Live · VA CCN / TriWest
RT Biofeedback with AAT dogs
Chris Griffin is the certified therapist and VA Community Care Network provider. Authorized care is active. Public directory listing may follow.
The work
Four phases you journey through in the development.
Everyday stress, addictions, triggers, tics, and emotional trauma. Sleep, supplements, and exercise toward better mental and physical health. The path is longer for some and shorter for others. It is always better with family. If family is available, we would be surely blessed if they could help in the process — it always is better when they are part of it. Everyone follows a path, but the challenges alter that path as they go. There is a fifth phase we will talk about in person.
Healing, sleep, and family run through the four phases — not after them. The dogs are detection dogs, and they assist you in real time. That is AAT — activity-assisted therapy. There is a fifth phase we will talk about in person.
Who this is for
Veterans — active or retired — living with PTSD, TBI, trauma, sexual assault, sleep disruption, or related behavioral health. Adults with special needs and similar trauma and behavior. Families are in the journey. We work with people over 18.
First responders matter. We have not figured out their insurance yet. Until that is in place, first responders are private pay.
Chris Griffin is a certified therapist at Takoda Therapies — certified in his field, which counts as licensed. North Carolina is the only state that licenses this work. He is a VA Community Care Network provider through TriWest, Region 4. Authorized CCN services are billed from that authorization. Authorized care is active. Public directory listing may follow.
If a dog ever goes home
That is not the work. Most people complete the journey with the session dogs here. If a home dog is even on the table, it is a combination of physical and mental. These are the specifications.
- The four session dogs — Han Solo, Princess Leia, Sabine Wren, and Luke Skywalker — work here. They are not loaned and they are not given.
- Han Solo and Sabine Wren will mate. Some of that litter may go home. Not as session dogs. Not as a souvenir of the work.
- A home dog is only considered for a combination of physical and mental — a medical alert this kind of dog is trained for (diabetic change and/or seizure) plus a mental-health need. PTSD or stress alone is not enough.
- The household finishes eight training sessions. Every adult in the home has to be able to answer the dog, including at 2 a.m.
- Staff can say no. Checking a box on a form does not mean you will get a dog.
On the board
Phase 3 · no extra cost
Hypnotherapy
In association with Takoda Therapies and Mayan Spirit. When we head to phase 3, tics and triggers — with RT, meditation, and hypnotherapy. No extra cost. That leads toward phase 5. Past life regression is separate: your choice, separate fee.
Work in progress · TriWest CCN
Massage therapy
Can be covered through TriWest CCN. Work in progress.
In design · TBI
Aquatic therapy
For TBI individuals. On the board with the rest of the holistic work — not only PTSD.
In the works
Virtual reality + RT
Talking in games. Social talking. Recreation Therapy with the dogs in it — AAT — used to set baselines. The dogs play a part. This is not a replacement for them.
With RT and hypnotherapy
Meditation · headband
Meditation is done through RT breathing practice, and by learning with headband equipment. It is an important part of the program with RT and hypnotherapy.
Extra · separate pay
Quantum healing · past life regression
Melissa Griffin is certified in Quantum Healing Hypnosis Techniques (QHHT). If you want this extra — past life regression — there is a reduced rate, billed separate from Takoda. Never required.
No machine can distinguish what they have to do in a blink of an eye — two to three hundredths of a second — and give the correct response, over and over.
Ask about 2026