Watch the video above: Discovery Ranch
GRENFELL, Sask. – A southeast Saskatchewan ranch that uses equine psychotherapy to help people suffering from mental health issues held its grand opening Saturday.
“Not one solution will work for everybody, so to have a variety of pathways for people to get well and seek treatment is really a valuable thing for all the people of the province,” said Tricia Martin, communications coordinator at the provincial branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Discovery Ranch, which opened last year, uses the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association model to help those with mental health and human development needs.
“If you are worked up or upset, the horses will mirror that. And we will see that,” said Tami Janz-Sargees, the ranch’s mental health clinician.
Janz-Sargees and Nancy Maurer, founder and president, use activities such as obstacle courses to help patients.
“So if a barrier is school, how do you get the horse over the barrier that you’ve labelled school and what were some of the tools that you developed to be able to do that,” said Janz-Sargees, of one of the metaphor-infused activities.
Eva Thompson, 13, is one of the nearly 30 people that have used the ranch’s services so far.
“It was really hard to see her suffer in every aspect of every part of her life,” said Amelia Thompson, Eva’s mother.
Something as simple as greeting someone used to be a difficult task until Eva took a session at the ranch for social anxiety last May.
“You have to interact with them to get to know them. You don’t have to say hi or something because they won’t say hi back,” said Eva, regarding the horses.
Eva has made strides already but hopes more time at the ranch will further improve her social skills.
“I didn’t really like to talk to anybody. I liked just to stay home. And after the program it made me feel that I could just go out and be myself,” she said.
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