My Nonprofit Reviews

When I lost my husband and the father of our two girls, then 7 and 9 in June 2013, I was desperately seeking to find a grief therapist for my two girls who were deeply traumatized by the loss. However, when I started looking into children bereavement therapists, that were not traditional "talk" therapists. I found it extremely difficult to locate one. I even inquired through both mine and my late husband's companies Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and neither company could refer any alternative bereavement therapy other than the traditional "talk" counselors. I even went as far as asking a good friend of mine who is a high level HR executive at Pfizer and even he had a difficult time referring anyone to me. I was at a loss and knew I was looking for a needle in a haystack.

One thing I knew was that my children loved animals, so I started googling animal grief therapy methods. That's when I came across Spring Reins of Life. After reading about the co-founder who is a 9/11 widow, I immediately connected with her story and struggle to find a non-traditional approach to bereavement for kids.

When we went to the farm, at first, both girls were hesitant to work with the horses but within minutes, they adjusted to the most striking and gentle horses, Dane and Spring. An experience that made me a believer in this non-traditional approach was with my 7 year old. She was afraid to enter the pen at the first session but with the gentle coaxing and unending patience of CeC and Ro, she found the courage and went in. Once in, she immediately grew more and more confident in guiding the horse on her own. After that session, she started talking to me on the way home about her dad for the first time in months. This type of therapy amazed me as I saw my girls start to deal each week with the emotional loss of their dad, using no words but only expressing their feelings through these gentle creatures. Another experience was with my oldest daughter who was deeply traumatized by the loss and would not speak about it to anyone, not even me. Her only way to cope was by having major emotional outbursts and long crying fits. The week of her session, she had a tumultuous, emotional week with major ups and downs. When she went to equine therapy, she still had a lot of pent up emotions. As she entered the pen to try and lead Dane, the horse immediately ran swiftly around the pen, prancing up and down expressing major spurts of energy, and then when he finally settled down, he went right over to her. My daughter recognized how he felt and CeC talked to her about letting extra energy out and that maybe the horse could show her how to do that. CeC, Ro and I could see a “mirroring of my daughters emotional state”.

Both girls looked forward to going every week and made remarkable progress in being able to comprehend what happened and were able to take steps when ready to "talk" about their experience with me. Having a program like this is so important to families like mine and I am grateful they meet the needs of kids grieving. There are not many programs like this and they do an excellent job in taking the children where they are at in their grief and gently using the horses to help them cope using structured exercises at each session.

Thank you CeC and Ro, and thank you to the horses. We are indebted to you and this program!

Carolyn Alessi
Senior Public Policy Advocate
Nestlѐ Nutrition U.S

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