EFT SESSIONS

IN PERSON  OR  BY PHONE:
 
~ONE-ON-ONE SESSIONS: $50 PER HOUR ~

~GROUP SESSIONS:  $15 PER PERSON PER HOUR~

****NO RESULTS, NO CHARGE****

EFT INSTRUCTION
     
  • ONE-ON-ONE TEACHING FORMAT:

~  $50 / HOUR ~

  • GROUP TEACHING FORMAT:

  ~$15 PER PERSON PER HOUR~

  • WORKSHOP FORMAT:

   ~ $50 EACH (FOUR-HOUR CLASS) ~

ADVANCED EFT:
INSTRUCTION AVAILABLE ON REQUEST



















There is much theorizing (though no real consensus) about the precise mechanics of EFT's effectiveness.

In one of the most rigorous and comprehensive works available, Energy Psychology Interactive, David Feinstein observes that acupoints have high concentrations of receptors that are sensitive to mechanical stimulation of the skin: this in turn activates electrical impulses that are transmitted to the brain and appear potent in normalizing disturbed brain wave patterns.

EFT can be used 1) on oneself alone; 2) on oneself in tandem with "tapping buddies;" and 3) on other people or animals -- either singly or in groups, either in person or remotely, and either directly or using oneself as a surrogate. Often Judy uses EFT with a client by telephone, first explaining the EFT tapping formula and then engaging in joint tapping. 

At times Judy precedes the telephone work with a distant  session for the client: tapping on herself as a surrogate, she uses the standard EFT sequence beginning with the presenting problem.  This acts as  the first round of healing, enhances rapport, and helps in priming the client's energy patterns for the later work over the phone. The process also reveals helpful intuitive information (including how the client feels about the issue), and thereby contributes to the “detective work” that is so central to the artistry of EFT.


Below are before and after photos of  a  Quarter Horse who was viciously attacked as a 4-year old while in “training” at a cutting horse facility, including being slashed with a sickle on his hind.  Mercifully, when he was 11 he found a loving home where he has remained for the last 15 years.  Although he fell in love with his new human, he reacted with panic whenever she tacked him up, which in one instance caused her severe injury.  In late 2008, we did several phone sessions using surrogate EFT on his early abuse in all of its aspects.  His symptoms from the original trauma have disappeared, not only while being tacked up but also in other areas such as body language and facial expression. Note the change in the eye expression.

In a similar case of equine PTSD, from harsh early saddling,  a horse tried to bite his new person each time she saddled her.  After a 20-minute EFT session, the mare’s reaction to the saddle was totally neutral!

A surrogate client in MO, before EFT for his
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Photos Courtesy of Painted Creek Farm
Lexington, Missouri
The same horse following EFT for his PSTD
(by surrogate phone sessions, using primarily the movie technique)

            
Disclaimer:  While EFT has produced remarkable clinical results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage, and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it.  Further, Judith H. Young is neither a licensed health professional nor psychotherapist, but rather offers EFT as a practitioner with many years of experience in  a variety of integrative and complementary wellness techniques, including as a Reiki Master-Teacher.

    

  




Reiki (pronounced ray-key) stands for “universal life force energy,”  as well as for the acclaimed holistic healing method that uses this energy to reduce stress and promote well-being in oneself or others.  Its roots can be traced back to Christ’s healing work, whose essential elements were rediscovered in the late 1800s by a Japanese theologian, Dr. Mikao Usui.  In the final stage of a quest that consumed many years, Dr. Usui received the Reiki healing system by means of revelation, including the attunements needed for a person to open his or her healing channels so as to be able to transmit the Reiki energy for the sake of self or others.

Reiki is a profoundly powerful wellness technique on all levels—physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, and spiritual.  Yet is remarkably easy to learn and use, does not presuppose any particular belief system in its practitioners or recipients, and is readily combined with other modalities (such as Emotional Freedom Techniques / EFT).  It is a powerful tool for self-healing and personal growth, as well as for helping other people, animals, and Mother Earth.

Not only is Reiki instruction and certification much less time-consuming than that for many other healing modalities, but also it is also more affordable than most.  Reiki is one of the most rapidly spreading forms of complementary healing, not only in the number of practitioners but also in the venues in which it is being offered, including a growing number of hospitals and other health care institutions.

ONE-ON-ONE SESSIONS:

FOR PEOPLE           $50 FOR AN HOUR SESSION 
FOR ANIMALS          $25 FOR A HALF HOUR SESSION (Animals need less time than people)

ATTUNEMENTS FOR ANIMALS:   $30 for each animal

CERTIFICATION CLASSES:

FIRST LEVEL PRACTITIONER           $  95 (One Day Class)
  
SECOND LEVEL PRACTITIONER     $150 (One Day Class)
     
LEVEL IIIA: MASTER-THERAPIST    $  95 (One Day Class)
    
LEVEL IIIB: MASTER-TEACHER       $350 (Twenty Hours)         

* All certification classes provide manuals, attunements and the opportunity to practice both on each other and on animals.  Children as young as seven are appropriate as Level I students.  All certification classes include instruction in finding root causes (as against just treating symptoms), as Dr. Usui originally recommended.




