As fellow creatures in our world, animals have the ability to help us cope and learn about ourselves in order to improve, heal and live more authentically. Increasing popularity in animal-assisted therapy (AAT) shows that this approach and its varied forms can be powerful for us.
Industry Insights
Meagan Good is a licensed professional counselor and the founder of Take Heart Counseling & Equine Assisted Therapy based in Mohnton.
“AAT is partnering with animals to facilitate healing and personal growth experiences for people in a variety of situations,” Good explains. “It is a broad definition because there are many specific applications of AAT. The term can include such things as bringing dogs into nursing homes to comfort and cheer patients, taking rabbits into an elementary classroom to teach gentleness and empathy, or healing deep trauma by practicing therapeutic techniques with horses.”
Like Good, Marcy Tocker, a therapist at Blossom Counseling & Wellness LLC in Collegeville, Montgomery County, works with horses, too. She is the founder of Grey Muzzle Manor in Fleetwood, where she uses not only horses but also dogs, cats, chickens, goats, pot-bellied pigs and guinea pigs with clients.
Healing with Horses
“My horse saved my life a million times over,” Tocker says of Fancy, a Thoroughbred Rocky Mountain Cross she's had since her teens. “She used to weave all over the trail when I’d ride, and I always had anxiety, but I didn't know really what that feeling was. Fancy knew. One day, somehow, I relaxed, and she walked in a straight line. So she was feeding off of that, trying to tell me, ‘Hey, up there, get it together.’ She gave that feedback by walking a straight line when I was able to figure out what was going on. And if she would weave, I'd check in with myself, talk to her about it, and I remember thinking, ‘This is amazing — everybody needs to know about this.’”
Now Fancy helps her clients, but so do other animals at her farm.
Good illustrates more about horses.
“Riding can be helpful, as rhythmic movement is very calming and heals us on a physical level,” she says. “Groundwork provides a great opportunity for practicing specific relationship or life skills. Sitting with horses in a pasture while they graze is incredibly centering and grounding. Observing horses in various situations can reveal much about one's inner thoughts or social dynamics.”
Good's farm has cats, a dog and goats as well.
“Clients come to us with abuse, trauma (PTSD), family or marital struggles, depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, etc.,” Good adds. “It is incredible how the horses sense what the client needs in the moment, and so we are able to become aware of surface and underlying issues fairly quickly.”
What We Need
Good and Tocker agree that non-judgmental responses are part of why horses and other animals are so valuable to those who practice AAT.
And Tocker points out that acceptance and presence are two other critical components of why time spent building relationships with therapy animals, in the company of a trained mental health professional, can be so successful and freeing for clients. Without these core resources, people are more likely to struggle and remain stuck rather than heal.
Do Your Vetting
“Make sure there's a mental health professional involved for mental health safety,” Tocker advises. “Animals can sometimes bring up things in us which we don't even know are there. And it can be dangerous if you don't have a trained professional facilitating it.”
takeheartcounseling.com | 717.917.7137
greymuzzlemanor.com | 610.655.5271
