My Services

Animal Assisted Therapy  & Equine Assisted Psychotherapy

AAT partners certified animals and trained mental health professionals with clients to enhance physical, emotional and social wellbeing, thus improving self-esteem, reducing anxiety and facilitating healing.  Animals make us human and with Eli’s help clients experience unconditional positive regard and acceptance in session.

EAP is a specific type of AAT pairing a specially trained therapist with expertise in working with horses and humans either with or as an Equine Specialist to facilitate human change through the horse/human relationship. How we do one thing is how we do all things and horses help us see clearly our side of relationship difficulties.

Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling  or AAT-C, partners trained and registered animals, mental health professionals with specialized expertise and volunteer or paid para-professionals with clients to enhance physical, emotional and social wellbeing, thus improving self-esteem, reducing anxiety and facilitating healing. AAT-C is a form of mental health counseling and can either be provided as the sole form of counseling a client receives, or may be used in conjunction with services. In my practice, AAT-C is provided in partnership with a diverse team of animals including horses, donkeys, chickens  and visiting wildlife when we are in the therapeutic farm setting or in the office with my canine partner, Eli. 

In the office, Eli’s value to the session can be as simple as a source of comfort and unconditional positive regard or we can engage with him in a behavioral activity to demonstrate a point relative to changing functional human behaviors outside the session.  Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP)  is a specific type of AAT-C pairing a specially trained therapist with expertise in working with horses and humans either with or as an Equine Specialist to facilitate human change through the horse/human relationship.  I have a long record of demonstrated expertise in EAP and was named the EAP Professional of the year in 2014 by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International.