Offering a Blend of Western & Eastern Medicine
• Acupuncture • Herbs
• Nutritional Therapy • Behavior Counseling • House Calls Available
53
1524 Mahtomedi Avenue, Mahtomedi, MN 55115 Susan M. Swanson, D.V.M.
www.HolisticCatClinic.com
naturalpet
Shift the Energies of Grief Heal Your Heart Stuck in the pain of grief? Lost in the past? Has life lost its beauty?
IT IS TIME TO HEAL YOUR HEART! 1:1 and Group Sessions, Workshops, Retreats, Inservices
Days, Evenings, Weekends – by appointment Cheryl Downey | 612-272-3977
Healing@SacredWheelCenter.com | Metamorphosis Wellness Center
www.SacredWheelCenter.com
P
HEART-TO-HEART
WITH A HORSE Their Gentle Empathy
Helps Us Heal by Sandra Murphy
hysical therapists have long used horses to help patients improve balance or strengthen core muscles. Now they’re helping to teach empathy. Given a horse’s significant size, sometimes distracting surroundings and the need for safety, humans need to learn the animal’s non-verbal cues, and to regulate their own. Close interaction without riding is proving to be helpful for those dealing with addictions, trauma and grief, and for employees to improve their communication and teamwork skills. Kelly Wendorf and Scott Strachan, co-founders of Equus,
in Santa Fe, work with both individuals and organizations. Stra- chan emphasizes, “This isn’t magic. Horses reflect our feelings back to us. If we’re nervous, the horse will be more skittish.” “We’ve had executives arrive with cell phones firmly
in hand and leave holding soggy tissues instead,” comments Wendorf. “For them, it was unexpectedly emotional.” For addicts caught up in a debilitating cycle, “Equine
therapy gets the brain firing in a new direction,” says Con- stance Scharff, Ph.D., director of addiction research at Cliffside Malibu, in California. “Patients may say they’re fine when they’re not, but you can’t lie to a horse. They have boundaries; if you’re angry, a horse won’t tolerate your be- havior and will walk away.” Scharff notes, “Equine therapy is complementary to
psychotherapy medicine, and one tool we use in approaching addiction. Depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can be the underlying issue, so we can address it, to understand why the person became an addict.” Wendorf relates the story of an 18-year-old client facing
22 Twin Cities Edition
NaturalTwinCities.com
Osetrik/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32