Nonprofit helps people heal trauma through outdoor activities

VERSAILLES, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — At the Life Adventure Center in Woodford County, people are working through their trauma by participating in outdoor activities.

“We do camps and retreats for trauma-affected populations specifically designed to build resilience,” Executive Director Julie Breitigan said.

The center provides a long list of activities including horseback riding, ziplining, fishing and more. Each activity happens all across the center’s 575 acres of rolling Bluegrass land.

“Outdoor has a lot of naturally healing qualities, you feel more grounded, self-regulated when you’re outdoors,” Breitigan said. “I think today, more than ever before, this is necessary for our children, for our adults while we are such a screen-driven society.”

She adds that for people dealing with trauma, the outdoors can be a calm place for them to discuss their emotions.

“Trauma can be a very disembodying experience,” she said. “We really work on the embodiment here, that you’re making your own choices with your body and finding your success whatever that may be.”

After each activity, attendees gather to talk through their experience and what they learned.

“How are you more confident after you leave here than when you came, and a lot of that is just by doing something you’ve never done before” Operations Director TJ Phillips said.

Breitigan adds that it’s important to do that in a place you can feel safe.

“When you create a psychologically safe environment and explain the physical safety of an element and create a positive environment around them, they’re able to overcome challenges sometimes they didn’t think they could,” she said.