It was her cri de coeur on a public platform, an extreme step from a self-described very private person. But Kristen De Marco was desperate.
The Executive Director of Gateway HorseWorks took to Facebook with a lengthy post, pleading for help in finding a new farm that could house her equine-assisted therapy practice. “I decided at my kitchen table to write this kind of sobbing Facebook post, which I never do, and so many people read it and shared it and so many people stepped up and got involved and that’s how we found this.” She spread her arms toward the front of the centuries-old bank barn that is now—albeit temporarily—the headquarters for Gateway HorseWorks. Her situation remains fluid. To find the Berwyn farm, one follows the “For Sale” signs off White Horse Road.
A Revolutionary Approach to Mental Health
Equine-assisted Therapy is not as well-known on the East Coast as it is elsewhere in the country. But it is catching on! When she was growing up, De Marco rode horses, trained horses, showed horses. For her, life at the farm was the constant, the safe place, the place where she could be herself. Then life happened.
“I stepped into the fashion industry, got divorced, was asked to rehab a pony that had been mistreated,” she says. And she found, surprisingly, that the pony was helping her focus on things in her life. For instance, she remembered her passion for horses. A sliver of light illuminated her thoughts about how she might blend her love of horses into her professional life.
“I heard about how horses were being incorporated into rehabilitation,” she says. “I knew about therapeutic horseback riding and I knew about riding for pleasure, but this was really different.” She says a probation officer she knows in Chester County told her about an experience he had. “He and his wife had been on vacation to a similar program out in Arizona and he felt like ‘wow, the women I work with in reentry would really benefit from these non-traditional therapeutic approaches’.”
She started looking into it and stumbled across an organization called EAGALA, a global leader in equine-assisted therapy. EAGALA certifies practitioners, establishes and enforces standards and promotes a culture of innovation among its certified practitioners.
"I was intrigued and I went to a training on a whim, and it sounds very trite, but it was like somebody turned on all the lights, and I felt really called to this work and I got certified to do it and at the same time was leaving a marriage and had a new baby.”
So, how does it work? De Marco says that—at its core—equine-assisted therapy is a new tool in the mental health toolbox. Gateway HorseWorks clients come from social service programs, from the Salvation Army’s anti-trafficking initiative, from the juvenile justice system, from programs helping abused and homeless women. Clients work with a licensed therapist and a certified equine specialist. And a horse. It’s not in the saddle; it’s on the ground. “The really interesting thing is because there’s no riding in our programs, there’s no equipment on the horses, it’s all on the ground. The horses get to just be themselves.”
She recognizes how fortunate she has been to have grown up with horses. “You know it just felt like everything I’d known about horses all my life had been accessible to me, because of where I grew up, where I came from, and everybody looks like me in the industry; yet, the cool thing about horses is that they don’t care about any of that.”
“You don’t feel judged,” De Marco explains. “You’re not your learning disability or your record or your drug or alcohol relapse. You are just a human being and when you build that relationship with an animal you feel more worthy of connection in general.”
She says that the sheer size and calmness of the horses have a profound impact on clients. “When humans have damaged our relationships so deeply whether it’s through abuse or neglect or violence or trauma, it can be really hard to heal—to be vulnerable,” she explains. Her voice rises slightly, with emotion. “And yet with the horses, these large prey animals, for many clients they’ve only seen horses in books, and getting up next to them, they have to reconcile emotional safety, physical safety, how do I get this animal that’s so big—that could hurt me—to trust me, and who do I have to be in this relationship to make that happen? It’s powerful.”
She provides an example of how a session with a client might work. “So, a lot of time clients will come here really struggling with addiction and they’re feeling disconnected from their family,” De Marco says. “What they’re looking for when they come here is to get back to that connection.” The therapists develop a project for the client that would have him look at family connections from a different perspective. They listen to how the client describes his situation and his emotional state, and the fractures in the family that have resulted from his addiction. The project, De Marco says, might sound something like this: “We’d like you to go out here and start to build some connections and we’d like you to help get this family (of horses) back together. What does it take for them to get back together?” The client was in the pasture, and the therapists asked him to figure out how to resolve the problems in the herd of horses. “Every time that brown horse comes over, the other horses try to bite it,” he said.
The therapist asks him what might have happened to make the other horses angry with the brown horse. “Well, he must have done something really bad?” The therapist then asks the pivotal question. “So, what would it take for the rest of this family to let that one back in?”
De Marco explains that sometimes the client won’t be able to answer those questions, but the questions and the experience with the horses provoke a lot of self-reflection that eventually brings changes. “We’re working through metaphor and symbol.” She says the horses play a crucial role. “The horses are mirroring our intention and our body language. So, the horses are mirroring a lot of times what is happening with the client.” She says the therapists don’t interpret behaviors, instead they’re “inviting” the client to tell their own story through the experience.
Building Connections, Changing Perspectives
De Marco says that until one sees how deeply affecting the program can be, it might be easy to dismiss it. When she started the program in 2012, “at that time nobody had heard of this concept on the east coast, and it was like so woo-woo, but it had gained traction on the West Coast.” She says that it was a slow climb, but she recognized that there’s a need for these kinds of non-traditional programs in the community, and too often the people who need them most can’t access them.
She thinks about many of the vulnerable, desperate people who have been helped by the program, and believes that they’ve just begun to tap its potential. There was a group of young girls, survivors of sexual trauma and attempted suicide. “What would it take for you to feel safe out in the middle with the horses,” the therapists asked them. “They didn’t know the answer in that moment, but this became their work—exploring topics such as boundaries, self-respect, and making choices. The horses helped the girls realize that safety isn’t a place outside of yourself.”
“So much of my education took place on the back of the horse,” she says. “In this next chapter of my life it is meeting them on the same footing and there’s something really powerful that happens when you do that.” She says that the EAGALA model is powerful because “it’s born out of this authentic, real grounded relationship that is built on boundaries and respect and when you have that, you find and learn so much about yourself.”
She has seen how deeply people are affected by the program. And she is passionate about expanding opportunities for individuals and groups to find healing from trauma through horses. Gateway has launched a capital campaign to develop funding so they can find a permanent home. Last year, De Marco says Gateway served more than 500 clients. This year they’re expecting to exceed that number.
The organization is small, but its goals are large and important. Seeking funding, and a place for their horses, while providing critical mental health services is both demanding and fulfilling. More information is available at gatewayhorseworks.org.
Donations may be sent to Gateway HorseWorks, PO Box 1328, Malvern, PA 19355.