A Third Option: Post Traumatic Growth

By Pat Rothchild


Forty-two years ago, when I began my journey to become a healer of the soul, which was psychotherapy’s original mandate, I dove into a murky world that wrestled with the pathology of those most healers were unwilling to touch. There’s a big resistance among those of our culture to cozy up with crazy. That’s too bad, because we’re all a little nuts, at least sometimes.

I decided to have a look around the field to find a niche that I could dig into. I worked in an urban general hospital that had three in-patient psych units, two county out-patient mental health units and two programs for acting-out teens. I saw a wide range of ways the human mind can get off-track and not many interventions that did more than contain the problem. None were based on respecting the human who was carrying the disease. Nothing seemed to change the course of these diseases. People endured ridiculous abuse in their or their families’ efforts to cure them.

Eventually, I wound up on a committee to design a program for Vietnam-era veterans who just couldn’t seem to get themselves off the streets. When the program opened, I decided to work there. The veterans were great. I knew what they needed, at least superficially, because I asked them! Holy Moly, nobody had! They showed me that yes, profound stress changes a person. Whether those changes are empowering or debilitating has a lot to do with what happens next.

When the vets returned home, a lot of their nervous systems had been compromised by the stress of war. Though they had endured similar stressors, there seemed to be three distinct possibilities for their courses after they were home. Those who got that life was now different, and always would be, did far better than those who kept searching for their old selves. The latter group was more likely to hold onto their stress symptoms than recover.

This group had two outcomes. About half appeared to be still in the throes of war. Their dreams returned them to horrific battle scenes they had survived or moments that engendered shame or regret. They endured flashbacks, nightmares, difficulty in relationships, outsized startle reactions. It was as if their nervous systems were stuck on high alert. They were full of symptoms that were similar to those of other known mental illnesses, but the patterns of their illness was unique. Those folks would later be diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, when the term was invented about a decade-and-a-half later. The guys who managed to keep on keepin on, but didn’t let go their old, wounded selves as the Thrivers had, became symptomatic intermittently, but they were able to maintain enough function to meet most of their developmental milestones. These guys weren’t healthy, but they made do.

Enter the Dog

Then, one of my dogs needed to see the veterinarian on a work day, so I brought her along. The guys lit up with her. She thoroughly enjoyed their attentions too, even though she was feeling funky. The guys got that and treated her with exquisite tenderness.

The next day, the energy at the clinic had shifted. It wasn’t a huge change at first, but it was palpable. The guys were making more eye contact with each other and me. Curiosity about the others’ lives rose. The group discussions were more personal and lively. It was as if Ilsa, the dog, had awakened their sense of connection with Life. The guys demanded information on Ilsa’s health every morning. Eventually, I just began bringing her and her pal, Ollie, to work.

I had no idea why or how it had happened back then, but what I was seeing every day was entirely different than what I saw before Ilsa’s first encounter with the men. They started talking about what they wanted to create moving forward. They began calling each other out on inappropriate behavioral patterns, kindly, with compassion. Some got off on helping others. Others ventured further out into the world and brought back enticements for their comrades to do likewise. I noted a bit of pizzazz flowing into many of them. A whole bunch of these guys were getting better!

That was a huge deal. Psych patients were managed then, not cured. It just didn’t happen. Every psychotherapist I talked with about what I was seeing looked at me like I was nuts, until they came and saw for it for themselves. Even then, most rationalized it as an “artifact.” Frankly, that pissed me off.

I knew that I had stumbled onto something. I didn’t get why my colleagues weren’t as excited about figuring out how this was happening as I was. I mean really, how could a person dedicate her or his life to healing and not be thrilled to find something that was fun, easy and worked, especially for a huge population that had been thrown away? After a year of trying to whomp up enthusiasm and money to study it, I decided that route was a waste of time. I brought my practice home and honed my focus to whoever showed up for help.

Neurological Changes In the Presence of a Well-Loved Critter

I still don’t know how it works, but there’s no doubt in my mind that neurological changes happen when humans practice mindfulness while in the presence of a well-loved critter. They link energetically, both release tension and then, often, but not always, information passes between them. Afterwards, the human and the critter both appear to feel energized, sometimes after a good, long nap. It’s not a one-sided deal. Almost always, both the human and critter leave those encounters eager for their next.

In the late eighties, a group of psychotherapists began to look at Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which had just been given a name and a place in our Diagnostic and Statistical Manual that is our professional Bible. It became a thing for which psychotherapists could bill insurance companies for. Wow, that changed everything!

