Reaching Out To Heal

HYDE PARK - The young veterans walk into Annie Okerlin's Yogani Studios, some with their disabilities visible, others with them hidden.

John Shahin limped a bit and used a cane but otherwise looked much like any other 23-year-old.

The retired Marine corporal served two tours in Iraq. In 2004, his Humvee was hit by a bomb, collapsing the side of the military vehicle into Shahin and leaving him with shoulder, back and hip injuries. He also suffered traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder and needed reconstructive surgery to remove shrapnel from his nose and ear.

When his therapists at James A. Haley VA Medical Center said he would be leaving the North Tampa facility last week for a South Tampa yoga studio, Shahin wasn't sure what to think. But by the time the yoga mats were rolled up and the stretch bands put away, he was feeling better and relaxed.

"I have a limited range of motion in my arm, and this made me work hard," the Riverview man said of the hourlong therapy. "I'd recommend it. Part of that is the staff, though; they were really nice, and they kept correcting me."

Through her Exalted Warrior Foundation, Okerlin provides yoga therapy, coined warrior yoga, to military personnel at Haley and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. The foundation came about through two of her Yogani clients and a little bit of kismet.

Tom Steffens, a retired Navy rear admiral who is a consultant from Virginia Beach, attended classes with his wife, Ellie, while serving as the chief of staff of U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base from 1997 to 2001.

The 6-foot-2 Navy SEAL is "twice as wide as the door frame," Okerlin joked. "You meet him and he's Mr. America."

"I have legs that weigh more than Annie," Steffens said of the 5-foot-1 yogi.

The unlikely duo have a shared belief: the power of yoga to heal. Steffens, a 10-year yoga veteran, talked with Okerlin about bringing yoga to Walter Reed.

"God puts things in the right places," Steffens said. "She's a naturally uplifting person. She draws out the best in people, and that's what she does with these soldiers: draws the best out in them. These are life-saving, marriage-saving techniques."

In April 2006, a month after Steffens arranged the military connections, Okerlin was on a plane to Washington, worried about how she would be perceived by the soldiers. She went to Banana Republic to buy a "military hospital pretense outfit."

"I expected them to be thinking, 'Where are the Birkenstocks? Where are the feather earrings?'" said Okerlin, 36, whose mother served in Britain's Royal Navy and father was a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman. "But there was no pretense."

She was greeted by soldiers who had amputations of every kind - big, gruff veterans who left her star-struck.

"It was trial by fire," said Okerlin, mother of a toddler.

She has to limit the swearing in class and breaks assumptions that yoga won't make you sweat.

"They are strong, young and fit, but we're teaching them the art of relaxation," the Davis Islands resident said. "We are helping them to achieve more comfort ... reconnecting the soldier to his body, teaching him that he is whole, just different."

At the same time Okerlin was discussing therapy with Steffens, she met another yoga client, Richard Salem. The lawyer is founder of Enable America, a Tampa organization that helps people with disabilities gain independence.

Salem, who is blind, put Okerlin in touch with the nonprofit's Vet Connect program to extend warrior yoga to Haley.

Enable America provides travel expenses for Okerlin, who volunteers her time and has trained five volunteer therapists in Washington to fill in for the three weeks a month she is not at Walter Reed.

With an estimated annual budget of $100,000, Okerlin said she could run the Walter Reed and Haley programs, expanding to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Warrior yoga is offered weekly at Haley, with monthly trips to Yogani, 1112 W. Platt St., led by Okerlin and Bobbie Kass, a Yogani client and nurse.

Shahin was among three veterans and their therapists visiting Yogani on March 13. Balance was difficult, so he used the wall or a chair to maintain the proper poses. By the time he hit the mat for deep breathing and relaxation - something he had asked for - he almost fell asleep.

For Okerlin, being part of a soldier's therapy is rejuvenating. She sees men and women relax and lose the tension from the nightmares swirling in their heads.

"I love it," Okerlin said. "I completely love it."

HOW TO HELP

For information or to donate to the Exalted Warrior Foundation, call Annie Okerlin at (813) 251-9668 or go to www.yogani.com.