   CLICK here
FOR INFORMATION ON BOOKING A SESSION OR INSTRUCTION, OR ON HOSTING AN EVENT.
Below is a photo of Lady, who had been found and saved by Alfred Apra at the very moment of her scheduled euthanasia at an animal shelter 12 years earlier.  Both animal and human had developed a tendency to worry about each other:  Alfred would start to worry about Lady and Lady would then become noticeably upset with worry over his worry.  I had already done some EFT with Alfred on some of his issues, so now it was Lady's turn.  I did two rounds as her surrogate on the issue of her becoming upset whenever he got into worry mode.  The next day Alfred reported that not only had her typical worry behaviors during his worry episodes stopped, but that she had become mellow in other contexts as well, contexts in which she had previously acted hyper with anxiety.  As with the horse in the case study above, the quality of life between the two loving friends had improved wonderfully thanks to the power of EFT.
       Lady Meeting Judy    (Photo Courtesy of Alfred Apra )
Reiki
An Ancient Form of Energy Healing for People & Animals
These pictographs were photographed by Judy in the Gila National Forest near Silver City, NM Out of the many she found, these were the most a propos to Reiki:the spiral, the hand, the animal and the human.

It is indisputable that the ancient peoples who lived here practiced the powerful art of hands-on healing, which we today dub EFT, Reiki and, more generally, energy healing / energy psychology.
SERVICES --For Adults, Children & Animals, On-Site or Remote

  •   EFT SESSIONS 

  •   EFT INSTRUCTION

  •   REIKI SESSIONS & ATTUNEMENTS

  •   REIKI INSTRUCTION / CERTIFICATION

  •   INTUITIVE DIAGNOSIS OF EMOTIONAL FACTORS
          AT PLAY IN A GIVEN ISSUE

  •   HOLISTIC ANIMALCOMMUNICATION & HEALING

  •   PEAK WELL-BEING FOR HORSE & RIDER

  •   WORKSHOPS: EFT, Reiki, Intuitive Diagnosis, Animal
         Communication,  Muscle Testing & Other Binary Tools

  •   CERTIFICATION  PROGRAMS: Reiki (all levels); Animal
         Communication: A Holistic Wellness Approach; Equine-
         and Animal-Assisted Therapy
  
INTUITIVE DIAGNOSIS OF EMOTIONAL FACTORS AT PLAY IN A GIVEN ISSUE

Someday the medical professions will wake up and realize that unresolved emotional issues are the main  cause of  80% of  all illnesses.  When they do, EFT will be one of their primary healing tools... as it is for me.   Eric Robins, M.D.

THE MIND BODY CONNECTION

The strongest argument for a mind-body wellness connection that I know of, cited by a number of integrative healers, is that of people with Multiple personality Disorder who manifest an ailment such as diabetes in one of their personalities but not in the others.  Another compelling argument is that if one manages to remove a condition without attending to its message, the message will find another way to make its point.  This is referred to by integrative healers as the rotating illness or symptom syndrome.  (This concept can be broadened and called something like “the repetitive lessons syndrome.”)  A  contemporary example is Dr. Christiane Northrup, who listened to the teachings of her fibroid tumors for three years and made life-changing decisions based on them: LIKE ONE OF MY OWN OWN CLIENTS, SHE KNEW THAT IF SHE HAD SIMPLY HAD THEM REMOVED IMMEDIATELY, THE WAKE UP CALL THEY REPRESENTED WOULD HAVE HAD TO MANIFEST IN ANOTHER BODILY AILMENT TO GET HER ATTENTION.

I was recently excited to find an awareness of  this phenomenon in Aldous Huxley's 1944 classic, The Perennial Philosophy :
"Those who are holy in virtue of being selfless channels of the Spirit may practice psychic healing with perfect safety..But unfortunately the knack of psychic healing seems in some persons to be inborn, while others can acquire it without acquiring the smallest degree of holiness..Often they produce spectacular cures-but lacking the power.to understand the psychological correlates, conditions or causes of the symptoms they have so miraculously dispelled, they leave a soul empty, swept and garnished against the coming of seven other devils worse than the first." (Page 261)

A TELEOLOGICAL APPROACH TO DISEASE: ILLNESS AS A TEACHER

One of the most famous sources of the concept of teleological causation is Aristotle, who distinguished between the proximate cause of an event or condition--or the material causal factor that resulted in it, and its teleological cause--or its underlying purpose.  For example, there are widely accepted proximate causes for menopause, or more generally for the midlife crises faced by men and women (and animals as well).  There is also a teleological cause, as reflected in the famous statement by Carl Jung that he never had a client with presenting midlife symptoms whose real issue wasn’t a spiritual crisis.

