About Us

Every day I feel the path we are on is guided. In 2019, I planned to start Camp Fiona for Special Needs children and eventually move into service dogs as the second phase of the nonprofit. When I attended the University of Tennessee, I was enrolled in a class for special needs that included a trip to Camp Koinonia. This allowed me to see if I could do this for the rest of my life. That was the concept we wanted to follow which would give students at the university an opportunity like I experienced. In Texas, there is a 8-9 year waiting list to get therapy benefits from Medicaid. I wanted to provide them the opportunity to attend the camp first before others currently enrolled in state programs were allowed to participate. Camp Fiona would follow then in a few years by training service dogs. COVID prevented us from moving forward. In 2024, the vision is still on the camp helping special needs children but also shifting our focus to PTSD and Vets. I realize now how the service dogs would help benefit both and allow us to take on behavior and trauma. I was guided to develop a new type of service dog to work with Special Needs which worked so well it shifted my thinking to PTSD too. The rest is history and now currently working with Special Needs having many areas of focus & PTSD using a combination of Therapeutic Recreation and Service Dogs to teach Biofeedback training the last 2 years. The combination will combat the fight/flight response as well as other areas of different types of situational triggers in social situations. We will be using various other techniques from meditation to hypnosis therapy to help us combat the trauma that does not let us sleep at night or function in every day life events. The hypnosis therapy will not be done until you can show you are in control or not at all. It is your choice if you want to participate and take on the past traumas in your life. Some will want to come in for therapy to reengage in military activities learning how to control the stress with biofeedback training but not get a service dog. The majority will be coming to do Biofeedback training and go home with a service dog because the "dead zone" is hard and having constant reassurance from the dog gives us the confidence they will need not to relapse. Once the person demonstrates they can control the stress (which will range from person to person) they will then start to train with the dog. The end result is training with the dog for a month at our complex before going home once they are ready for this step. The speed of the process is determined on how many times they can do the biofeedback training with Camp Fiona dogs each week. It also depends on how many triggers you are working through as well.  How long Depends on severity. Majority of the people taking longer are special needs. What matters to us is that for the first time everyone in your life truly knows how you feel. The dog never lies and will hold you accountable for you each day. The dogs do work but if you are wondering they also love very much too! The best part about it is you become happier and no more fake smiles! Jerry Reye's smile tells the story!