‘Giving us a voice’: Feds support N.S. equine therapy program for female veterans

As the spotlight remains on misconduct against women in the Canadian military, one female veteran says not enough is being done to help women survivors heal once they leave.

“We haven’t really talked a lot about what happens when you’re done. What happens when that time is over and you’re no longer in that system? And the legacy of that continues,” says Michelle MacIsaac, who served in the Canadian Armed Forces as a social work officer from 2004 to 2009, when she was medically released with post-traumatic stress disorder.

She says she jumped right back into work, adding she “kept pushing but her world kept shrinking.” She says the transition to civilian life was isolating and she didn’t know where to turn.

“There was an obvious gap for a place or a group that understood how women’s experiences in the military might be different from their male counterparts,” MacIsaac says.

“There’s nothing that I’m aware of in our Atlantic region that’s specifically tailored toward women veterans.”

That’s why MacIsaac turned to the Free Spirit Therapeutic Riding Association to create Spirit, equine-assisted psychotherapy sessions specifically for female veterans.

“Horses, I think, create a safe container, if that makes sense,” MacIsaac says.

“There’s this sense of safety and protection.”

6:33 New Program Offered in NS to Support Female Veterans

The first-ever sessions ran last year for a group of 16 women.

“By the end, they were taking charge and leading the horses around and tackling obstacles head-on. It was just impressive to see the amount of growth in such a short period of time,” says Alissa Cue, an equine specialist with the association and the owner of Rohan Woods Stables in Aylesford, N.S., where the sessions take place.

Cue has been offering equine-wellness programming at her stables since 2012. She says that not only can horses make people feel safe and secure, but they can also improve one’s communication and leadership skills.

“They accept us as we come through the door,” she says of the horses.

“They’re very calming, they know what we need. They crave interaction and relationship, like we as humans do.”

Stephanie Townsend, an equine-supported wellness facilitator with the program, says it was incredible to see the mental and emotional change of participants by the end.

“We really, therapeutically, ended up seeing a reduction in symptoms that they had presented with,” Townsend says.

Anxiety is reduced and sleep improves, shd says. “And then what was really exciting too was some sustained relationships that came out of that.”

Last year’s program proved so successful that Veterans Affairs Canada granted the Free Spirit Therapeutic Riding Association $90,000 to offer the program once again. Registrations are now open for the 18-month program, which begins in mid-May for a group of up to 64 female veterans from western Nova Scotia.

“I think it’s a huge success to get this kind of recognition in a rural area and working with an all women’s group,” Cue says.

As for  MacIsaac, she says the funding served as validation.

“It was like giving us a voice. One of the toughest parts of making that transition, or even when I served, was feeling like I didn’t have a voice,” she says.

“So this was validating the need, validating that women in our community could offer this program and support one another. And validating that there’s a huge gap.”

The hope is to continue to offer Spirit beyond this next session. She hopes to build a community, something that she says is so important in the healing process.

“We have capacity to heal with one another. We have strength. So we can talk about women in the military as victims, and we can also talk about the incredible strength we have to be able to survive and stand on our own two feet and carry on,” MacIsaac says.

“And I think we have an invaluable skill to share with one another.”