I was beginning to have deep questions about my colleagues’ motivations. Events in my personal life eclipsed work concerns for most of the nineties, so I didn’t respond to invitations to participate in those discussions. I just kept treating people. Word was out that whatever weird stuff I was doing with people out on the mountain worked. A few therapists came by to see for themselves. Within a few months, therapists became my primary client base. I got a reputation for healing burnout, which appears to be a form of vicarious PTSD. That’s the number-one occupational injury for shrinks.

The most common question I get from clients is, “How can something this much fun do any good?” My standard response was, “Happiness heals.” Sure, it’s a gross simplification, but it’s accurate. There’s all manner of data now to prove it. Hazzah! That only took forty years.

I worked with dog and cat co-facilitators for a couple of decades before one of those strange twists of fate brought me back to horses. By then the last of five magnificent co-facilitator dogs had died and all but one of the cats had passed. The horses showed me, again by accident, that they did the same things for humans, only slicker than their smaller colleagues had. Now, that fascinated me.

Throughout my career, I’ve tried to stay in the stress lane. There are all manner of things that can go sideways in human psychology. Most are categorized as thought, mood or character dysfunctions. Each category has a slew of subsections. Therapists seem to love to categorize folks. There’s some utility in this from a clinical perspective, but not enough to justify as much juice as it gets, in my opinion. Throughout most of my career, stress treatment hasn’t gotten much attention from the larger community of healers. I liked it because I found something that worked and was fun for me and my clients. What’s not to like about wandering around mountain trails and meadows with laughing people and wagging tails?

From time-to-time, clients who suffered from other issues found their way to me. I didn’t get the same results with them as I did with those who had been wounded by stress. Those who also carried serious mental illnesses, didn’t find full recovery through their work with the critters. Most discovered new levels of acceptance for the fact that they had mental health issues. That helped them to develop more effective coping strategies. They managed themselves better when their diseases flared. Most were able to avoid the use of psychotropic pharmaceuticals most of the time. This was a definite improvement, but it wasn’t anything like what I saw with those who were contending with outsized, chronic stress reactions. Most of those folks wound up far better off permanently after working with the critters.

I certainly was not the Lone Ranger in finding that a bunch of my stress patients improved. Most do, if they have a good support system that can help them reframe their traumatic event and move on. The trouble is, that’s tough to find, especially if you’re super stressed.

Remember, most people in our culture, including psychotherapists, appear to instinctively hide from crazy, whether it be their own or others’. Think about it. What’s the one thing people say most often when they want to invalidate someone? “They’re crazy!” Social ostracism can be deadly. There are few more debilitating punishments for a social creature.

Joy Before Pathology

Later in the nineties, another group of psychotherapists decided to look at joy. They were interested in finding what made people happier and more functional, instead of what broke them. That was an exciting moment in our profession.

If I were a horse person looking for a psychotherapist to work with, I’d look among them first. From my perspective, they’re on the right track. The field attracts people who appear to be less controlling and rule bound than those who look at their patients as bags of pathology. That gives them more options. They’re also a lot more fun to hang out with. Your horses will probably be more comfortable with them too. Mine were.

That group decided to look at why some highly-stressed people thrive. A lot of folks who experience profound stressors appear to use the experience to propel themselves into their best version. The joy gang discovered a few factors that appear to account for why some thrive, others manage to hang onto a semblance of normalcy, but their lives are filled with struggle and others go off the deep end and never resurface.

Today’s Global Stresses – Change or Die

Let’s unpack this a bit. Settle in. I’m going to take you for a mind ride that I hope will whomp up a conversation, at least within our own minds to start, about envisioning what may be possible for those willing and able to step into the world-wide stress of the moment, which appears to be flirting with its crescendo. That stress is tied into the sixth great extinction spasm our planet has, thus far, encountered. People of all political and spiritual persuasions are experiencing huge stress now. Everyone appears to be shuddering under the weight of this moment.

When people must contend with profound stress that they lack the power to change, their minds can tilt into dangerous territories. The amygdala is a little mechanism deep within our brains that modulates emotion. Prolonged and/or profound stress makes it hypersensitive. This appears to be why so many who suffer from PTSD have issues with explosive or deadened emotionality. It looks to me like making a neurological connection with another mammal while in a state of Mindfulness modulates this hypersensitivity. When we do this, our minds and bodies relax. PTSD symptoms tend to go into retreat. The person carrying the wounds appear to dump their hyper-arousal. Their other symptoms begin to break up too. They sleep better and laugh easier. They share having more interest in reaching toward others. Their curiosity is enlivened. They begin to look like they’ve reclaimed their agency over their own lives and found the energy to live them.

There is a path to not just heal this dysfunction, that’s been around as long as we have. Stress can lead us to tremendous personal and collective growth, when we engage it properly. There is no better set of coping mechanisms for stress available than those hiding out in disused portions of our own nervous systems. They’re function is to boost us over big humps in our personal and collective paths. Our nervous systems know how to rise to these occasions. Accessing these tools requires us to let go of our old ways of thinking, processing emotion and believing.

