Lighting the Candle for Change

By Katie Baker

“That’s their story; you can create your own reality.”These words carried Gayle Sovinee from the sunny coast of San Diego to the cozy mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.

She operates Helios Warriors, the non –profit health care program that offers complementary and alternative therapies to veterans of war.  While many of us recognize our veterans annually on November 11th, it is the pervading pain in the lives of these men and women every day of the year.

As many of us know, “making a move” can feel comparable to what the Wicked Witch of the West must have felt when a farm house fell atop her head.  “Where will I go?  What will I do?  Will I find that house with the porch and spacious backyard?” are just a few of the considerations we encounter.  And in 2005, when the idea to move to North Carolina first seeped into Gayle’s mind, some folks discouraged her from settling in Asheville, citing that it’s a difficult town in which to earn a decent living.  However, Gayle found it more difficult to ignore the spirit of Asheville, beckoning her hither.  And after two separate interactions with two different women who both said to her, “that’s their story; you create your own reality,” she was certain where she needed to go.

“Little things kept supporting me to go,” says Gayle, as we sit in a screened-in porch shaded by stately trees in her East Asheville backyard.  Among these “little things” was the selling of her condo in a shaky California market, finding a house close to the VA hospital, and procuring a temporary space where she could craft her vision for Helios Warriors.  Once these things fell into place, Gayle left her CranioSacral (aka Cranial Sacral) practice in San Diego, and followed the yellow brick road to Asheville.

When asked why she decided to start a non-profit for veterans, Gayle referred to a speech she made when she was seventeen as the Worthy Advisor of the Masonic organization called Rainbow for Girls.  The closing statement of the speech sums up her calling:  “We must be the light to others.  It takes only one candle to light a dark room.   Yet from this one candle, a thousand more can be lit.  A few may be extinguished, but they can always be relit.  This candle is the light of love, and wherever a noble person is, this candle burns and will go on burning; for love is the light of the world.”

Years after this presentation (which was accompanied by a carried-in construction of a pipe-cleaner globe with a candle surrounded by hearts in the center), Gayle studied CranioSacral therapy at the Upledger Institute in Palm Beach Gardens, Fl. and became a certified therapist in 1995.  Ten years later, she, along with a team of therapists, had the opportunity to work with a group of returning veterans at Fort Lemoore in California.  At that time CranioSacral therapy was not permitted by the US government as a form of therapy on military bases.  So the facilitator and team member, Captain Sandra DeGroot – who was also a head nurse at the base hospital –flew from California to Washington, D.C. to get permission.  When she returned, they got to work.

Out of the group of veterans, it was the nurse who stood out in Gayle’s eyes.  Witnessing her healing progress during that week is what, in her words, “lit the flame inside of my hart to continue offering services to veterans.”  The stories these veterans shared with Gayle also made a difference.  She met young men and women who, running away from abusive home life, decided to join the army; youngsters who needed money to go to school, so they went to war.  Many were under the impression they would not participate in direct combat, yet found themselves on the front line.  These men and women returned home with the light in their eyes extinguished.

After her experience at Fort Lemoore, Gayle carried her new found desire through her move to Asheville and into her first connection with Deborah Nixon-Karistinos in February 2007.  Deborah and Gayle discovered a mutual desire to want to give back.  Helios Warriors opened in October 2007 at Deborah’s facility and ran two Sunday afternoons a month for 18 months.  Over 90 veterans received treatments.

Due to unforeseen circumstances in April 2009, the facility closed.  Deborah moved out of state and Gayle stepped up to the challenge to restructure the program and get it back up and running.  In March 2010 Helios Warriors received their 501©3 non-profit status and was re-opened on April 23.  It currently operates twice a week, every Friday and Sunday, with approximately six patients being treated each day.  Gayle hopes to expand her clinic to a permanent space.  The need is there, and with the increasing numbers of veterans returning home, Helios Warriors wants to be able to offer more services, more days, and to more veterans. 

“Helios” the Greek word for “sun” is quite fitting for the name, considering the light and warmth Gayle and her volunteers provide their clients.  Most of the men and women who come through the doors struggle with symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic physical and emotional pain, exposure to toxic poisoning, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and military sexual trauma (MST).  Reports from this year show that 23% of women veterans are sexually assaulted and 50% are sexually harassed while on base.  The treatment offered at Helios Warriors include:  chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, CranioSacral therapy, Reiki, lymphatic drainage and talk therapies such as EFT (emotional freedom technique) and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming).
 They provide relaxation, clarity, and healing to these traumatized and over-stimulated minds and bodies.

With programs like Helios Warriors, our veterans are treated in a timely manner.  They do not have to wait to receive benefits, a common problem in VA hospitals.  In fact, a recent study from the Department of Veterans Affairs in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota found that patients received somewhat better therapy from specialty clinics (like Helios Warriors) than from treatment at a general medical clinic.  The study concluded that communities may need more specialty clinics in order to ensure that veterans receive minimally sufficient treatments for PTSD.



Not only are the veterans themselves affected by the blood and bullets of war, but so are their spouses and children – another reason Gayle cites for putting herself on the front line to combat these issues.  Battling with PTSD causes behavioral and communication changes in the afflicted, for example.  Often, the person will become withdrawn from the very people who are most happy to have them back home.  For children especially, it is difficult to understand why Mom or Dad isn’t the same.  They may erroneously conclude that their parents are no longer interested in or love them.  When veterans receive the type of therapy that Helios Warriors offers, they are also given the opportunity to renew their loving relationships.

Let this quote from Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hahn, affirm the magnitude of what Gayle has started here in our home town:

“Veterans are the light at the tip of the candle, illuminating the way for the whole nation.  If veterans can achieve awareness, transformation, understanding, and peace, they can share with the rest of society the realities of war.  And they can teach us how to make peace with ourselves and each other, so we never have to use violence to resolve conflicts again.”

If you are a licensed practitioner or someone who would like to volunteer your talents to Helios Warriors, contact Gayle Sovinee, Executive Director at 828.299-0776 (www.helioswarriors.org).

Katie Baker is a massage therapist, actor, and writer and is available for free-lance writing projects.  Katiebaker4@gmail.com