Integrative Health Heals Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Veterans

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The battle-hardened and emotionally-scarred Marine walks slowly toward the horse, head bowed and hand outstretched in a gesture of openness and equality.  The horse, neither tethered nor shackled, doesn’t shy away or run, but instead moves silently, steadily towards the Marine.  Neither is predator.  Both are prey.  The healing has begun.  

This scenario--the treating of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder through the use of equine assistance--is just one of the healing modalities advocated by the Integrative Health Clinic and Program at the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) in Salt Lake City.   This new concept was developed by a 3-person team at the VAMC including James C. Overall Jr., MD, a retired faculty member of the University of Utah Medical School and former physician at the VA hospital. 

“I will be eternally grateful for the experience of working with the soldiers,” says Dr. Overall. “It was an incredible privilege to hear their stories. I owe them a lot for being open to the integrative concept of treating the emotional and spiritual being as well as the mental and physical being.”

Now in its eighth year at the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City, the Integrative Health (IH) concept believes that care for the individual encompasses physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health, and that all are interconnected.   It goes beyond the traditional western model of medical diagnosis and treatment, adding care for health and well being as an adjunct to conventional medicine.