In the alternative health field the term medical intuition is widely used to denote intuitive diagnosis of physical ailments and their underlying psychological roots --the psychogenic factors at play. For lack of a better term, I have adopted it for one of my healing modalities, but with the following caveats.

•  First, in attempting to intuit the psychogenic roots of a physical ailment, I do not give a medical diagnosis of the ailment, but instead work either with a label that a trained diagnostician has already given it or with a simple lay description, such as "this skin condition."

•  Second, I do not limit my intuitive work to physical ailments, but rather include behavioral, mental, emotional, and spiritual issues as well. In these cases I similarly work with either a previous diagnostic label, such as "anxiety disorder," or with a simple descriptive name for the client's presenting issue, such as "this chronic behavior" (e.g., a cat's soiling outside the litter box).

•  Third, in tuning into the psychological factors underlying physical ailments, I do not disregard treatment that may be needed or helpful on a physical level: people and animals may well need to be supported on a physical level as they do their work on the psychogenic aspects. This caveat is related to my final one:

•  Fourth, I do not limit my intuitive work to the diagnosis of these psychogenic aspects. That is, I do not just assume that the appropriate healing modality will follow logically from that diagnosis, but rather I conduct a second intuitive inquiry into the most promising means for healing any given ailment.

The presupposition of the usage of medical intuition is that every ailment - every instance of dis-ease - comes to us as a teacher rather than randomly or meaninglessly. Often there is an elegant relationship between the ailment and its teaching, as when heart disease is a wakeup call regarding blocked grief or heartache.

A second, related presupposition is that finding and addressing the underlying teaching will help to heal the ailment. In my experience even seemingly intractable illnesses such as AIDS or advanced cancer have simply disappeared after their message has been attended to and integrated. When Bill Moyers did his pioneering special on the mind-body connection for PBS, I was so fascinated I bought and watched the full series of 12 videotapes that had formed the database for his show. Over and over these tapes showed instances of ailments just leaving when their lessons had been learned.

In my use of medical intuition -- with people or with animals -- I proceed as follows. I first obtain the client's permission to use medical intuition, explaining that while it is a form of depth psychology and can thus seem alarming, nothing will be revealed that one is not ready to hear. Next the client and I jointly decide on what to call the ailment. I then begin a dialogue with it by thanking it for having come forward as a teacher--or messenger or wake up call, i.e., as a blessing . I next ask it to share exactly what teaching or blessing it brings. An answer instantaneously comes into my mind, usually verbal but sometimes as a visual image. I often feel deep emotion; unlike some practitioners who try to stay extremely neutral, I welcome this as validating that I am indeed onto something.

After receiving the answer regarding the ailment's teaching, I thank the ailment for sharing that and request that it to go on to share the most promising ways to heal it. Again the answer, often quite detailed, just instantly comes into my consciousness.

If the answer regarding the teaching is unclear or incomplete, I dialogue further with whatever answer I did get. For example, if a cat's peeing outside its litter box reveals that the causative emotional issue is "anger at my person," I will then ask the anger to share its message as well as the most promising modalities for healing it.

If the answer regarding optimal healing modalities is unclear, I will once again dialogue with whatever answer I did get. For example, if the modality I intuited for healing the cat's behavioral problem were simply the word "nurturance" and nothing more, I would take it from the top by tuning in to "need for nurturance."

Most cases are relatively straightforward, but even in relatively convoluted cases I am eventually able to intuit all the information needed for the client's healing. There has never been a case in which, if the client is ready to hear the answers, we have been unable to obtain all the information we needed.

Where we may instead encounter difficulty is the client's level of readiness to carry out the healing plan. But even if the client seems unready at the time, the seeds have been planted. For example, one of my best therapeutic riding horses took nine months to overcome his arthritis, for its teaching was that he needed to start feeling his feelings and accepting the love being offered to him in his new home at our children's center. As an alpha horse that had previously been owned by an alcoholic and workaholic whose primary emotion was anger, he had developed a hard shell which took a lot of time -- and a lot of loving children -- to crack.

Even if a client is already aware of the underlying causes of an ailment, medical intuition can flesh out his or her awareness as well as provide detailed recommendations for a healing plan. The latter is often not in the client's awareness, and it tends to be much more than just a logical corollary of the ailment's teaching or message. For example, a cat that was pooping outside his litter and destroying a cherished rug told me he was quite aware that the cause was jealousy of his person's attention to her new baby. But medical intuition elaborated on this (he had been a stray and was hence very needy), and also yielded a precise healing plan (the use of Emotional Freedom Techniques on that issue of neediness).
I was recently excited to find another way of describing the phenomenon in Aldous Huxley's 1944 classic, The Perennial Philosophy :
Those who are holy in virtue of being selfless channels of the Spirit may practice psychic healing with perfect safety..But unfortunately the knack of psychic healing seems in some persons to be inborn, while others can acquire it without acquiring the smallest degree of holiness..Often they produce spectacular cures-but lacking the power.to understand the psychological correlates, conditions or causes of the symptoms they have so miraculously dispelled, they leave a soul empty, swept and garnished against the coming of seven other devils worse than the first. (Page 261)

