Tag Archives: alternative

Native American ceremonies help vet find his way

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By Mary Shinn, News21

Maurco Ambrose attends Treaty Days, a celebration each year in June at the Navajo Nation in Church Rock, N.M. Ambrose served as an Army cook in Iraq, during 2008 and 2009. After he returned, he found that Blessing Way ceremonies helped direct his life. (Photo by Mauro Whiteman, News21)

Maurco Ambrose attends Treaty Days, a celebration each year in June at the Navajo Nation in Church Rock, N.M. Ambrose served as an Army cook in Iraq, during 2008 and 2009. After he returned, he found that Blessing Way ceremonies helped direct his life. (Photo by Mauro Whiteman, News21)

Church Rock, N.M. ­— Maurco Ambrose lost his way in life after he left the Army and went home to the Navajo Nation, but he found new direction through meditative ceremonies.

Ambrose enlisted in 2005 when he was 17 and spent five years with 2nd Brigade 4th Infantry Division based in Colorado Springs, Colo. and served as a cook in Iraq from 2008 to 2009. After the military’s rigorous routine, Ambrose said he had no direction, couldn’t find a job and started drinking.

“My whole world was shattered. I was lost. I didn’t know what to do so I started to make friends with the wrong people,” Ambrose said.

In the Army, he encountered a strong stigma toward admitting to any kind of post-traumatic stress or depression and Ambrose said that he never admitted needing any kind of mental help.

“Out of the blue” he attended a Blessing Way ceremony led by his father’s cousin, who is a medicine man. He enjoyed the style of singing. After two months, he asked if he could start following the medicine man he refers to as father in Navajo, out of respect.

Speaking Navajo mentally challenged him, Ambrose said. He understands reads and writes the language, but struggles to speak fluently. As he learned the songs, he began to contemplate his life.

The first 12 songs are called the Hogan songs and describe building the house, he said. It starts with a planning stage and moves through each stage including taking ownership of the house.

“The more I started asking questions about the songs and the sets that they came in, the more and more I became engaged in it. The more you learn about the song, the more you learn about yourself,” he said.

Ceremonies last all night, and that’s how Ambrose has spent many weekends over the last two years. The ceremonies have helped him plan the next steps of his life and act on them. He will start his second semester of nursing school in the fall.

The Department of Navajo Veterans Affairs reimburses Native veterans for a variety of traditional healing ceremonies and on average pays for about 300 ceremonies a year.

Florida State University’s art therapy workshops calm veterans

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By Anthony Cave, News21

Rather than talking to veterans about post-war complications such as anxiety and depression, they learn art as a coping mechanism at Florida State University.

The Student Veterans Center and Art Therapy Program at FSU host workshops for student veterans on campus.

“It’s meaningful to them; the creative process is healing in itself,” said Meredith McMackin, an academic adviser in the FSU College of Human Sciences.

McMackin, whose son was killed in Iraq, has worked with FSU veterans since 2008. A doctoral student in art therapy, McMackin helps with the workshops.

Veterans feel isolated on campus because of their experiences and age, she said.

“They’ve seen a lot of things that young, 18-, 19-, 20-year-old college students can’t fathom,” McMackin said.

Veterans in workshops produce everything from paintings to printmaking. The finished products from the October 2012 workshop were displayed in the FSU main library.

“It brings out something from within,” she said.

Post-9/11 veteran Rachel Mims, 26, is an art therapy master’s degree student at FSU. The Arlington, Texas, native served in the Army from 2001 to 2012, including a deployment to Germany. She initially was attracted to FSU because of its growing veterans population, Mims said. She saw it as an opportunity to help. However, she did not attend veteran events on campus at first.

“I was mentally discharged; I was done with the military,” Mims said.

One meeting, however, changed her outlook.

“I have relied on the veterans group for support, so much support,” she said. “That’s the biggest thing that has helped me out, is school.”

Mims, who also helps with the art therapy workshops, said that her veteran experiences are part of her life “forever now.” And, the emotions still run high, but in a different way.

“My field is a caring field, [art therapists] have that personality, they want to help others,” Mims said.