participating in equine therapy on a local ranch. Experiential activities enhance growth and stabilize healing while working to combat post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. You will participate in these programs. Each program can be tailored to fit your needs. If, at any time, you do not feel comfortable participating, just let us know and we will be happy to make other arrangements.
Backed by scientific modalities, you will learn carbon dioxide tolerance training and accomplish a steady paddle across the Newport Back Bay. This experiential activity combines an outdoor experience with teamwork as an effective way to combat post-traumatic stress. Through carbon dioxide tolerance training, you will learn to downregulate stress and reduce adrenaline. This is a valuable skill – it will help you return from a fight-or-flight posture to a more calm, relaxed state.
Downregulation helps with improved sleep, stress, recovery, physical performance, and more. First Responders face stress at higher rates than the average population – and incorporating skills like breathwork will greatly improve your quality of life. Nature has great capacity to heal. Your time on the water with your team will allow you to build comradery, soak up the sun, and remember that you’re not alone.
Movement = medicine. You’ll spend time with a functional movement specialist and participate in training that supports neurological regulation and processing. By increasing your strength and mobility, you will grow healthier both physically and mentally.
Through regular movement, the body reduces cortisol and mitigates anxiety. Training will be modified based on the individual’s experience/fitness levels so that every participant will be challenged yet productive. You will follow the pillars of performance, recovery, and wellness for success.
Post traumatic stress and anxiety can manifest as physical tension in the body. Functional fitness helps release this strain, promoting relaxation and reducing feelings of being on edge. Exercise can improve brain function by increasing blood flow to the brain. This leads to better focus, sharper cognitive abilities, and clearer thinking, which is helpful for those dealing with the mental fog that often accompanies anxiety, depression, and trauma.
As a part of healing and recovery, this program will help you grow more aware of your mind-body connection so that you can become the most resilient version of yourself.
Equine-assisted psychotherapy is a hands-on cathartic and experiential therapy modality known to help people cope with trauma, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and more.
With this type of therapy, everyday situations and struggles are applied to equine-assisted psychotherapy process groups. This hands-on approach to therapy utilizes the Eagala Model.
The Eagala Model is proven effective because it embraces the science that people learn best by doing. This model allows for a hands-on approach where clients are provided space to project and analyze their life situations, forge connections, and find a positive solution or a coping strategy. Since the solutions are personally experienced in conjunction with intellectual understanding, they tend to be deeper, profound, and longer-lasting when compared to other forms of therapy.
The Eagala Model is a team approach that includes a licensed, credentialed mental health professional, a qualified equine specialist, and horses working together with the client in an arena at all times. When inside the arena, all the work is done on the ground with the horses front and center, deliberately unhindered and never ridden, and allowed to interact with the client as they wish. This creates the space for the client, with the support of the professional facilitators, to reflect, project, and make deep connections.
If you or a loved one is a first responder struggling with mental and behavioral health concerns, First Responder Wellness is here to help. Our clients receive treatment with our culturally competent treatment team. Contact us today or call 888-443-4898 to learn more about our programs so you can start a journey to a happy and healthy life.
Contact or call us today at 888-443-4898 to learn more about our programs and how we can help.
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Licensed by the State Department of Health Care Services
License/Certification #/ Expiration Date: 300405BP 12/31/2024; 300405CP 6/30/2025; 300405EP 10/31/2025
As required by Assembly Bill 2081, this is a link to the DHCS website that displays all revoked and suspended programs.
