Louisville, Ky--"Coming home from Vietnam wasn't exactly a celebration for Darlene Bessler.
She felt the public scrutiny coupled with the unimaginable.
"And then when I was in the service I had been sexually abused as a woman so I had to deal with that," Bessler said.
She kept her secrets hidden deep never mentioning to anyone she was a vet or experienced severe trauma.
"And it took me until 2010 before I really began to talk more about it," Bessler said
Inside of this Army post in Louisville just about every Tuesday this what you'll find.
Vets from all walks, “do si doing” through the evening as they take steps to work through their issues.
At Dancing Well: The Soldier Project it's ok not be ok.
PTSD, brain injuries, and depression are common threads.
"Pretty soon this safe environment helps people feel better about themselves," Deborah Denenfeld said.
She is the founder and has been at it for six years..
"And they can be more courageous as they go out into the world and try more activities and interact with other people ," Denenfeld said.
For so many folks being here is part of the reason they've been able to find joy again even if their physical ailments keep them from dancing.
"We have triggers you can come back to something you're familiar with something that makes you happy and you start dancing in your mind and calling out dance steps do si do and stuff like that. So these are things that have come to help me and I'm able to go through my daily life and keep going," Roosevelt Smith III said.
And Bessler says the best part is simply having peace of mind again.
"All the stuff the sexual abuse the trauma I went through but now I'm verbally willing to share it with anybody that's been through any of it to help them see there is life beyond that and there's peace beyond that as well and it's joyful," Bessler said.
The next ten sessions of Dancing Well: The Soldier Project begins April 30th.