Real Leaders

Warriors Heart, an Integrative Approach to Addiction and PTSD Recovery

PODCAST PEOPLE: A Summary from the Real Leaders Podcast

“That’s a big part in behavioral health care or Social Capitalism or social consciousness—with businesses, we can’t forget about the people aspect of it. Yes, the balance sheet’s important. But you and me are what make the balance sheet. It’s not balance sheet run or profit loss run. We have to put our people, the planet, our responsibilities, and then we get profit. It’s a result of doing the right thing.” 

Josh Lannon is the founder and CEO of Warriors Heart, an in-patient recovery center for first responders and veterans, with a vision to bring one million warriors home from addiction and PTSD. Warriors Heart is named among the Real Leaders 100 Top Impact Companies of 2020.

The following is a summary of Episode 66 of the Real Leaders Podcast, a conversation with Warriors Heart CEO and founder, Josh Lannon. Read or listen to the full conversation below.

A Holistic Journey

Josh shares his own personal battle with addiction and recovery, and how it took visiting a few treatment centers to find the right approach to address his needs.

“I went to a place that was different. It was from a holistic standpoint. Mind, body, spirit, integrative medicine. They looked at me as a whole person. So I actually then was able to put down my guard and accept some of the information that was coming in, because the environment was so inviting. The environment wasn’t fighting against me, it really supported healing.”

Building on this positive holistic experience, Josh and his wife Lisa founded a series of behavioral health centers that incorporate a holistic integrative approach to treatment. This approach adapts recovery programs according to individual patients’ needs, rather than adapting patients to an over-arching philosophy.

“Integrative medicine, or an integrative approach to treatment, looks at it from the whole point of view. What’s the best way that you learn? And how do we adapt our philosophy or our modalities to share it with you the best thing you can absorb.”

Listen to Episode 66 on Spotify, Anchor, Crowdcast, and Apple Podcasts

Warriors Heart Modalities

Warriors Heart is the Lannons’ in-patient treatment center specifically for veterans, first responders, and the warriors actively protecting and serving the US, which addresses chemical dependencies and co-occurring psychological disorders relating to PTSD and/or the psychological effects of MTBI. Josh explains that these warriors enter a program to start rebuilding their lives through a training modality that represents the academies or basic training they understand from their warrior background.

“It’s like a training course. And we’re training them to survive and thrive in life. So we start rebuilding them with the training model, and it’s something that these guys get, they relate to, and we build upon it. Warriors, we succeed if we’re aggressive, but we teach them subtle ways to survive under pressure.”

Jiu jitsu is a key component of the Warriors Heart training program, because it teaches warriors how to leverage the difficult situations that will inevitably arise on the road to recovery by requiring them to address more immediately difficult positions in the dojo.

“One of the tools in jiu jitsu we use is we work from a bad position. Let a guy get on her back or put you in a choke hold or something. It’s like, “Okay, I’m already in a bad position. I screwed up, but I’m here. Let me work from this position and try to get out.” So where jujitsu applies in life, in business is like, “Hey, I’m here. I’m in this bad position. It is what it is. How do I get out of it now? Relax, breathe, let me think. Because there’s always a way to solve the problem. I take accountability for me, and I start trying to figure a way out.”

Transcript

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