Healing with horses: How horses can help with mental illnesses
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - For those with mental illnesses, talking with someone isn’t always the easiest thing to do, that’s why one Brandon Valley couple is using the horse to human connection to help.
For some families, like the Bethoney’s, therapy is necessary.
“Myself and my four children we are survivors of domestic abuse, so we’ve been on a long, hard and difficult road. We’ve done years and years of therapy,” said Leah Bethoney.
One of Bethoney’s daughters did five years of therapy, before coming to 605 Roots.
“We had a daughter, who at the time was 15, who would often stand hunched and didn’t have confidence in standing tall.” Bethoney added, “Probably after the second session even my husband said ‘I think there’s something different about her.’”
During the pandemic, Josh and Jenny Eggers started 605 Roots after Jenny became just one of six people in the country that are Draper Sensory Therapy certified.
“An individual who specializes in working with these animals and what they can do to reestablish and reconnect neuropathways in the brain,” said Jenny Eggers.
Which means, “We are balancing body and brain. 20% of horses actually have the rhythm that we need to alter the brain frequencies,” Jenny added.
But beyond the science, this form of therapy leaves the healing to the horse.
“They don’t have to say a word. We could put them on the back of the horse, horse tells the tale. If they want to hear what we have for them, great, if they don’t, they still walk away better,” Josh Eggers said.
The Eggers add that this is not a replacement for talk therapy, but rather a gateway to therapy.
“A lot of times these individuals have been hurt and the trust isn’t there with the human body, but when they come to the horse, they’re able to connect and nurture that relationship,” said Jenny.
For more information on 605 Roots you can go to their website at www.horsebackmiracles605roots.com
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