For some, the environmental and political stressors of the moment will look like all-out war, as is currently happening in Syria and much of the Middle East. For others, it may look like economic collapse, as appears to be happening in India now, who recently recalled its currency. Still others will be confronted with despotic rulers, who are on the rise, as is common during high-stress periods. For examples of that, we can look toward Britain, the Philippines and the United States, among others. Every being on the planet is dealing with the toxic soup our corporate overlords have produced for us. All the while, our governments appear unable or unwilling to focus on the broad issues that threaten us. Stressors of these magnitudes leave us little choice but to change or die.

Profound stress, well engaged, has the power to transform us as nothing else. Clearly, nothing less than a transformation of our collective unconscious is called for now, if we are to turn the wheel of human destiny from lust for destruction (Dominion) back toward creation (reverence). This is where the horses and we can be of greatest service now.

There are a lot of psychology professionals who have looked into the phenomena for the last quarter century or so. We have been playing around with various ways of tilting the probability of Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) outcomes instead of a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following profound stressors. A lot of folks have contributed to the field from all sorts of disciplines. This is a good thing.

The Transformative Power Of Suffering

It’s shown us how varied the operant variables are. This is great because it translates into there being several viable portals through which we can access the positive power of stress to undue ways of thinking, being and doing that no longer serve us. I can’t think of anything that humanity and our whole life-support system needs more now than this. Another piece of good news is that this isn’t a new field of inquiry. All religions reference the transformative power of suffering. It shows up everywhere. Literature and sermons are littered with it. Stories are tremendously powerful potentiators of growth. Critters are too. I think that horses are our apex healers for this moment.

They and other critters can bypass our human resistance to change. Have you ever tried to talk someone out of a dysfunctional behavioral pattern? It doesn’t work. No matter how great your argument for change is, words usually just sheet off the person, like water off a raincoat. The important take-away is that we healers, educators and spiritual guides need to seat our information into the physiology of our patients, students and parishioners.

The most efficient way to accomplish this is in a state of Mindfulness. The most supportive environment I have found is out in a natural setting among well-kept critters and mindful humans. The critters I have worked with have been great at linking with clients and patients when they’re in a state of mindfulness. Something happens in that linkage that appears to dissolve the stress-related neurological changes that often prevents us from actualizing our potential. I don’t know what it is, but I know that it works.

The change/growth we’re looking for isn’t because of the stress. It appears to arise as a result of the struggles we engage in to adapt to it. In fact, growth after a traumatic event is more common than the development of PTSD. At least it used to be. From my perspective, it appears that our positive adaptive skills need reinforcement now.

I’m seeing the effects of unresolved stress everywhere since we in the States began our presidential campaign that ultimately drove Donald Trump toward the White House. It’s been a two+-year ordeal. It isn’t wearing well on a lot of folks, including me, now.

Okay, so things are looking grim. Humanity is off balance. We’re angry, frightened and confused. The unresolved PTSD folks are poised to take over the nuclear codes. This does not appear to be a good thing, unless we can engage the resultant stress to turbocharge a massive transformation. Transformations of these magnitudes start small. They tend to grow in size and speed in proportion to the degree of the initiating stressor(s). There have been none larger in our species’ history.

When Stress Induces Growth

Okay then, what tilts us toward growth instead of persistent wounds that generate further dysfunctional spirals? Spirituality that doesn’t need to be religious in character is a predictor of stress-generated growth, as are strong social and familial connections. These predictors work best when they’re well integrated into the consciousness and actions of folks before a big stress event occurs. They’re helpful afterwards too. Apparently, the presence of a spiritual path and social network don’t only prep us well for whatever Life may toss our way, they also may modulate the pathological response to stress through the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (HPA) pathway in the human brain (Ozbay 2007).

The ability to accept what cannot be changed is another great predictor of stress induced growth. People who have developed this skill have a big edge in survival situations. The official word is still out, but there’s good evidence accumulating that having an opportunity to give voice to one’s distress within a supportive, non-judgmental group is also helpful. I think that this is a finely-hewn-double-edged sword. Proceed with caution here. Revisiting old wounds sometimes just reinforces their toxicity. Sure, find ways for the person to discharge in safe, contained ways that keep looping back into positive realms. When I see a client begin this positive feedback loop themselves, I know that they’re on the way toward thriving. Group work can be super helpful, so long as it isn’t allowed to get stuck in a ‘poor us; ain’t it awful’ vibe.

