Warriors Heart announces New ‘Healing Warriors’ Documentary during PTSD Awareness Month

Warriors Heart announces a new documentary “Healing Warriors” with powerful recovery stories filmed at Warriors Heart Virginia’s 520-acre campus.

SAN ANTONIO, TX, UNITED STATES, June 11, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In sync with PTSD Awareness Month, Warriors Heart announces a new feature documentary: “Healing Warriors: Bringing Strength Back to a Warriors Heart" that follows powerful recovery stories of military, veterans and first responders, the “WHY” behind the Warriors Heart Founders (Josh Lannon, Lisa Lannon and Tom Spooner), and the team’s inspiring mission to “bring 1 million warriors home” by helping clients rebuild their lives as “Sober, Confident Warriors”.

With 3500+ warriors going through Warriors Heart’s 42-day in-patient healing program since 2016, it is the first and only private healing center in the United States that is exclusively for warriors struggling with addiction, PTSD, trauma and co-occurring mental health issues at two 500+ acre locations, including Warriors Heart Texas and Warriors Heart Virginia.

One of the things that makes this new “Healing Warriors” documentary different from their first documentary “Warriors Healing Warriors” (2021) is that it was filmed at their second location, Warriors Heart Virginia (in-between Richmond and Washington D.C.), and includes many more insights about first responder healing.

This inspiring film was produced by Fernando Coelho (President/CEO Panteao Productions), and is now available to watch online on Make Ready TV, and soon-to-be on Amazon. It’s an inside look at how Warriors Heart provides hope and healing with a resort-style recovery experience to our nation’s warriors.

This new documentary emphasizes how the unacceptable averages of 22 veteran suicides per day and 1 first responder suicide every 25 hours (which includes Law Enforcement Officers, Firefighters, EMT/Paramedics, FBI, and CBP) in the United States drove the mission behind this “training program”. And even with these high numbers, warrior suicides are likely underreported.

Warriors Heart’s unique healing curriculum includes a full continuum of care with the options of Detox, Residential Treatment (in-patient), Day Treatment, Outpatient (IOP), Sober Living, TMS (brain treatment) and Aftercare. In addition, Warriors Heart created Warriors Anonymous (WA), which has been approved by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services as a specialty group exclusively for warriors. WA meetings are held regularly online and in-person for military, veterans and first responders who have had a drinking/drug problem. https://www.warriorsheart.com/warriors-anonymous/

CEO and Founder Josh Lannon emphasizes, “A friend and an alumni told me… I was almost one of those 22, and it just hit me…He said, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for what you guys are doing at Warriors Heart. So what we’re doing is real, and it’s important, and it’s saving lives.”

Warriors Heart President and Co-Founder Tom Spooner’s first-hand military experience is featured, and includes high-intensity operations, including hostage rescues and direct action missions. During Spooner’s 21 years of service (1990-2011) in the U.S. Army, he did 40 months of combat during 12 deployments, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spooner is a Green Beret (ret), and was able to accomplish what less than .001% of U.S. military personnel have by becoming a Delta Force Operator.

Spooner reflects in the film, “I’ve done a lot of hard things in my life. To date, the hardest thing I ever did was early sobriety because I was trying to change my whole life, all my behaviors, some people, places and friends, I had to get rid of. And I was still in the military.”

As a former Law Enforcement Officer and Co-Founder, Lisa Lannon explains one of her WHY’s in this film; “When I was in Law Enforcement, my husband ran nightclubs. And after 9/11, I was tired of dealing with addiction at home and at work - so I gave him the ultimatum of going to rehab or divorce. Thankfully, he went to rehab and that’s when we decided to get into the healing field. And we opened up our first facilities, and that grew to 6 facilities in 2 states, prior to opening Warriors Heart in 2016. We had a lot of veterans and law enforcement officers come through.”

Reflecting on what inspired Warriors Heart, Lisa expands, “And one day I was standing there and a SWAT officer came up to me and said, Lisa, I’m undercover in my own treatment…He was sitting across in group from… the types of guys who he busts. And I thought, you’re right, we’ve got to do something different…. And about the same time, Josh was going to training events to learn what it was like to be a special operator - and that’s when he met our other founder, Tom Spooner.”

Speaking to law enforcement in the film, Spooner then emphasizes, “Even though we’ve done many different things, together, the things that are eating us up inside are the exact same. So what I need you to do is to come home.”

Sitting by the lake at Warriors Heart Virginia, the Founders, discuss how they built this holistic healing program that treats both the substance abuse, PTSD and co-occurring mental health issues together. Their clients get the hard core evidence-based treatment with group therapy and then two individual therapists. And then there are “Mind, Body Spirit” electives to help clients process everything, which include nature hikes, yoga, art program, equine, wood shop, metal shop, K9, cooking with chef, and Dakota sweat lodge to provide them with new tools and coping mechanisms.

The film closes with the Warriors Heart team sitting by the fire pit with special songs being played, including “Cry of the Wounded” and “Long Way Home”. The lyrics were written by warriors, including Tom Spooner. With 22 chairs sitting around the fire pit at both locations, Spooner says that’s where “the magic happens” because the warriors can share reflections on the day and their healing.

Anyone can now watch “Healing Warriors” for free online. It’s a moving look at resilience, recovery, and the fight to reclaim life after service.

MOVIE TRAILER:
Healing Warriors | Bringing Strength Back to a Warriors Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3iTqHaLrEc&t=7s

WHERE TO WATCH
Watch the full documentary at no cost here:
Make Ready TV:
Healing Warriors: Bringing Strength Back to a Warriors Heart
https://www.makeready.tv/en/watch/video/show/details/healing-warriors-bringing-strength-back-to-a-warriors-heart/8761


ABOUT: WARRIORS HEART (Bandera, Texas near San Antonio and Milford, Virginia, near Richmond and Washington D.C.) is the first and only private and accredited treatment program in the U.S. exclusively for “warriors” (active duty military, veterans, first responders and EMTs/paramedics) faced with the self-medicating struggles of alcohol addiction, prescription and drug addiction, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), mild TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and other co-occurring issues in a private, 100-bed facility on a 543-acre ranch in Bandera, Texas and 60-bed facility in Milford, Virginia. Along with a minimum 42-day peer-to-peer residential treatment program, Warriors Heart offers a full continuum of care with the option of Detox, Residential Treatment (inpatient), Day Treatment, Outpatient (IOP), Sober Living, TMS (brain treatment) and Aftercare. Warrior Heart is accredited by the Joint Commission, and is a member of the NAATP (National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers). As a “Preferred In-Network Community Care Provider”, Warriors Heart accepts TRICARE and most insurance. Warriors Heart’s work has been featured on the TODAY Show, CBS Health Watch, A&E Intervention, National Defense Radio Show, NPR, Shawn Ryan Show, Dr. Drew Midday Live, and in FOXNews.com, TIME, Forbes, Addiction Pro magazine, Stars and Stripes, Task & Purpose, Military Families Magazine and many more. There is a 24-hour Warriors Heart hotline (866-955-4035) answered by warriors. For more information, visit https://warriorsheart.com/connect

Liz H Kelly
Goody PR
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Healing Warriors | Bringing Strength Back to a Warriors Heart