720-663-0846
1255 Lee Street
Lakewood, CO 80215
Walking Distance from Oak Street Lightrail Station and RTD bus stop
FINDING
Animal Assisted Therapy Ranch
Types of Therapy
We customize each program to meet unique, individual needs
Animal-assisted therapy partners people with animals as an alternative or complement to more traditional types of therapy. Animals are accepting, non-threatening and non-judgmental, making it easier for people to open up and improve mental, physical, social and emotional functioning. Because many children, teens, and adults enjoy working with animals, animal-assisted therapy can be particularly beneficial for individuals who have difficulty accessing their emotions or expressing themselves in talk therapy.
Animal Assisted
Gestalt therapy is an experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment and the therapist–client relationship. Gestalt’s basic understanding of the human being is that people can deal with their problems, especially if they become fully aware of what is happening within oneself and outside of oneself.
Gestalt
The term experiential therapy refers to different types of therapeutic interventions that get clients involved in experiencing some action, creative process, form of cooperation, or form of expression. The clients get involved in doing something and get to experience many of the actual issues that affect them in the moment and then can reflect on them.
Because there are a number of different experiential therapy techniques, including animal assisted therapy, play therapy, and nature therapy, these techniques offer quite a bit of variability.
Experiential
Neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life, is the foundation for Interpersonal Neurobiology. Somatic and mindfulness-based techniques help clients build self-awareness, self-regulation, and freedom from rigidity and chaos, which are qualities at the root of mental, emotional, social and spiritual distress
Interpersonal Neurobiology
Play therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach mostly used to help children ages 3 to 12 explore their lives and freely express repressed thoughts and emotions through play.
Play therapy differs from regular play in that the therapist helps children to address and resolve their own problems. Play therapy builds on the natural way that children learn about themselves and their relationships. Through play therapy, children learn to communicate with others, express feelings, modify behavior, develop problem-solving skills, and learn a variety of ways of relating to others. Play provides a safe psychological distance from their problems and allows expression of thoughts and feelings appropriate to their development
Play Therapy
Jon Kabat-Zinn (2005), the leading pioneer of mindfulness in health care, has defined mindfulness as “open-hearted, moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness.”
Mindfulness focuses our attention on the task at hand. When we’re mindful, our attention is not focused in the past or future, and we are not rejecting or clinging to what is occurring at the moment. We are present in an open-hearted way. Fortunately, it is a skill that can be cultivated by anyone. Coming from a mindfulness perspective we’re not seeking a life free of pain, but rather greater emotional freedom through a mindful, accepting, compassionate relationship to our inevitable difficulties.
Mindfulness
Trauma informed psychotherapy is based on principles designed to address the consequences of trauma in the individual and to facilitate healing. Understanding the impact of trauma on the brain is the first principle of trauma-informed approaches. This gives us a new lens through which to interpret and respond to the challenges characteristic of individuals who suffer the effects of trauma. There are profound parallels between the brain functioning of horses and of humans who live in a state of alarm. Because of this, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy naturally complements trauma-informed approaches.