I often potentiate a positive feedback loop through storytelling, if it feels like my client(s) are wallowing in their personal toxic soup. I just weave a little story that incorporates the archetypal elements of the client(s) story into the lives of characters who are easy to empathize with. It’s a simple, fun way to discharge toxic energy without generating defensive blow back onto your horses or yourself. Sometimes, Life comes up with the story by itself. Wee, that’s when I know for sure that we’ve found the ‘zone.’

What personal characteristics are predictive of growth following profound stress? Optimism, extraversion and openness to experience all weight us toward growth. This doesn’t mean introverted depressives can’t get there too. They just need to hoe their rows better than the optimistic extroverts. They need more external support to get themselves on a path toward thriving. It’s important to have others with whom we can revise our narratives around our traumas so we can find the openings we need to recreate our lives on more solid footings.

Designed to Thrive

We humans are vulnerable to missteps when we’re recovering from major stress. It’s easy to slip off Life’s balance beam during or in the aftermath of major stressors. I spent most of my 36-year professional career fishing folks out of the abyss they landed in when they slipped, then pushed them toward growth-generating experiences designed to awaken their Inner Thriver. Most did.

This sounds harder than it is. We’re designed to thrive. Every time we feel love and acceptance, have an authentically good thought about somebody else or ourselves, smell something associated with good times, laugh, pray, enter a state of Mindfulness and/or smile and hold it for more than thirty seconds, we increase our body’s immune function and decrease our inflammatory response. All manner of biochemical signaling occurs that ready our bodies, minds and spirits to thrive.

Have you ever seen someone called to horses meet one in a positive, healthy setting who wasn’t smiling for at least thirty seconds? I haven’t. That silly grin is potentiating a huge biochemical shift that’s a prerequisite for growth after trauma. Wow and yippee skippy to that! That translates into ‘happiness heals.’ Holy Moly, that’s terrific news.

Reading the history of psychotherapeutic interventions tried on the range of ways that the human mind can break, is a study in torture techniques. It’s hair-raising stuff. And, there’s a portion of the field still deep into that trajectory. It doesn’t work.

We humans figured out Post Traumatic Growth a long time ago. How so many psychotherapists missed it is a mystery to me. As a non-therapist looking to work with profound stress reactions, or stumbling into them by accident, it’s a good idea to have a good therapist available. Finding a good one can be tricky. We’re well trained to engender trust and to mask our authentic reactions.

The characteristics I look for in a good therapist include a strong reluctance to turn toward psychotropic pharmaceuticals to manage behavior, thoughts or feelings. I happily trot toward those colleagues who have educated themselves about herbal remedies for psycho-spiritual trauma, but I test out their potions before recommending them. An ability to be fully present in the moment with their clients is a fundamental requirement for a good therapist. This is easy to learn so, in my mind, initial shakiness in this realm isn’t a reason to rule out someone who may otherwise be a good candidate, unless they think that they’re too educated/important/entitled to need to. Unless you’re called to roll up your sleeves and remake that therapist from the bone marrow up, I’d leave those guys behind.

Integrating Therapists in an Equine Facilitated Environment

If you’re going to have the therapist working in sessions with clients and horses, teach them how to handle themselves around horses! This is important to the energy of the healing offer you make. Don’t make your horses contend with whatever is up with the client(s) and the shrink! That’s asking too much of them and clouds the energetic communication between everyone involved. Again, if therapists feel too important, skilled or entitled to bother learning how to engage competently with horses, send them packing or break through their trances.

Horses are great at initiating that, if your setup is such that you’re sure that you can protect them from whatever Dominion Delusion may be lurking in the therapist’s unconscious. It probably is if you’re working with clients already. Just keep an eye on any projections, negative or positive, that you may have in play with psychotherapists. That can cloud your judgment. Remember, the shrink is just another vulnerable person trying to get by, just like you. We don’t have super powers. If you get an inkling that they think that they’re better, smarter, wiser… than you, by virtue of their licenses, they’re full of it. Or, they may just be trying to cover their insecurity. Ask them about it or send them packing.

You could ask your horses to help you get them to authenticity. I’ve seen psychotherapists lay down their Dominion Delusions before horses on many occasions. It’s a beautiful sight! A therapist who has done this, will be a powerful asset.

When I work with other people’s horses, I always work with the horse and her/his handler before I bring in a client. The way I work requires Mindfulness skills on the parts of the humans involved. I teach this before clients pass through the horses’ gate. In my methodology, this step is critical. That may not be true for yours. That’s fine. Keep in mind though, Mindfulness works well for the horses. They appear to know exactly how to link consciousness with us when we’re Mindful. And, it feels wonderful for the human(s) too. I insist on taking the time to link Mindfully with horses I’m going to work with at least once. I need to experience how the horses hold and release their stress. They need to know how I do it too. It’s a fun, easy little dance I do as a warm up. It gets us all firing on the same trajectory. Horses are far more skilled at this than most folks, including me.

