The most overwhelming therapeutic stories of the Camino de Santiago

The Camino de Santiago can be a therapeutic experience for those going through grief, illness or the wounds of war. We tell you three real stories: the veterans of Warriors on the Way, Amaya Ferrer and her dog Kyla, and the patients of the Hospital Infanta Leonor.

We know from our own experience that the Camino de Santiago is very good for your mental and physical health. Its benefits are so many that lots of people experience it as a tool for healing: former soldiers who lived through harsh episodes of war, people in the middle of grief after losing a loved one, patients recovering from an illness… We want to tell you about what many pilgrims have lived through on the Camino de Santiago, a Camino that is also about therapy, recovery and being reborn, even in cases as hard as the ones you are about to read.

Wounds of war

One of the most overwhelming therapeutic stories of the Camino is that of Warriors on the Way, an association founded in 2018 by Steven Rindahl, a priest from Texas, which organises pilgrimages along the French Way for American veterans psychologically marked by their experiences at the front, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former paratrooper and chaplain in the United States Army, he walked the Camino alone after retiring and, as he tells it, “I realised how much healing the Camino de Santiago had brought me”, a kind of unique balm.

Out of empathy for his comrades in arms, he created this association, which helps paratroopers, soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines and even medics of the American army heal the psychological wounds of war. Each group walks accompanied by a team that includes a priest and a psychologist.

What is more, the initiative is charitable and non-profit: it is funded by donations, and the veterans pay nothing for the trip. As applications far outnumber the places available, each pilgrimage is made by a small group of selected participants.

Coming to terms with grief

Amaya Ferrer is an Asturian and a mountain guide who leads excursions with dogs. When she lost her dog Kyla, she felt she needed to heal that pain and make it visible. That is why she decided to walk the Northern Way from Irún, join the Primitive Way all the way to Santiago de Compostela and then carry on to Finisterre and Muxía.

Her four-legged companion, who lived for 15 years, “spent two-thirds of her life blind, with arthritis, tumours and Alzheimer’s, and even so she lived a full life”, says May, as she likes to be called. She covered the nearly 1,000 kilometres of the journey with Kyla’s ashes always on her. She reached Santiago de Compostela after 45 days of exhausting walking, with sore feet and a tiredness that at times made her think of giving up. As she herself admits, “I suffered a shock at Kyla’s death, and guilt and doubt about the euthanasia came over me, which is a very complicated subject. I am walking the Camino to heal all that pain”. In Muxía, by the sea, she scattered her friend’s ashes.

The Camino is hope

This is how the women in our next story experience the Camino de Santiago. In 2021, sixteen women treated for breast cancer at the Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor in Madrid reached Santiago de Compostela along the Portuguese Way from Tui, on a pilgrimage organised by two of the hospital’s nurses together with the oncology department.

The initiative began in 2012 and is repeated every two years, with the aim of helping these patients get back to normal life after treatment. A few days together to share their experience, talk to one another and boost their self-esteem. The project has received recognition such as the Premios Hospital Optimista and the “Enfermería en Desarrollo” awards.

A Camino of stories

There are many more stories, and you can discover others on the website Camino de historias. These three are just a small sample of how the Camino de Santiago can be a source of optimism, resilience, hope and healing. It does not replace any medical or psychological treatment, but it can be a great ally in regaining your balance.

Whatever the route, many pilgrims say that the Camino de Santiago has helped them find peace, get to know themselves better and smile again. If your life is asking you for a pause to heal, perhaps it is time to set off. Calculate the price of your Camino here and start planning it.