23rd Veteran – (Minnesota) Helps service members and veterans who are living with trauma by offering a unique 14-week mental health program. This program helps participants live a life free of isolation, anxiety, panic, and depression through outdoor adventures and therapy.
Outdoor Wellness Adventure: 23V Recon starts with a week-long journey to an Outward Bound or an Outdoor Initiative wellness adventure. Veterans from a local area begin with a flight to a distant state where they spend 6+ days backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, or kayaking. 23rd Veteran partners with Outward Bound and Outdoor Initiative as leading organizations in leadership and camaraderie within the military and veteran community.
CrossFit and Positive Psychology: Once returning from the outdoor wellness adventure, the same veterans continue the journey for another 13 weeks. With this trusting team of veterans, they meet 3x per week at a local gym where a coach leads a 60-minute workout. They follow each workout with a unique 30-minute positive psychology session, sitting on the floor with the 23V Recon Playbook as a guide to the discussions. This session is designed to access more chemicals in our brain that give us a feeling of joy, and build healthy habits so we can continue to feel this happiness throughout our lives. These sessions also target mindfulness, anger and aggression, service, and communicating with non-military.