Being Awake and Loving: Our Only Real Defense

If thinking kind, loving thoughts boosts our physiological functioning, Mindfulness superpowers us. Our nervous systems light up. We generate new neurons which our autonomic nervous systems send in to make new linkages, often around neurological glitches that otherwise would skew thoughts and feelings into dysfunctional realms. I wouldn’t have a clue how to get people to thrive after major stressors without it. I would be at just as much of a loss without the help of critters and, sometimes, herbs. That’s the toolkit that’s seen me through a long, varied career working with stress reactions. I’ve never been complained about or sued, which is becoming rarer with each passing year for my profession. These tools have served my critter helpers, clients and Self well. I recommend them highly, but they’re not what makes or breaks our work. We are.

One of the first things I learned in my psych graduate training is that what we do doesn’t matter. How our clients experience us is what makes the difference between an effective therapist and a blowhard. If our people register us as authentically caring about them, they get better. If they don’t, they don’t get better. It’s far easier and more fun to love authentically than it is to fake it. People always know, on some level, when we’re not being authentic, as so do all critters. The good news about other critters is that they’re far less likely to tolerate inauthenticity. Most critters register that as DANGER, which is on point.

Weird, huh? When we really, truly care about each other, we heal and are healed. Life is as simple as that. Now, when all Life on earth is in flux born of our human imbalances, being awake and loving is our only real defense. This opens us so we can perceive opportunities and dangers far enough out to be useful.

There are some tricks I’ve learned along this path about taking care of oneself while loving strangers. First, nothing is personal. People who are enduring more stress than they can effectively metabolize can be as dangerous as a spooky horse in the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to help them release tension. They often say and do inconsiderate, annoying stuff. I just think of that as diagnostic. When folks are in pain, they get super self-involved, some become very controlling. This doesn’t’ have anything to do with me, so I don’t need to react. My job is to reflect love. So is yours, if you’re taking the role as either the horse handler, the therapist or both. It’s not about you, beyond your ability to hold your center Mindfully.

When I don’t know what to do next in a session, which comes up a lot, I ground and wait for the horses to show me. They always do. Once the horses, or one of them, makes the link with a client, I try to stay out of their way. I watch the horses for cues even more closely than I observe the client. From a position of Mindfulness, the horses and I are connected intimately. We can feel and show one another our next steps subtly, without drama. Energy flows, it feels enlivening. The client and horses will reflect this liveliness too.

Mitigating Stress in Equine Co-Facilitators

I like to hang out with horses in a Mindful frame of mind without an agenda after I’ve worked with them. Invariably, we help each other release tension that may have accumulated during the session for the horses, me and whoever else may be assisting. Working with stress is stressful. We need to build in ways to support ourselves and our horse partners if we want to avoid burnout. Getting moving at a good enough clip to become dewy for at least twenty minutes is necessary to metabolize the biochemical waste of stress. It’s a step that we do well to incorporate into our practices. So far as I know, it’s the only thing that works completely. This also provides a host of other physiological, intellectual and spiritual benefits. There’s always something to do around where horses live that’ll get our blood moving. Do it, and then some. Not only will you dump toxic stress metabolites, you’ll give yourself an efficient boost of energy.

When I work with critters, I watch them carefully after sessions and check in the following day to find out how they are. Almost always, the horses are supple, balanced and relaxed after sessions, though sometimes they need a good nap and/or a few bucks and a gallop first. If anything seems to be off with the horse who made the direct connection, I go back and do more release work. I feel that it’s my sacred duty to be sure any critter who helps heal humans with me is better for having had the experience. I think that’s your duty too.

If the horses show me they’re not quite right after a session, dollars-to-donuts, the client who worked with them isn’t either. I call to check in when the horses are off the next day. They’re fruitful calls. I’ve never made one that wasn’t needed and well received.

Learning to Thrive in the Wake of Stress

To recap this discussion, the human nervous system (NS) has three choices in the aftermath of profound or chronic stress.

The first group of stress reactors appear to spiral toward the drains. Their traumatic reactivity grows instead of mellowing. Each successive stress event slams them deeper into reactivity. Many can become explosive when something triggers a stress reaction. Over time, when these issues aren’t fully resolved, people often begin to harden into highly reactive, self-involved control freaks. Their empathic skills go sideways. Often, they become manipulative. They can become tough to love. That just makes the situation harder for them, because what folks in this quandary need most is love and attention. Horses work well with these folks, so long as the humans assisting them are on point.