The vital perception that one needs to attend to the roots or core issues underlying an ailment is central to two of my other primary healing techniques, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)  and Reiki . As taught by Gary Craig and others, there is a strong emphasis in EFT on getting at the core aspects or issues underlying or exacerbating any presenting problem, even physical problems that do not appear to have any psychogenic nature.  In the case of Reiki , Western practitioners recently learned of materials in Japan written by Dr. Usui in which he urged his students to seek and address the psychogenic roots of ailments rather than simply using Reiki to remove the symptoms.


Peak Well-Being for Horse & Rider

  • ACUPRESSURE (EFT) & REIKI:
        Physical, Mental and Behavioral Concerns
  • COMMUNICATION & RELATIONSHIP SKILLS
  • NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP
  • GROUNDWORK & ROUND PENNING  TIPS
  • CENTERED RIDING
  • EQUINE-ASSISTED ACTIVITIES:
         From Youngsters to Seniors
  • REHABILITATION OF EQUINE RESCUES




MEDIA COVERAGE OF JUDY'S WORK


EASTERN EQUERRY, SEPTEMBER 1999: "Reiki for Horses"

How It Works: Reiki ("ray-key") is the channeling and balancing of life force energy, allowing it to flow to the spot that most needs healing. Reiki helps boost a horse's energy flow, and gets it open and moving.

"Reiki," says Judy Young, a Level III Reiki Master, "is an equal opportunity modality." Young specializes in teaching children this ancient art of hands-on healing at her Wildfire Farm in Hampton Falls, NH. She says Reiki is also easy to learn, noninvasive and requires no particular belief system on the part of the practitioner It also has the advantage of benefiting both the giver and the receiver.

Benefits to the Horse: All physical ailments have spiritual and mental ramifications, even in horses. Reiki heals on all these levels. It is also complementary to other forms of treatment, even traditional veterinary medicine. (Many hospitals now make Reiki available to human patients!)

Since Reiki heals on all levels, it is especially useful for past emotional traumas and entrenched behavioral problems. It centers and calms the horse, and allows him to participate in his own healing process. Wildfire Farm has had success in facilitating healing in a wide range of problems in horses: arthritis, chronic diarrhea, lameness, kicking, rolling under saddle, etc.

What's Involved: Depending upon the horse and the situation, Reiki can be either hands-on, hands-off, and can work at over a distance. Often, a practitioner will start a session by laying his or her hands on the horse. Some will keep their hands off the horse completely - by a few inches or a few feet - to help with healing. Distance Reiki is just that, Reiki healing energy sent from across the barn, across town, or across the country.

Cost: The cost of Reiki treatment will vary, but is generally very reasonable. (Judy Young charges $40/hour, with discounts for multiple sessions).

Pros: Reiki Levels I and II are easy to learn and practice. Courses, called "attunements," are becoming readily available and are also reasonably priced. A weekend course can teach you enough to begin working with your own horses, or on yourself.

Cons: Judy Young states that "Reiki is observational and that veterinary medicine is diagnostic." This is sometimes unnerving for owners, who may feel that "nothing happened" during their horse's treatment. Somehow, a shot or a pill is more reassuring, even if it has no greater effect.

Resources:
Books: Essential Reiki: A Complete Guide to an Ancient Healing Art, Diane Stein.
Website: www.reiki.org (International Center for Reiki Training, or (800)332- 8122)
Practitioners/Teachers: Judy Young, Wildfire Farm (603)926-7476, Gentle Currents (603)430-9766.

The Sonoita Weekly Bulletin:  "LOCAL HORSEWOMAN RECEIVES ACCLAIM FOR COMMUNICATING"

The work of an Elgin horsewoman was highlighted in the current issue of Tucson's Arizona Choices: Health, Wellness and the Environment.

Judy Young, PhD., wrote the magazine's lead article, "Intuitive Communication with Animals: Reclaiming Our Kinship with All Life." She was pictured with her closest equine friend, Alex, who has been with her for more than 20 years as a companion and a partner in offering equine-assisted activities such as therapeutic riding.

As director of Thunderhorse Equine and Nature Center, Young has been offering monthly clinics in equine communication at her 20-acre ranch at the foothills of the Mustang Mountains in Elgin. The center is a successor to Wildfire Farm Holistic Services, a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational and charitable organization, which operated from 1994-2004 in New Hampshire to promote the healthy development of children and youth through the use of horses and other animals.

Young's article is her first attempt to teach communication with animals in a written format for the wider public.In April 2003 her work with animals, children and families was featured on WMUR TV's New Hampshire Chronicle, which called her "The Granite State's Dr. Dolittle."

