.png)
PHOTO BY LAURIE ANDERSON
Lynn Krug, Courtney Allen, Ryan Henderson and Keegan Smith, veterans who participated in the documentary, attend a Fireside Chats meeting at 12 Fox Beer Co. with director Charlie Powell.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Lynn Krug takes a photo with Stacey & Joe Hogge at the premiere.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Lynn Krug visits with Texas Representative Pete Sessions about PTSD treatments during a legislative visit to Washington, DC.
Lynn Krug spent six years as a U.S. Army Combat Military Police officer, deployed to Bosnia, and got out of the military two weeks before September 11, 2001. What followed was decades of living with PTSD, cycling through VA appointments, and dealing with what she describes as an inadequate mental health system.
Today, Krug says she finally feels like herself again. Her journey back is part of a film that premiered March 25 at the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas, on National Medal of Honor Day.
Healing Heroes: No Mind Left Behind, produced by Solo Vive Studios, follows six veterans and first responders through an immersive treatment experience exploring both established and emerging approaches to PTSD recovery, including plant medicine. Krug is one of those six. The film is expected to begin streaming on major platforms in April.
Krug, a Dripping Springs resident and owner of the Brass Ovaries studio in Austin, attended the film’s premiere in Arlington. Joe and Stacey Hogge, owners of 12 Fox Beer Co., were also in attendance. They are active advocates for veterans, and some of the documentary was filmed at one of their properties.
Krug said the audience of roughly 200 people was visibly moved by the film.
“Some people were crying, and they thanked us afterwards for sharing our stories and our healing,” Krug said. “Everybody was really dressed up and just out there to support the message.”
At the end of the screening, the filmmakers included updates on each of the six veterans - where they are now, what they’re doing, how their lives have changed since the cameras stopped rolling.
”It was really good to see some of the people that were also in the film and people that worked on the film,” Krug said.
The documentary follows Krug and five other veterans - Ryan Henderson, Courtney Allen, Keegan Smith, Megan Watts, and Jason Braadt - through a 10-day treatment program in Tulum, Mexico, designed specifically for veterans.
Dr. Charles “Charlie” Powell, the documentary’s creator and a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander and combat veteran himself, described watching the process unfold as the most meaningful work of his career.
Powell said he hid his own PTSD for 18 years before finding a treatment that worked. He also said the U.S. has been too slow to research and offer alternatives to traditional pharmaceuticals.
“Medicines like this have been known for over a decade to help with this, but no one even tried to get a study in the US,” Powell said. “Why are the people that defended this country having to leave it to go get something that finally works? That doesn’t make sense to me.”
He also pushed back on widely cited statistics about veteran suicide, arguing the real numbers are significantly underreported. Only 30 percent of veterans ever register with the VA, he said, meaning the commonly cited figure of 22 veteran suicides per day almost certainly reflects a fraction of the actual toll.
”Take that number and multiply it times three,” Powell said. “That’s a starting point, and it’s still probably on the low side.”
Krug’s path to plant medicine began with the Heroic Hearts Project, which connects veterans with plant medicine retreats - including ayahuasca, a plant-based brew with roots in Indigenous Amazonian traditions. It has drawn growing scientific interest for its potential in treating trauma.
She has now participated in seven plant medicine retreats - including experiences with ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, and ibogaine, a compound derived from an African root that has shown promise in treating both PTSD and addiction. Each, she said, addressed something different.
”Ayahuasca healed me of the traumas that happened to me from other people, from other things, from other situations,” she said. “Ibogaine forced me to look at myself - the trauma I caused myself or the trauma I caused other people. It’s like really intense shadow work that my therapists have been trying to get me to do forever, but I’d been avoiding.”
She is careful to note that plant medicine is not for everyone, and emphasizes the importance of proper medical screening and supervision.
“From a toxicological standpoint there is some danger to it, so you need to make sure that who you’re going to is safe and actually doing the medical prep beforehand.”
Powell echoed that caution.
”The power of these medicines is something that has to be given enough respect,” he said. “There’s a lot of fly-by-night people out there that think they know what they’re doing. You can really mess people up.”
Krug said that one of the most valuable parts of participating in the Healing Heroes project was being vulnerable around a group of people who didn’t know each other and were thrown together in an unfamiliar place. She said she was more vulnerable in those moments than she’s ever been, even with her therapist.
“Knowing that eventually this was going to be very public, it’s just showing that it’s okay not to be okay. Just showing somebody else that it’s okay to be vulnerable,” Krug said. “You don’t have to hold it inside, because that really makes it worse.”
Krug said she also wants the show to give others hope that they can find the healing that works best for them.
“For myself I tried practically everything that the VA was offering and it got me to a certain point, but I knew there had to be something better,” Krug said.
To that end, Krug has also gotten involved in advocacy work, and has gone to Washington, DC to try to push for changes in laws around plant medicine.
“We need safe access,” Krug said. “Not everybody can afford to go out of country. Not everybody has the resources to leave for 10 days, or a job that they could leave for 10 days without having some repercussions.”
Her closing message to anyone who might see themselves in her story was simple.
”I’m hoping that it does show people there are different modalities to heal if the current pharmaceuticals and the current modalities aren’t working for them,” she said. “And hey, if it helps even one veteran, then it was worth it.”
More information is available at www.HealingHeroes.com. If you or a veteran you know is in crisis, contact the Veterans Crisis Line by calling 988 and pressing 1, or by texting 838255.