The second group of trauma sufferers don’t thrive, but they become more resilient than they were before the stressor. They look like they’re powering through choppy waters, but they keep on keepin’ on, often with clenched fists and gritted teeth. This group does okay. They manage their lives fairly well, considering what they’ve been through. From time-to-time, when new stressors arise, they might slip off their balance beams and show up with PTSD symptoms. They’re usually fairly easy to boost back onto the beam. Sometimes those slips open a portal for them to jump over into the Thrive group. This can also happen when these folks shift from one developmental stage to the next. Interestingly, this looks like it may happen most often when people achieve their elder years. Most mental illnesses seem to lose their power over their hosts at this stage of life too. There’s a lot of good stuff that happens as we age. From my perspective, that’s the best.

In the third option, we can recognize that the stressor has changed our lives forever. There’s no going back to ‘normal’ because it’s not there anymore. The only option is to create a new life incorporating what was learned during the ordeal phase. These folks are on point. They invariably emerge from the stress stronger and more balanced, supple and relaxed. They thrive in the aftermath, often without help.

In my practice, the horses appear to do their best work when the humans involved in the sessions are skilled at entering a Mindful state at will. This is a specific neurological pattern that promotes neurogenesis in humans and appears to open communication channels between the critters and humans. This connection appears to shift the underlying neuropathology after exposure to profound stress.

Working with humans who are suffering from stress reactions without the help of Mindfulness can get messy. Rarely, though often enough to note, the messiness can escalate into danger. Narcissism and borderline personality disorders are common sequelae to PTSD. These are tough conditions to treat, particularly if the person has been in that state of mind for a while. I’ve dealt with this issue often. I wouldn’t do it without a well-practiced mindfulness strategy or critters who weren’t comfy engaging with folks. The great news is that these disorders can be readily treated in this context. Since they appear to be big contributors to what’s killing us, it behooves us to get on it.

We humans have the capacity to use stress to propel the evolution of our consciousness as individuals and as cultures. We can also be sunk by it. Stress is up now worldwide. Having folks out there who get how to potentiate the most positive outcome to stress is critical to our survival and that of our life-support system. All hands-on deck!

AUTHOR BIO: Pat Rothchild is a psychotherapist with 36 years of practice under her belt. Shifting her perspective from trainer to student in relation to her horses, cats, dogs and chickens was a hugely productive step, as was the journey from western medicine to holistic healing. She feels plants and animals are stepping up to offer us paths toward healing our Dominion Delusion – which has led to the destruction of our planet. And we should make ourselves available to learn and practice their teachings.

A Third Option: Post Traumatic Growth

27 thoughts on “A Third Option: Post Traumatic Growth

  • December 31, 2016 at 6:25 am
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    What a jewel this article! Thank you so much Pat, this one will definitely be on my favorites list and I shall read through it several times again. You have managed to address and respond to some questions/reflections I have been carrying with me for some time, and have done so with such ease; reading this feels like receiving an unexpected gift, I am so grateful for this right now, life is magic!

    Reply
  • December 31, 2016 at 11:04 am
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    Thank you, Capucine! I’m delighted that my thoughts landed in fertile ground. I’m excited about the potential that’s embedded in this historical moment. My guess/hope is that Right Now is the moment we’ve been waiting for. It’s as if the whole of humanity is face down in the mud now. We have choices. Some will opt to crawl out, stand up, rince off and figure out how to use the mud to build shelter and grow food and healing herbs for ourselves and a team/tribe/cohort of others. We will figure out ways to move beyond the imbalances that landed us in the mud in the first place.

    Yes, it’s arduous. It’s not as tough as having to muscle through the countless blocks and barriers that inevitably arise in the toxic mimics of sustainability our current cultural constructs have designed for us. They’re what got us to this moment. They will only serve to keep us stuck on a trajectory toward extinction, unless we engage the energy of the moment to propel us toward new ways of being. Together, we can do this!

    Reply
  • December 31, 2016 at 4:51 pm
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    I love everything in this post, Pat!

    I find it fascinating – all of it. But I have been curious about trauma for a long time; how it happens, what makes it stick, how it affects us, why some people appear traumatized long-term and others seem to shake it off. And how it’s all relative – each wound or trauma is weighted for each individual based on so many factors. Meanwhile, those of us lucky enough to win several lotteries and escape the majority of extreme and everyday traumas are few and far between. I have not been physically or sexually abused. I have not personally suffered racism, persecution, all that much sexism, or really all that many other isms. I haven’t been sheltered or spared by my alternatively-leaning parents, nor was my childhood smooth or orchestrated.

    I find modern life incredibly stressful, but I have been allowed and encouraged to seek alternatives. I have a broad and loving sense of spirituality and connection, I have tight and meaningful friend and family bonds, I accept what I can’t change pretty readily and I have a ton of optimism. I fit the bill! And what are the chances of that?!

