People often ask how, exactly, horses can make such a big impact on people who have experienced trauma. Many people think it is about simply riding horses and are surprised to learn that Idaho Youth Ranch Equine Therapy is ground-based.
In 1985, Dr. Vincent Felitti was the Chief of Preventative Medicine at Keiser Permanente. He was doing a study on long-term health outcomes when he noticed that people who had traumatic pasts tended to have more dire health outcomes such as heart disease and diabetes. So strong was the trend, he turned the focus of his research to understanding more about how adversity in childhood related to health outcomes in adults.
One of the many approaches we take at Idaho Youth Ranch is a form of therapy called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).
It’s easy for adults to believe that because children are small, their emotions are also small or somehow less real. This could not be further from the truth.