Equine-assisted psychotherapy incorporates horses into the therapeutic process. People engage in activities such as grooming, feeding, and leading a horse while being supervised by a mental health professional.
Research has confirmed that equine therapy benefits can include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, alleviating stress, and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. It can also help people struggling with addiction.
“No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses” Herman Melville
Darla Renshaw, LPC, LMFT, owns Winds of Change Wellness, LLC, and her herd consists of 4 geldings and 5 mares ranging in age from 4 to 33 years. The 9-member herd are currently offering their equine therapeutic alliance to clients’ sessions for healing, learning, growth, and development. The Wind Horse Ranch is a 10-acre horse farm located in Powhatan County, VA. The round pen, arena, and pasture provide sacred spaces for clients to explore and create healthy relationships with the horses, self, others, and nature. Darla is an innovative, inspiring, and integrative psychotherapeutic practitioner, who designed the Human Equine Alliance Relational Transformation (HEART) program as the basis for her EAMH practice. The HEART program is a ground-based, non-riding, relational therapeutic practice.