    And yet, and yet…Who knows who I’d be if a) I did suffer traumas early on or b) did not find the path along which I stumble oh so curiously.

    I used to work with mentally ill low-income fellas (all had diagnoses of either schizophrenia or bipolar, these catch-all categories) and most of the time I found they made terrible sense, often much more than the “healthy” (not!) staff members, and that there but for the grace of god went I. It felt like I’d dodged so many bullets to be able to pass as “not crazy” – such is my predisposition to the sensitivities and emotional/mental movements that the so-called crazy possess. This explains so much to me – or confirms ideas that had been floating a long while.

    The fact that you are showing so explicitly that animals and mindfulness are the way through – that excites me beyond measure. I’d love to work with you to learn/develop some practices or programs as we move into the retreats and workshops we dream of hosting here. If people could come here and learn what it feels like to thrive…and leave with tools, support, and integration options…

    Reply
  • April 6, 2017 at 1:52 pm
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    Thank you Pat for really getting to the heart of equine therapy, PTSD and practitioners.

    Your thoughts on awareness and the change process we wonderful to read.

    I do equine therapy work an hour north of Melbourne, Australia and studied at the Equine Psychotherapy Institute. Your thoughts mirror so much or what we were taught and what we try hard to practice. Our training has its roots in Gestalt Psychotherapy.

    Keep up your great work.

    Reply
    • April 7, 2017 at 12:12 pm
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      Thank you, Dean. It feels great when one’s work lands! I’m delighted to know that your training used similar principles. Commerce tends to bend healing modalities into unrecognizable parodies, when the healers aren’t vigilant. It sounds like you’re still running on high-octane healing mojo. Take great care of your critters, human teammates and critters. To the extent that you manage that aspect, you’re likely to have a fun, interesting and productive career. I can’t think of a better cubby to put one’s healing mojo in.

      Reply
  • April 7, 2017 at 1:57 pm
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    thank you for a wonderful insight into so many new – old things in a different light

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    • April 8, 2017 at 8:10 am
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      Thank you! I appreciate your enthusiasm. Are you doing this work?

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    • April 19, 2017 at 9:07 am
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      You’re most welcome, Judy. I appreciate your comment. It’s great to know when my work ‘lands.’

      Reply
  • April 14, 2017 at 3:30 pm
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    Beautiful article Pat, expressing so very well, much of what I have noticed too about stress and how to change those neural pathways for stressed people. I work more with horse owners than others and have noticed the same thing. I LOVE that you keep your eye on the critturs after the session. Releasing stress in horses is a passion of mine. Clearly you’re good at that too. Does following up the client always reduce the horse being not quite right, that you have observed? i.e. Is it their way of telling you something? Or do you need to do something additional with them? If so, what? Great article!

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    • April 19, 2017 at 9:33 am
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      It’s lovely to meet you, Jenny. I apologize for having taken so long to respond. Tech issues seem to be ubiquitous in my life at the moment. Okay, I’ll admit it; it’s a chronic condition.

      I love your question. My impression is that yes, horses sometimes hold onto to stuff from clients. Yes, it appears to help the horses, once they’ve made a connection with someone, when I do my job meticulously. If a client is struggling with stuff uncovered in a session, I want to help them over that hump as fast as possible. The last thing I want is for them to create a new compensation. I want them to dive below the pain, find their power and emerge with far fewer habitual thought/behavioral snags to contend with, not new ones! One critical clinical sign that things may not be right with the client is that the horses aren’t quite right the next day.

      I have an intuitive sense that horses will, for a short period, hang onto a connection with a client if s/he is struggling afterward with the material that emerged. This sense is soft. I have no clue how valid or reliable it is. It appears to me that horses who aren’t quite right after a session improve when the kinks in clients’ energy gets grounded and massaged.

      I know with certainty that we can support the horses to release residual client mojo without helping the client to release his or hers. Horses are so here-and-now, that they rarely stay stuck in energy that isn’t consistently present in their band. My take on it is that I employed the horses as my co-facilitators. They’re far more energetically astute than me. Why wouldn’t I use any data they provide the next day? If I could do all that they do, I wouldn’t NEED their assistance in the first place. I also get that you work with horses and their owners. That’s different. The horses are absolutely at the effect of the health of their own humans 24/7.

      Reply
      • April 19, 2017 at 2:43 pm
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        Thanks Pat. 🙂 You said, “horses who aren’t quite right after a session improve when the kinks in clients’ energy gets grounded and massaged.” I’ve noticed the same in horse and their owner situations, horse behavior can change dramatically when the person makes personal growth towards peace of mind and happiness. My horse is my teacher indeed!

