Are your concerned about you child or teen and don’t know where to turn or what to do?
Does your child seem to be having relationship or school issues?
Do they seem stressed, depressed, suicidal, anxious, or withdrawn?
Is your teen using drugs or alcohol, or cutting?
Have they experienced a recent trauma such as parental divorce/conflict, car accident, or physical injury, or maybe they are experiencing a phobia?
Does your child seem to have low confidence, low self-esteem, or lagging social skills?
Has your teen begun to date and are you concerned about them doing so in a healthy, respectful fashion?
Its Hard to Figure Out What To Do
If you answer yes to the above questions, your child/teen could benefit from therapy. It is common for parents to feel lost and intimidated choosing a Fort Collins Child therapist. There are so many to choose from! Trust is a huge issue, and you want them to enjoy and be invested in the therapeutic process. Your child/teen needs to be able to trust the therapist and you as a parent deserve to know your child is in the hands of a compassionate, well trained professional. The quality of the therapeutic relationship is so important.
With the right therapist, your child/teen can heal and grow. Over the years I have been honored to help so many kids navigate life’s challenges and become the people they are meant to be. Amani Farm is an amazing place for doing therapeutic work. Here, kids can show up like they do in life. They can walk, talk, do Brainspotting, work with the horses, and in general experience a more fluid and organic counseling process than talk therapy in a traditional office setting would provide. I work with the kids at their level and strive to develop a warm empathetic relationship with them. At Amani Farm counseling happens naturally. This helps young clients dig in and work hard without feeling pathologized. I believe this is why I see profound change happen relatively quickly. I am honored to be able to offer such a unique opportunity for child and teen counseling in Fort Collins.
What happens in one of your counseling sessions?
At Amani Farm, I will lead your child through a holistic counseling experience that focuses on the mind, body, spirit connection. They will have warm, caring support and we will move at a pace that feels safe and appropriate to them. My office is lovely and attached to the barn, but we can also work outside, take walks by the lake, and just enjoy the small farm and its animals. Together we will decide what combination of talk therapy, brainspotting, and/or equine therapy is right for them. You and/or your child absolutely get the final say! It is extremely important that the counseling experience itself is empowering, respectful, models a healthy compassionate relationship, and based on developing effective communication skills.
Why a farm, Brainspotting, and Equine Assisted therapy?
Amani Farm is a place where ancient wisdom and cutting edge neuroscience intersect. I am a neuroscience geek who knows that nature helps us heal and feel whole. This is why I use both Brainspotting and Equine Assisted Therapy, and why my office is on a beautiful farm. Working with the horses and nature can help heal a person’s spirit and the Brainspotting helps with the brain/body connection. Trauma often has a physical presence in the body. When trauma is stuck in your body, it impacts the part of your brain that is designed to keep you safe (the limbic system). This part of your brain is neither logical, nor verbal. Rather, it acts instinctively and reflexively. Both Brainspotting and Equine Assisted Therapy are neurobiological modalities for reprocessing trauma. They impact the reflexive, instinctual, “illogical” part of the brain that cannot be reached with words and logic. In other words, they work! I specialize in working with kids who have experienced trauma. This could include loss, divorce, bullying, anxiety, school pressure, relationship issues, car accidents, natural disasters, neglect, alcoholic or ill parents, sexual abuse, physical pain, poverty and more. Not only do we work on resolving trauma, we also focus on developing social skills and behaviors that promote empathy and healthy self-esteem. Because the counseling process in itself is empowering, it immediately gives kids a greater sense of purchase in their lives. It is not uncommon for kids to experience dramatic results in a short period of time when working here. Ironically, they often don’t even feel like they are in counseling and can’t wait to come back.
What happens if my child is not comfortable talking about their feelings?
Both Brainspotting and Equine Assisted Therapy are excellent counseling tools that don’t need a lot of words to be beneficial. They are experiential in nature. That means that healing and growth happen by doing the work, not just talking about it. The horse work is all done on the ground and does not involve riding. The horses serve as co-facilitators. This type of counseling is open to outcome much like play therapy. That means kids are empowered to discover how they want to relate to the horses, what results they want to achieve, and how they metaphorically interpret these results. We use horses because they are prey animals that are hypersensitive to their environment and capable of great empathy. Often clients will be invited to complete a task with the horses, and then process what happened when they did so. For instance, they could be asked to build an obstacle course of challenges they face in school, and then lead they horse through it. They might be asked, how the experience was for them, for the horse, and how it might relate to their life. It’s often far easier for kids to talk about the horses experience than their own. Most times, what they say about the horse, applies to them.
Being in the “felt sense” of the horse can literally be healing in itself. Horses instinctively act in accordance to how they feel and perceive their environment. They tend to think in pictures, speak in “body”, and feel our intentions. They have a sense of who we are, what we feel, and what we want without us using words. They are inherently inclusive as their strength and ability to scan the environment for danger is greater in numbers.
Horses don’t like feeling alone. Once horses perceive humans as safe, they are welcomed into the band or herd. Working with horses can teach us so much about connection and relationship. The horse’s sensitivity allows them to respond and often mirror human emotions in an obvious and non-judgmental fashion. Working with them is all about observing the cause and effect of our actions in a nonjudgmental supportive environment. Simply put, horses don’t have an agenda; they just tell it like it is. When horses communicate through their actions (moving towards kids, away from kids, lowering their heads, etc), kids get a lot of information and are able to gain insight in a quick and gentle fashion. They are also able to change their thoughts, feelings and actions, to achieve new results.
Does my child have to know about horses or work with horses to receive counseling from you?
Your child does not have to know anything about horses to do equine assisted therapy. They also do not have to work with the horses to benefit from counseling with me. The goal is to tailor a program that works best for each individual client.
Do you do any groups for kids?
I love doing group work with kids and offer group equine assisted opportunities on a regular basis. Group work can accelerate growth and learning and give kids the opportunity to practice new social and emotional skills in a safe environment. Current groups include Divorce Resiliency Retreats for children whose parents are divorcing, Social Skills Groups, and Dating with Dignity for Teenage Girls. Please contact
me if you would like information about an upcoming group, or even a suggestion for one you would like to see happen.
“May you be at peace. May your heart remain open. May you awaken to the light of your own true nature. May you be healed. May you be a source of healing for all others.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh