H.O.P.E Ridge Acres Inc.

H.O.P.E Ridge Acres offers mental health, counseling, and life skills building services to individuals who themselves often come from difficult and challenging backgrounds by working with horses. We believe that people are inherently creative, resourceful and whole. We embrace the unique opportunities of each individual, encouraging personal growth, discovery, and healing through the horse and human relationship.

At H.O.P.E Ridge Acres, change occurs through experiential learning- or learning by doing. The process begins by interacting with the horses, then identifying and reflecting with the human staff on what is happening between the client and horses. Through trial and error of completing a task with the horses, clients learn and practice new strategies to achieve their goals outside of the arena. Many times there is little talking, as the horses provide critical feedback that no human can offer.

As prey animals, horses are acutely aware of all we say with our non-verbal communication, as they must decide in each moment whether we are friend or foe. Horses pay the most attention to how we "feel" to them and then respond accordingly.

By playing with the horses we can learn the most valuable of all lessons: that by changing ourselves, we DO have the ability to change the world around us.

In addition to providing innovative, cutting-edge learning sessions, horse assisted counseling is useful in solving a wide variety of problems that affect people of all ages such as:

* Behavioral issues

* Communication problems

* Relationship issues

* Attention Deficit Disorder

* Depression

* Anxiety

* Substance abuse

If you have no prior horse experience then you are ideal for our program. Equine Assisted Learning, or EAL is one of the most effective forms of experiential counseling. We use interactive activities in place of traditional sessions where you 'talk' and the counselor 'listens'. You might be familiar with other types of experiential counseling including adventure or wilderness therapy such as Outward Bound, play therapy, and expressive counseling that uses art and music. People just like you are choosing these services because they are able to get better results in a shorter amount of time than the traditional counseling.