The following year she and her horses, llamas, goats, dogs and cats moved to Elgin, and her work in using animals to promote well-being was featured on Access Tucson TV. In early 2006, The Green Valley News and Sun wrote a story about her teaching and its applications.

Young sees animal communication skills as a critical component of a number of practical applications, such as modifying unwanted animal behaviors and facilitating the benefits horses and other animals can provide to humans on a physical, mental and emotional level.

She offers a formal program and certification in "Ecotherapy," a field long recently broadened to encompass the value of animals and nature in general in promoting health and well being.

Young's current article on how to communicate with horses and other animals can be read online at

www.arizonachoices.com/backissues.html  or   http://www.arizonachoices.com/journal/AZCHDec06web.pdf




GREEN VALLEY NEWS & SUN, SUNDAY, MAY 14, 2006: "Talked to Your Animals Lately?"
By Mike Touzeau

People love their pets, but it’s likely that most wouldn’t admit they could carry on two-way conversations with them.

Judith Young, Ph.D., holistic animal communicator and healer, undeterred by what she acknowledges is understandable skepticism, led 10 participants through a workshop at Equine Voices Rescue & Sanctuary at Jumpin’ Jack Ranch in Elephant Head Saturday, May 6.

The workshop was billed by the ranch an opportunity to “learn how to communicate with your beloved animal friends for information gathering, behavior modification, healing, and spiritual communication.”

Workshop members were encouraged to share what they longed to hear from their pets, and were given detailed instructions as to how to develop a dialogue with the animals they cherish each day, and even those who have passed on.

“You tune into the animal’s spirit, said Young, a Reiki Master-Teacher who was once dubbed New Hampshire’s Dr. Dolittle, and who directed a nonprofit organization there dedicated to helping children form a close connection with animals.

With degrees from Vassar, Brown and Brandeis universities, the former college professor and mom was living the typical American family life when she discovered animal-assisted therapy and, skeptical herself, was nevertheless able to effect a huge adjustment in her horse’s behavior through an experience she described simply as, “I saw a change and acted on it.”

“I wanted evidence, just like everyone else,” she said, explaining how she was able to get her horse to stop kicking one of her dogs.

She began studying integrative healing techniques for both animals and people, which eventually led her to develop Wildfire Farm Holistic Children’s Services, where she offered riding lessons and camps in an effort to “promote the healthy development of children and youth through the use of animals and nature, “ as her website described the organization.

After ten years directing that organization, she moved her animals to Mountain Thunder Ranch in Elgin, developing Thunderhorse Healing Arts, where she now is immersed in a variety of holistic animal communication and healing systems that she believes will help animal lovers from all walks of life better appreciate and assist their own and others’ relationships their with animal friends.

“Animals are just as complicated as people,” she tells the pet owners, some of whom brought their dogs along as well as photos of animals with behavior problems they hope can be helped through communication techniques she outlines for them.

“Animals have fewer barriers than people, though,” Young explains, as she takes them through a series of exercises, beginning with information gathering.

Even the two “crusty cowboys,” as she perceived them, finally “get it” by the second exercise, which encourages participants to try to communicate with an animal from a distance using a photo.

Information gathering utilizes methodology to determine likes and dislikes of the animal, gradually moving deeper toward asking for “information you suspect is sensitive, private, or at least partially buried,” according to the workshop directions.

Observation required

“It requires a lot of observation,” she says, as she encourages the participants to keep trying to understand how the animal spends its day.

She takes them through steps that she says will help them address a specific behavior problem, moving into exercises that delve into attempts to discover the animal’s role and purpose, communicate with its “Higher Self,” and assist him with his physical, mental, psychological or spiritual problem.”

Healing is a big part of Young’s instruction as well. She is a Master in Reiki (pronounced ray-key), which she describes as a hands-on, holistic healing method that utilizes “universal life force energy.”

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), which involves tapping on spots along the body’s electrical pathways, is another of the many healing methods that she demonstrates and uses, adding that she believes there are some afflictions vets feel are incurable that can be looked into further.

Six workshop participants remain as the afternoon session winds down with exercises to try to get them to dig for repressed information from their pets.

Some animal responses come in words, some in pictures, she explains.

One pet owner is frustrated by the fear of letting the dog loose, but can’t keep him quiet when he’s tied up.

“There has to be a negotiation,” Young says as she guides each of them toward a solution.

Each of the six becomes emotional when they talk about their connection with their beloved animals, alive or dead, and just the attempt to communicate seems to bring them closer.

Young assure them that once you get to “what the animal really wants,” you can address their ailments and behaviors. She points out the contrasting “conditioned reflex” people who believe animals are “just brutes,” and treat them that way.

Responding to those who say it’s all nonsense, Young pointed toward parents who have witnessed it with their children /e.g., in riding lessons with her horses/, acknowledging that skeptics “aren’t at that level of readiness, and I wasn’t there either.”

“You’re already doing it with your pet, though. Haven’t you noticed?”

