Restoring harmony through horses, horticulture
August 12, 2004
By Katharhynn Heidelberg
Journal Staff Writer
Cortez Journal
 journal/karlyn franchini VOLUNTEERS CONSTRUCT raised garden beds at Medicine Horse Therapeutic Riding Center to be used for horticulture therapy. Medicine Horse has partnered with several local social agencies to offer varied therapeutic options for clients. |
When it comes to therapy, there's the tried, true and traditional. Now, thanks to a unique partnership there's one more option: Healing Partners.
Healing Partners blossomed in late February after Midge Kirk, director of the Four Corners Child Advocacy Center met Lynne Howarth, director of Medicine Horse Therapeutic Riding Center and began discussing the equine-assisted therapy offered there.
In equine-assisted therapy, certified and trained therapists use specially-trained horses to help clients recover from physical or emotional trauma. It quickly became apparent to Kirk that the benefits could be applied on a broader scale.
"After we began looking at how equine-assisted therapy would benefit our population, we began to realize there were other agencies in the community who were dealing with adults and children who'd experienced trauma and could benefit from this program," Kirk said.
Numerous other agencies, among them Partners, Renew, Hospice of Montezuma, the Pi`F1on Project, Cortez Addiction Recovery Services and the Southern Ute tribe, began meeting regularly to "brainstorm" alternative means of aiding client recovery.
The goal of Healing Partners is to "restore harmony" to those who have experienced trauma or neglect, said Kirk.
"This program was going on in our minds," she added. "One of us had seen something about art therapy, then there was something about horticulture and wilderness therapy."
Howarth said Healing Partners attempts to reach - and restore - the whole person. "The thought was that when someone is abused, the taste, the smell, the sound stayed with them," she said. "The reason for Healing Partners was to speak to all of the senses that have been damaged, basically, to enliven them again."
Participating agencies refer clients to Healing Partners' equine and gardening therapies.
The experiential equine-assisted therapy has been in place at Medicine Horse, founded in 1999, for a year.
"We find horses lessen the impact of trauma and promote healing," Kirk said.
Perhaps that is because many of the equines in question have experienced abuse themselves - Medicine Horse uses rescued horses for therapy.
"I get goosebumps," Kirk said. "These abused animals ... themselves know the kind of pain that our folks who visit them are experiencing."
The horticultural therapy is brand new, Howarth said, with two raised beds recently donated and installed at Medicine Horse by Horti-Pro, a local landscaping company.
The beds allow children and the physically challenged, such as those using wheelchairs or crutches, to indulge their green thumbs and reap more than one kind of harvest. A second bed is designed for able-bodied adults, Howarth said.
"Horticulture is an incredible way for people to heal. It gives people the sense of being in touch with growing something, the responsibility of taking a seed, nurturing it and actually harvesting a product," Kirk said.
"The result is self-esteem grows as well. It's magical."
Howarth agreed. "This actually speaks to someone's primitive experience," she said. "It speaks to your core, to what makes us human beings."
She said that local restaurants were receptive to purchasing the gardens' "finished products," which would extend the benefits of horticulture therapy that much further.
"It helps them (clients) see the beginning with the seeds, to the finished product and then takes it even a step further to market the product - and to help each other do it."
Howarth plans to get local senior citizens involved, with the idea of elders mentoring abused children. "What is envisioned is walking someone through all of the therapies," she said.
Some of the possible therapies - art and music - are still in the planning stage.
"We have a vision of having these different components," Kirk said. She explained that art therapy could take the form of a client putting what he or she had learned from the horse arena onto canvas, channeling emotions into clay, even writing a tune about the experience.
"It's turning life experiences into masterpieces," she said. "We know that art and music are tremendously healing. They kind of help solidify the healing process physiologically, psychologically and emotionally."
Medicine Horse recently received a $14,000 grant for the Healing Partners program from the Red Acre Foundation. The program is also seeking volunteers. Those willing to undergo the training can work at anything from clerical to clean up, said Kirk, or donate a specialized skill, such as art instruction.
"We want the general community to take ownership of Healing Partners," Howarth said. "Abuse is a huge issue in Montezuma County. We believe the well-rounded experience will ultimately help guide someone through the healing process, but we can't do it without community backing."
For more information, or to volunteer, contact Kirk at 565-8155 or Howarth at 749-1266.