Alaqua, Healing Hoof Steps partner to provide equine-assisted mental health therapy

Special to the Northwest Florida Daily News/USA TODAY NETWORK
·5 min read

FREEPORT — Alaqua Animal Refuge and Healing Hoof Steps have established a new partnership to provide equine assisted therapy for people struggling with mental health issues in Northwest Florida.

The partnership between the two organizations is an extension to Alaqua’s Equine Interactions program, which has been used to help children and adults with emotional traumas and developmental challenges to promote social and life skills in a supportive environment.

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More about the program

The Equine Interactions program is open to anyone with mental, emotional, behavioral, or development struggles, and serves individuals, couples, families, active-duty military personnel, veterans, first-responders, at-risk youths, and other groups. It uses an experiential approach to healing through powerful engagement with horses.

Focusing on relationship-building and coping mechanisms, the program’s goal is to foster positive change for people with anxiety or depression, autism, trauma such as PTSD, grief, ADHD, or physical or developmental disabilities. Additionally, there are women and family services for foster parents, foster children and domestic violence victims.

With mental health conditions increasing across the country, the collaboration between Alaqua Animal Refuge and Healing Hoof Steps is a small step to address this crisis happening in every community. Interactions with animals have proven powerful effects on the human spirit and body. By working together with a common goal, the two organizations can serve an unmet need and make a more impactful mark in society and local communities to improve the lives of both humans and animals.

Alaqua Animal Refuge and Healing Hoof Steps are partnering to provide horse therapy for Northwest Florida residents in need.
Alaqua Animal Refuge and Healing Hoof Steps are partnering to provide horse therapy for Northwest Florida residents in need.

“We witness the healing powers that all animals have on the human spirit every day," Alaqua found Laurie Hood said. "Our Equine Interactions program takes it to the next level and provides a much-needed service to humans who have experienced trauma of some kind. It's an honor to partner with such an amazing organization as Healing Hoof Steps on this venture so that we can offer sessions in multiple parts of the Panhandle.

“We have found that with animals, people find the courage to begin their own journey of recovering to improve their emotional and physical well-being,” Hood added.

Children and adults can benefit from the non-riding activities in equine therapy. It helps ease mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Children and adults can benefit from the non-riding activities in equine therapy. It helps ease mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Equine Interactions program can help reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and relationship issues, leading to improved self-confidence, self-efficacy and an overall better and healthier quality of life.

Healing Hoof Steps

Healing Hoof Steps has a team of licensed mental health counselors who provide counseling services in conjunction with horse interactions at Alaqua’s original campus at 914 Whitfield Road in Freeport. The peaceful environment offers a private and comfortable setting to conduct equine-assisted mental health counseling services.

The sessions use the horses, barn and adjoining pastures to create a unique multi-sensory space for personal growth. Using a hands-on clinical approach, these program sessions take people out of the office and immerse them into a large pasture of loose horses as a member of a working herd to create an environment of learning, self-discovery and healing.

Horses and therapy

The non-riding activities in these sessions are designed to create an introspective view that can assist in overcoming anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and relationship issues. As prey animals, horses possess a keen sense of their surroundings while maintaining the goal of living a peaceful existence. They are hard-wired to live in the moment. Specializing in non-verbal communication, horses can convey the awareness, emotions, connection, respect and structure that exist within the herd dynamics for their survival.

Horses are not distracted by the past or future events which could prevent them from identifying the level of safety in their environment and being able to respond. Unfortunately, humans are notorious for dwelling on past events that causes depression or projecting into a future that hasn’t happened yet, which causes anxiety. Horses remind us of the importance of living in the moment, away from any anxiety or depression.

They are very sensitive to non-verbal communication and another’s energy, even when it is subconscious. As prey animals, horses must be constantly aware of every environmental cue in order to survive. These qualities and sensitivities give them a special capacity to read and respond to non-verbal symbols and cues, which can lead to powerful emotional interactions, breakthroughs and life-changing insights.

“It is an honor to collaborate with Laurie Hood and Alaqua in overlapping our missions to improve our communities for animals and humans. Like Alaqua, the need we have uncovered within our community for our services has surpassed our expectations,” said Narissa Jenkins, Healing Hoof Steps CEO and founder. “It is our responsibility to continue any and all efforts to meet that need. Thanks to this collaboration, Healing Hoof Steps is able to extend our mental health services while engaging the horses rescued by Alaqua to serve an even bigger purpose—turning trauma into triumph.”

Requirements

The collaboration between Alaqua Animal Refuge and Healing Hoof Steps increases their ability to provide hands-on clinical therapy for people with mental health issues in Northwest Florida.
The collaboration between Alaqua Animal Refuge and Healing Hoof Steps increases their ability to provide hands-on clinical therapy for people with mental health issues in Northwest Florida.

Prior horse knowledge or experience is not necessary to benefit from the Equine Interactions program. The only requirements are closed-toed shoes, the ability to walk throughout a pasture and communicate with a treatment team. Military people and families may qualify for grant funding, and some insurances and Gardiner Scholarship are accepted.

To learn more about the program or schedule an initial appointment, email EquineInteractions@Alaqua.org or call 850-764-1005.

Visit http://www.alaqua.org or https://www.healinghoofsteps.org/ for more about either organization.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Alaqua, Healing Hoof Steps partner to give equine-assisted therapy in NWFL