Wrapping it up by giving participants techniques to try each day, she suggests they keep in contact with their animals.

It is Young’s third workshop at the sanctuary, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving Premarin mares and foals from slaughter.

She returns to Jumpin’ Jack Ranch for another workshop June 3, and you can check it out through her website, www.thunderhorsehealingarts.com.

Mike Touzeau is a retired educator and free-lance writer.


JUDY'S PUBLICATIONS


THE IMPORTANCE OF ANIMALS TO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE: THE EMERGING FIELD OF PET THERAPY

By Judith H. Young, Ph.D., Reiki Master


Have you ever gotten up in the morning in a grumpy mood and noticed yourself cheering up when greeted by a beloved family pet? Or been feeling especially blue and discovered your pet doing his best to console you? Throughout history human beings have received solace, healing and joy from Mother Nature and her critters. In recent years this age-old phenomenon has been given the name "pet therapy" or "animal-assisted therapy," and has been organized into formal programs to help those in need.

These programs utilize a broad variety of animals. Some, especially dogs and cats, are appropriate for settings such as nursing homes, rehabilitation hospitals, psychotherapists' offices, mental health facilities, prisons, or battered women's centers. In other instances therapy animals are available at specialized centers where those in need come to them, e.g., therapeutic horseback riding facilities, dolphin centers, farms, and animal and nature centers such as the one I have been privileged to found in New Hampshire, Wildfire Farm Holistic Children's Services. There have even been cases where wild animals have made themselves available to help human beings, for example, a dolphin named JoJo who years ago came in from the wild to the Turks & Caicos Islands to help critically ill children.

The therapy occurs on all levels--physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual. Research has shown that touching and stroking an animal lowers a person's blood pressure; a recent study of children's responses showed that just having an animal in the same room lowers stress. Among the myriad benefits of pet therapy are feelings of joy and warmth; enhanced self-esteem; relief from personal distress; motivation to reconnect with life and health; stimulation of cognitive processes and social instincts; and more generally, a mending of all our various forms of soul sickness. Not only do therapy animals bathe the people in their presence with unconditional love, but these animals also seem to sense the special needs of those who come into their path and appoint themselves as helpers. In my experience at Wildfire Farm I have seen an array of combinations and interactions--sometimes surprising but always magical-- between the children and the animals, whether a horse, llama, goat, hedgehog or hamster. Size or species does not seem to matter, but rather the special fit needed in each case.

There are several important animal-assisted therapy programs in the Tucson area, including the Pet VIP visitation program of the Humane Society of Southern Arizona (dogs, cats and other animals);TROT (Therapeutic Riding of Tucson); and Miraval Resort & Spa's Equine Experience. The therapeutic value of visiting the animals at Tucson's Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is extraordinary. And some exciting research on the benefits of equine-facilitated therapy for a number of disabilities is underway at the University of Arizona's National Integrative Medical Council.
Resources:

  1. Wildfire Farm Holistic Children's Services, Hampton Falls, NH (this has evolved into Thunderhorse Equine & Nature Center in Elgin, AZ, 520-400-3421).
  2. The JoJo Dolphin Project, Turks & Caicos
  3. The Humane Society of Southern Arizona, JoAnn Spencer
  4. Leslie Esselburn, Executive Director, Therapeutic Riding of Tucson
  5. Miraval Life in Balance Resort & Spa
  6. Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Kinney Road, Tucson
  7. National Integrative Medical Council, University of Arizona

Note: This article was written for publication in Tucson's Healthy Lifestyles, Issue Four, Summer 2002.





ECOTHERAPY: ANIMALS AND NATURE AS HEALERS AND TEACHERS

By Judith H. Young, Ph.D., Reiki Master

In recent years terms such as "animal-assisted therapy" and "green therapy" have entered into our vocabulary to denote "new" healing modalities offered situationally, e.g., in healthcare institutions or as an aspect of one-on-one counseling. I have adopted the generic word "ecotherapy" to encompass all the myriad aspects of the natural world as they have offered themselves to us for healing and teaching ever since we evolved as a life form. The term "ecotherapy" is closely related to an emerging discipline called "ecopsychology," which holds that no matter how much psychotherapeutic work we do on ourselves we will never feel fully healed or whole until we restore our sense of connection to our outer habitat; an obvious corollary of this tenet is that we must take steps to save our habitat if we want to save ourselves.

Research on the benefits of animal-assisted therapy has yielded an impressive list, including feelings of joy and warmth; enhanced self-esteem; relief from personal distress; motivation to reconnect with life and health; stimulation of cognitive processes and social instincts; reduction of stress; and more generally, mending of all our various forms of soul sickness. Research has shown that touching and stroking an animal lowers blood pressure; a recent study showed that just having an animal in the same room lowers stress. In the 1980s child psychologist David Elkin wrote a book called The Hurried Childin which he discussed the detrimental effects of over scheduling our children's lives; a number of writers see a worsening of this trend. For children and adults alike, time with animals and nature is a time of restoration, a chance to experience spontaneity, play, love, magic--a chance to just be.

