What We Do: Veterans are coming home from deployments all around the globe with deep seated trauma and are having a hard time reintegrating into civilian life.  Our Balanced Life Warriors program has been refined over the last ten years to be a touchstone for veterans as they transition from a high-alert, high-risk environment back into day-to-day life. Our evidence-based program assists veterans by providing:

• A highly disciplined environment where students can safely experience intense physical competition, a “stylized struggle for survival”.

• A friendly and welcoming environment where students can bond and talk with other men and women with military service or first responder history.

• A practice that over time, allows for changes in the way students experience and respond to stressors by repeated exposure to challenging physical situations in a controlled environment.

• A specialized curriculum, which was initially delivered over a ten week timeframe, replaces a students negative coping strategies with healthy, positive ways of thinking and living.

• A path back to the excellent physical shape that the students had during their time of service.  A healthy body begins with a healthy mind.

The individuals that completed the study demonstrated a dramatic, clinically meaningful and statistically significant decrease in scores on the PCL-5, our primary instrument for measuring PTSD symptoms. In addition, there were significant decreases in global psychopathology as measured on the PDSQ scale. This data suggests the Jiu Jitsu training is a beneficial, cost-effective and easily accessible therapy to assist those that have suffered trauma in the line of duty to physical, mental and emotional balance and success in civilian life.

Why We Do It: Our students are men and women wanting to be empowered and play an active role in their physical, mental and emotional well-being and recovery from military or community service. The men and women that have sacrificed and served our country are getting lost in the gaps of government care. Too many veterans are suffering with PTSD and without effective care, end up taking their own lives. Veterans are reaching out for help and are met with massive backlogs of patients awaiting care at facilities across the country. Unfortunately, those suffering the invisible scars of military service are not a priority, often given medicine and sent home. Alternative therapies, especially programs that have been studied and vetted, like Balanced Life Warriors, are very appealing to the younger generation of military veterans. This is a priority as we have thousands of Global War on Terror (GWOT) veterans that are looking for complementary support programs in addition to traditional veteran groups such as VFW Posts and American Legions.

How We Do It: Our program intakes prospective students through our website and matches them with a nearby affiliate Jiu Jitsu school. The student is provided a training scholarship at their affiliate school that is good for six months. As a part of the scholarship, each participating BLW student will need to pay a nominal monthly fee to the Balanced Life Warriors organization. This is necessary because we have learned through many years of trial and error, that students value and therefore attend their classes at a higher rate than those that simply get the classes for free. At the six month mark, each student’s attendance will be evaluated to see if they are eligible for another six month scholarship.

During the student’s initial three months, they will be trained in the Balanced Life Warriors curriculum. Our organization will provide trainings for affiliate schools that includes both virtual and in-person learning. We suggest that all affiliate schools designate at least one staff member that coordinates and delivers the Balanced Life Warriors curriculum.