NOW OPEN
700 TX-16, Bandera, TX 78003, USA
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The Warriors Heart Lodge in Bandera houses the Intensive Outpatient Program and Sober Living Program.
The Lodge is also home to the Alumni Program Manager, a medical office for minor medical issues, massage therapy, brain treatment therapy and Warriors Anonymous meetings. The Lodge allows our clients a time of transition in a safe environment.
We also run Warriors Anonymous Meetings every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday ay 1900 CST on site.
- Sober Living is located at the Warriors Heart Lodge at 700 State Hwy. 16S in Bandera. We have 38 rooms, allowing for 52 warriors to have structured living for a minimum of 60 days after they have successfully completed a residential treatment program.
- IOP: Intensive Outpatient Therapy is offered after warriors have successfully completed a residential treatment program and provides support as they transition to a sober lifestyle. Clients benefit from experiential groups, guests speakers, equine therapy, nutrition advice and advanced life skills. They continue their personal growth through psycho education, 12-step programs, trauma work , and eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).
Sober Living:
The Warriors Heart Sober Living Program is a completely separate, offsite community with 52 beds for all Sober Living Clients. Clients learn to process their traumas via the intensive outpatient program, let their toxic experiences out and get one-on-one counseling.
With the mandatory intensive outpatient program attendance and assigned daily chores inside, and on the grounds, each client develops new habits for their next chapter. They train to stay sober, become reliable, and transition back to their families, or to wherever they decide to move to later on.
Together, they learn to do things together SOBER.
Sober Living Clients have access to a full culinary kitchen and eating area where they can share each others’ fellowship. After optional training with Chef Zach, they cook breakfast every morning. They are provided healthy, balanced lunches and dinners Monday through Friday, with continental breakfasts and deli meats/cheese supplied in coolers on the weekends.
Each week, clients can chair or attend:
- Live Warriors Anonymous meetings (on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) for all Warrior class sober clients and alumni,
- open AA/WA meetings for anyone that is sober from any 12-step groups (on Tuesdays and Thursdays),
- a closed WH Warriors-only meeting on Saturdays.
This is a great opportunity for them to learn to work the steps, while sharing in meetings with Warrior-class and other sober groups. It’s also a great way for them to meet face-to-face with their sponsors at the lodge or offsite.
The clients have fellowship and gatherings at the swimming pool and large patio with a custom gas grill and patio furniture for cookouts. They can attend firepit AA meetings at the river at night or reflect there during the day. In their down time, they can play volleyball, horseshoes or badminton.
The Sober Living clients have access within reasonable walking distance to state parks, the river, horseback riding, and a small town where they can do things together to become sober confident warriors.
After the program, most extend their stay and continue learning how to live life on their terms through the application of the 12 steps.
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PRESS RELEASE 10.01.20
A landmark structure on the southeastern entrance to Bandera for the last 21 years is getting a new name now that the Bandera Lodge has been sold to Warriors Heart to help it expand its rehabilitation services to military personnel, veterans and members of emergency response organizations.
Bandera-based Warriors Heart issued a press release on Thursday, Oct. 1, announcing it had acquired the 44- room lodge in the 700 block of Highway 16 South as part of an expansion.
Niranjan K. Bhakta, who has owned the lodge with his wife for the last 21 years, said that same day that the hotel with its restaurant and bar had been sold to Warriors Heart and was officially closed.
“It was the best thing that happened to me,” said Bhakta about the sale, which was announced without a sale price. “I was not looking to sell, but they (Warriors Heart) came and gave me a deal I could not refuse.”
He said at the age of 68, it was time for him to retire and to enjoy life with his grandkids.
The news release from Warriors Heart said its new property will be called the Warriors Heart Lodge and will be used primarily for Sober Living, intensive outpatient and brain treatment therapy for the warrior group it provides longterm recovery services to.
“We are grateful for this expansion that will allow us to continue to heal more warriors and support the Bandera, Texas community by attracting more business and creating more jobs as the second-largest employer in our area,” said Lisa Lannon, a Warriors Heart co-founder. “Our Warriors Heart team is dedicated to being there when our warriors need us most, just as they were always there when we needed them.
“This move will also provide the other hotels in the city and county more business as the Warriors Heart Lodge will be for private use.”
Warriors Heart relocated to a 543-acre tract just outside of Bandera in April 2016, creating what it called the nation’s first private addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder treatment center for military members, veterans and those in first responder and emergency units.
The news release said after serving more than 1,100 warriors in the program since then, “the results have been inspiring and life changing.”
Officials offered testimonials from those they have served showing the impact that Warriors Heart had on their lives. One U.S. Coast Guard member said, “Warriors Heart made me want to live again.”
With suicide rates in the military already higher than the rate for the general population, those rates growing this year by an estimated 20 percent and additional pressures being exerted on first responders during the coronavirus pandemic, Warriors Heart officials said they felt it was necessary to expand its “Strength through Healing” outreach.
“Based on the growing need for substance abuse and mental health services, Warriors Heart believes the new Warriors Heart Lodge will make a significant difference in the lives of our nation’s frontline protectors, their loved ones and local business,” center officials said.
Warriors Heart provides a 42-day, residential treatment program to warriors currently at the site of old Purple Sage Ranch corporate retreat center it occupies, along with detox, inpatient, intensive outpatient, telehealth outpatient and Sober Living services.
Officials said those services will grow at the lodge.
They also challenged anyone who would characterize the operation as a halfway house that might bring a criminal element to the neighborhood.
“We treat people with a disability. Our clients are some of the finest men and women who serve our country and community. They are a protected class and are not criminals,” said Josh Lannon, Lisa Lannon’s husband and the center’s CEO. “We are serving those who served us.”
He said the lodge’s Sober Living program offers a place to live in a structured community “where everyone agrees that drugs and alcohol are not permitted on the property.”
“It’s a safe place to live,” said Josh Lannon. “In a world where we are surrounded with ways to self-medicate, it’s nice to have a place where our warriors can feel safe.”
Bandera Councilman Jerry Russe who owns a recreational vehicle park adjacent to the lodge said he has seen how Warriors Heart functions and how it screens its patients and has no concerns about the hotel being converted into an expanded treatment center.
“They know what they are doing,” said Russe. “I’ve got a really good feeling about it.”
Mayor Suzanne Schauman said the property where the hotel is zoned allows for a very broad mix of uses that is likely to include the type of rehabilitation services provided by Warriors Heart.
She said Warriors Heart officials had been in contact with officials about code issues associated with the property, but she was not sure what the status of the city’s review was.