After serving in the military, Paul Ziehe knows trauma all too well.
Service members often face difficulty relating to others when integrating back into society, he said. Mandated therapy sessions can be particularly hard.
Rather than humans, he said it’s sometimes easier to express feelings to horses.
“Clients can see a horse’s behavior and are like, ‘Oh, that’s exactly how I feel,’” Ziehe said. “It opens a door for their counselor.”
Ziehe, a veteran and equine specialist in mental health and learning, and his wife, Hallie Sheade, a professional counselor, founded Fort Worth-based S.T.E.P.S. With Horses to help military service members and at-risk youth.
S.T.E.P.S. stands for Spectrum of Therapeutic Equine-Partnered Services.
Rather than in an office, clients go to therapy in a pasture.
The nonprofit organization provides equine-assisted mental health counseling and psychotherapy service to help overcome anxiety, trauma and PTSD. It uses an evidence-informed model that integrates licensed mental health professionals and therapy horses to help clients build coping skills, improve emotional well-being and healing.
Though not exclusively working with veterans, they make up about 70% of the client base, Sheade said. She was first inspired to work with veterans after moving to Texas.
“I was being exposed to the struggles of veterans coming back and trying to adjust with PTSD — and also their family members,” said Sheade, the organization’s executive director. “It felt really meaningful for me to begin working with these individuals and making our services accessible.”
How does therapy with horses work?
Equine-assisted therapy is experiential.
The relationship formed between the horse and client is processed and analyzed by the therapist in real time, Sheade said. Interactions with the horses are a microcosm of what someone may be struggling with in their day-to-day life.
“If the horse walks away and the client jumps to the conclusion that the horse doesn’t like them when really the horse was just going to get a drink of water, that’s probably a pattern that’s also repeating itself in their interpersonal relationships,” Sheade said.
When starting, clients get to choose a horse from the herd. Sometimes, the horse chooses them.
The formed connection is what often keeps clients coming back.
“The draw is that the horse accepts them,” Ziehe said.
The experience with the horse is strictly therapeutic. No riding is involved.
Because of the animal’s grounding nature, equine therapy helps clients open up easier than they would in traditional office therapy, Sheade said.
“Exposure therapies that are done in an office do have a considerable dropout rate for people who just aren’t ready. Some of those therapies can be harder to tolerate,” Sheade said. “The presence of the horses makes people feel safe. They feel like they have support.”
Equine-assisted therapy causes clients to gain more awareness and make connections between thoughts, feelings and somatic sensations they may not have otherwise been aware of.
“The animals are very attuned to our human emotional states,” Sheade said. “There’s research showing horses read our tone of voice, body language and facial expressions. They may even detect emotions based on scent and breathing rate.”
The counselor is almost secondary, Ziehe said. Horses do most of the work.
Once a client has met their clinical goals, the counselors transition them to therapeutic horsemanship, Ziehe said. This includes riding or horse handling lessons, where they can learn to groom and take care of the animals.
“They don’t want to stop coming,” Ziehe said. “They’ll be like, ‘I’m having a bad day. Can I come see my horse?’”
The healing nature of horses proves to be working. In a 2023-2024 grant application from United Way, Sheade said 88% of veteran clients with PTSD showed improvement, with a 0% dropout rate.
Seen Through Horses campaign
For the third year, S.T.E.P.S. With Horses was selected to participate in the national Seen Through Horses campaign in May for Mental Health Awareness Month.
The fundraising campaign, spearheaded by Horses for Mental Health, aims to raise awareness, reduce stigma and expand access to equine-assisted mental health services.
Throughout the month, the organization fundraised through its dedicated campaign page. The donations directly support mental health services for clients and the care of its specially trained therapy herd.
The awareness raised through the Seen Through Horses campaign is a testament to how equine-assisted counseling is a growing sector in the therapy space, Sheade said. Compared to when she started practicing 15 years ago, more acceptance and piqued interest exists today.
“Whether it’s a stigma or the idea of sitting in a room that felt uncomfortable to them, some clients are willing to come here when they wouldn’t go into an office,” Sheade said. “A lot of clinicians are recognizing the space that we provide.”
Kathryn Miller is a reporting fellow at the Fort Worth Report.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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