A related benefit is the joy and self esteem that stem not only from animals' unconditional love, but also from learning to handle and train a variety of animals. With their unthreatening size and manner, the children at our animal and nature center were indispensable in training our llamas, including activities such as llama leading, llama tag, and llama herding from horseback. Of utter wonder is mastering the care, handling and riding of the horses. Riding at our center is a multifaceted learning and healing experience, because it entails 1) perceiving the horse and rider as a unity; 2) treating the horse with total respect and gratitude rather than as a piece of athletic apparatus; 3) pursuing patience and perseverance rather than instant gratification or entertainment; and 4) learning to overcome the fear felt by all beginner riders but most especially by those who have been through trauma. Riding is taught as a holistic experience: not only are the horse and rider encouraged to come into joyful community with each other, but the rider is asked to use his or her whole self--body, mind and spirit--in the learning process.
Caring for the animals' basic needs yields its own set of values, such as becoming grounded in the moment, experiencing the rhythms of ranch life, and fulfilling the innate need to nurture others. Feeding the animals is one of the children's favorite activities, as is practicing or observing holistic animal healing such as Reiki. And of course being with animals for any length of time exposes us to the circle of life and death, as well as to the vital importance of celebration, ceremony and grief in marking the phases of the life cycle.

Over and above the therapeutic values that occur in the ordinary course of our center's programs, an especially touching phenomenon is the healing of particular hurts and afflictions. The animals seem to sense the special needs of the people who come into their path and appoint themselves as helpers. The horses seem to know just which riders have suffered a loss of confidence from previous riding experiences; the llamas seem to know how to melt the anger or fear of people in distress; the dogs seem to know which children are grieving the loss of a family dog through divorce; and the kitties and other small animals seem to know exactly where nurturance is most needed. It's as if they are free of all need to categorize and assign labels, instead simply intuiting what is called for in each moment and generously offering it.

Trying to categorize the types of ecotherapy is itself a demanding task. Being with animals and nature is a profound, organic experience that alters our consciousness and through that very process heals and teaches. It gives us a desperately needed connection to this plane of existence and brings us home to our essential nature as spiritual beings in loving communion with the rest of creation.

Note: This article was written for publication in the New Hampshire journal Argonauta, Spring,1996.


*HIS SPIRIT ROAMS IN OUR HEARTS FOREVER

Author's note: Although I wrote the following words about Tristan, I refer to myself in the third person. I am a mere instrument for the collective of children who rode and loved this extraordinary horse over the final five years of his existence. Just as I was blessed with his exquisite spirit when I taught with him, may I now be graced with the words to express and honor the vast worth of his life. Judy Young, Spring 2001

Anyone with money can find a flashy horse to buy. But a horse that shines from the inside out is another matter. That is what Tristan came to do after coming to Wildfire Farm Children's Center in the Spring of 1996. What a mess he was on his arrival: underweight, mentally confused, depressed, and spiritually alienated. Because of chronic massive diarrhea, he had been kicked out of the barn where he had been leased as a school horse and he wasn't welcome anywhere else. Judy agreed to give him a free stall in exchange for permission to try to rehabilitate him and use him in her children's therapeutic riding program when she felt he was ready. A holistic animal communicator and healer as well as an instructor, she designed a healing program that included not only proper care on a physical level, but also Reiki sessions, counseling and unconditional love from her and the children on an emotional level. She intuitively knew that his diarrhea was a symptom of the anger that had gathered in him from his long hard life and that it could be healed by assigning him a role as "Wise Elder and Keeper of the Children."

Tristan (who in one version of Arthurian legend was the noblest of knights) rose to the occasion. Within ten days of his arrival, children in the afterschool program were riding him bareback, feeling safe and at home as a result of his broad back and quiet, loving manner. The episodes of diarrhea became less and less frequent and soon stopped completely. His body became plump and muscled, and his chestnut coat was transformed to glistening mahogany. He broadened his capabilities from Western pleasure to first level dressage and up to two-foot jumps, showing exceptional willingness and patience with children of all ages. He came to excel as a special needs children's horse, and in less than two years after coming to us was receiving major notice in the press.

Two months after Tristan's arrival, Judy was able to buy him for only $600. After his rehabilitation Judy's riding instructor offered to buy him for a great deal more than that amount despite his lack of papers and his advanced years (he was at least in his mid-twenties). But he was not for sale at any price, and would spend the rest of his days in his new home with his beloved children. He became famous for making people feel safe and empowered, and an average of thirty children and teenagers per week flourished in the presence of his unconditional love. These riders included not only mainstream kids with the stress and troubles of everyday life, but also at risk teenagers and kids of all ages with special challenges such as autism, ADD/ADHD, attachment disorder, depression, anxiety, and recovery from neglect and abuse. Judy has videotapes of Tristan teaching a boy who had suffered enormous abuse; the stunning progress of this boy over time testifies to the power of Tristan's bottomless patience and love. As we look back over the lives that Tristan touched, we find his betterment of our world to be staggering.

