Equine Therapy

In 1999, a man by the name of Greg Kersten developed an Equine Assisted Psychotherapy Program based on his thirty plus years of working with horses and people. This new innovative program has proven to be extremely effective in working with troubled teenagers and their families. Discovery Academy utilizes many different modalities of experiential therapy and features equine therapy in the program curriculum.

The focus of Equine Assisted Therapy is not riding or horsemanship but to develop skills relative to communication, assertiveness, creative thinking, problem solving, leadership, responsibility, team work, work ethic, and confidence. Equine therapy involves the senses of touch, smell, sight, and sound while engaging emotions that the students learn to understand and respect. Discovery therapist's and our EGALA (Equine Growth and Learning Association) certified staff helps the students interpret and internalize the experiences in real time as they unfold in the arena. The benefit to the student is immediate feedback for emotions and behaviors exhibited during the exercise. Contrast this to office therapy where the client passively recalls experiences from the previous week. In the horse arena students are learning by doing.

As students complete the structured equine therapy curriculum, they will transition into classes of natural horsemanship. Here the focus becomes relationships, empathy, service, and caring. The relationship skills they develop with the horses are the same skills necessary for healthy relationships with family and friends.