Animals as Natural Therapy have been helping at-risk youth and veterans struggling with numerous physical and mental disabilities in northern Bellingham for 13 years. ANT uses a multitude of animal programs to provide therapy to their clients, the most popular being their equine program. The equine program builds a bond with the horse and the student that teaches the student how to verbally and nonverbally communicate with the animal. The equine program also uses metaphors to help its students learn what problems they face in everyday life. An instance of this would be when a student is trying to learn how to walk with the horse in a circle and the horse becomes nippy or aggressive with the student, the therapist would then ask the student, “who is nippy at you in life?”

                The program teaches the students by showing them how to properly care for the horse such as grooming and feeding techniques, many students then progress to learning how to saddle the horse and eventually riding on the horse. Equine helps students who have tried various other forms of therapy and have not found the success they were hoping for. Equine is proven to help improve social skills, depression, trust, communication and various other aspects of human development.

To learn more about equine visit- http://www.equine-psychotherapy.com/equine.html and http://www.fortunecentre.org/Therapy/therapy.html

Animals as Natural Therapy- http://www.animalsasnaturaltherapy.org/