For several months before he died, everyone noticed that Tristan was especially joyful, even coming up with new tricks such as tossing rubber training cones around and going down on his knee while playing with Wildfire's new Premarin rescue colt (Tristan had a nose for others who had suffered in life and was quick to offer compassion and solace). Everyone at Wildfire is convinced that Tristan's increased joy near the end of his life was caused by his awareness that his time with us was coming to an end and that he had lived the last five years of his life so well, so nobly. The kids and Judy talked about that a lot, about what it must mean to be able to die with such peace of mind, and that made his passing easier to bear.

Of all the lessons that he taught us--about turning personal suffering into service, about looking beyond externals to the great heart that lies within, about day in and day out loving kindness--the lessons we learned from his passing mean the most. We learned that a life well lived is a reason for joy, and our end of the year afterschool riding show was dedicated to Tristan as a celebration of his time with us. We learned that we reap what we sow, and were not surprised at the throngs of people who came to say goodbye. We learned that he didn't really leave us: one child wrote that his spirit roams in our hearts forever (which I borrowed for my title), and another wrote that we should not stand at his grave and cry, for he is pure spirit, which did not die.

Tristan surely did not leave us the same as he found us; after knowing him we became both larger and deeper than we had been before. One eleven year old girl who is in the foster care system after suffering the worst of abuse chose the following poem to include in her tribute to Tristan's memory:
I looked at a fox, I heard her spirit sing
I opened my heart and listened, for ears hear not a thing
It was then I finally realized--why did this take so long
You see my friend and I were singing the very same song.

Good for you, Tristan. Good for you.

Biography: Judith H. Young, Ph.D., Reiki Master, is Founder and Executive Director of Wildfire Farm Holistic Children's Services, a nonprofit organization in New Hampshire dedicated to promoting the healthy development of children through the use of animals and nature. Judy is also a hands-on healer and an animal communicator, offering one-on-one sessions, instruction, and certification in integrative healing for adults, children and animals. She can be reached at 520-400-3421 or emailed at mountainthunder@fastmail.fm.

Author's note: This piece appeared in August 2002 in Volume Three of Horse Tales for the Soul, collected and published by Bonnie Marlewski-Probert (http://TheCompletePet.com).

EFT & OTHER
WELLNESS BREAKTHROUGHS


WORK WITH A MARE NAMED MARY, JUNE 1997

SYMPTOMEMOTIONAL SOURCEHEALING METHODOLOGY
I. GROINNo "pomp and circumstance" at her birth, i.e., not welcomed into the world for her own sake (vs. her racing blood lines).-Removal of the subtle energy blocks (1st. and 2nd. chakras) via Reiki and Polarity Therapy.
-Unconditional love from spiritual helpers: the Madonna (her name-sake) and "Alpha", her power animal.
II. STIFLEUnhealthy sexuality, stemming from her birth (lack of uncondi¬tional love) and the later abuse (beatings and starvation), which gave her a sense of worthless¬ness, ugliness and dirtiness.-A birth ceremony, a la John Brad-shaw's Homecoming, in the Wild-fire Farm medicine wheel, followed by Reiki II on the emotional wounds from the two types of abuse.
III. REPRO-DUCTIVE & ELIMINA-TORY SYS-TEMS"Soul murder" and spoiling of Mary's ability for joyful mating and birth, stemming from the beatings and other previous trauma.The healing will be an emanation from the healing of I and II.
IV. BELLYLack of nurturance in her own mother's belly: conception was not the latter's agenda but her owners' (to produce a race horse). The racehorse cul¬ture can be terribly abusive.1)Provision of pomp and circum-stance in the birth ceremony.
2) Enjoyment and pleasure,
includ¬ing belly laughing.
V. HIPTreatment like a dog, or work¬horse, via the beatings (includ¬ing with a stick) by a sadistic owner. Total aloneness during this period except for a chipmunk friend.The healing will be an automatic part of the umbrella of uncondition-al love. Also, letting her know she is “winsome" for her own sake, vs. what she does for people.
VI. RIGHT HIND"Soul murder", in the sense of not being allowed to kick up her heels to have fun (vs. racing), which led to apathy and an¬hedonia.The healing will be an emanation.
VII. EAR & NECKVerbal abuse.Special attention to her anhedon¬ia, especially sensory enjoyment.


N.B. Mary was healed of all her physical ailments using the methodologies shown above.  The medicine wheel birth ceremony was conducted by Judy, Mary’s humans, and some of the Wildfire Farm children, who all gave her affirmations welcoming her to the world.  Mary later needed help with some behavioral acting out of her grief over her former abuse, but this was resolved as well.                                                                                 

   












                                                              (See Judy's published accounts given below.*)