        You mentioned that this was a “soft” observation, but from what I’ve seen in hundreds of horse / people connections and the absolute sentience that a relaxed horse is capable of, I am not at all surprised that the horses would deliberately and thoughtfully signal to you that the client is not quite complete on that issue.

        Good luck with your health issue and your cats. 🙂

        Reply
        • April 20, 2017 at 5:44 pm
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          Thank you for your feedback, Jenny. It’s nifty to know that you’ve observed similar energetics in your work. Horses, cats, dogs and chickens are so effective at energetic linking that I often stand in awed confusion before them. It takes me longer than them to grok what’s being played out on the part of the human.

          Happily, those of us called to field, are usually good at getting the critters’ information and translating it into language our human clients understand. This is only necessary until the client learns how to make their own connection, unless there’s mental illness or a stress reaction lurking under the problematic behavior. In that case, which is almost always what’s up with those who pass through my service, I put in more time up front to make sure the client is well buffered with both information and practice so that they can learn to manage the recurring nature of their illnesses. It’s also really important to make sure that the client feels confident enough in your relationship that they can easily return for boosters when Life throws them curve balls.

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  • April 18, 2017 at 9:37 pm
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    This article really resonates with me, as do some of the comments left in response to it. I too always enjoy watching the horses de-stress after work, in fact its not so much an enjoyment but part of the relaxation process for me too. Watching them roll, kick their feet up, snatch a bit of grass, grunt and fart then settle down to graze….. I’ve also learned something about my own PTSD which I shall now refer to as PTG. Thanks for that little gem….I like to be immaculate with my words and Growth is better and more positive than Disorder.

    Another great big draw for me Pat is your spiritual approach – using Mindfulness; for me is key to healing – therapy can only go so far, it is only when it is used in conjunction with spirituality that miracles can and DO occur. I’ve seen people, hopeless cases, transformed by the combination of these two disciplines and for me this is the where horses have the power to transform disorder into growth – ( see Im using your language already)

    Those neural pathways are the root of the problem as far as I’m concerned – and Im speaking as someone who has had a traumatic life with a capital T ! I particularly liked the three definitions of PTSD sufferers and recognise that I have been a ‘thriver’ for many years, but not known how to change – now I can see , thanks to this wonderful post, that I have continually sought to return to my default settings – the old life I had before the PTS event occurred, (and which left untreated or unresolved kept on re-occurring – further embedding the trauma deeper into my own psyche – yuck). I had been coming to the conclusion that this coping mechanism might not be helping me DOH, I am a slow learner! but I was at a loss to know how to change it…. but now this article has confirmed it. Now all I need is to learn how to transform myself into my post traumatic stress recovery….

    It’s taken me years to even get a glimpse of my own faulty neural pathways – the ‘enemy’ is caged in our own minds and not until we can view our own minds from outside our own heads can we hope to make any meaningful lasting changes.

    I am now choosing to channel some different neural pathways – I took so many wrong turns as a result of my own deeply routed, wrongly directed, hard- wired neural pathways and faulty thought process , that I continually short circuited my own life.

    It wasn’t until I woke up spiritually that I woke up emotionally and then realised that I am a spiritual creature on human journey and I needed to learn a new language – the language of the heart – only then could I really start to change my neural pathways and my life.

    I’d really like to come and learn from you Pat. I need help in changing my default settings and I totally agree that age is a key factor. I am 57 years young and ready to learn…… can you help me?

    Reply
  • April 19, 2017 at 9:56 am
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    I loved reading your article…fantastic since I am a Vet with PTSD and just went through a program named Saratoga WarHorse that deals with exactly what you spoke of. I wrote three poems about my experience at their facility. Here is the first one where I experienced my profound contact with a horse named Talley!

    Talley & Me (Saratoga Warhorse)

    I can’t begin to explain what it is I feel
    I do know something happened, and I know it was real
    Here he and I stood at the gate both of us really scared
    Julie knew what she was doing when we were paired

    I remember I told him I was scared too
    I wasn’t sure what it was he would do
    Could we walk into this ring
    With him knowing I didn’t know what I was doing

    I trusted the process and let him just be
    Hoping in the end he could decide to trust me
    When he ran and kicked I knew it was what he needed to do
    I just waited, even in my fear; I waited till he was through

    Then he slowed down, licked his lips and lowered his head
    I turned away, lowered my eyes and trusted what I read
    I held out my hand to invite him in
    That is when the healing would truly begin

    His soft muzzle gently touched my hand
    I was so touched by that, I could barely stand
    This massively huge being decided to let me in too
    I cried into his neck, it was all I could do

    I don’t know what the future holds, but I will never forget
    How powerful it was to be with the horses and my fellow vets
    Bonds were created on that day
    That will forever tie us all together in a very special way

    Second chances were given to two groups of castaways
    In the hope of creating fulfilling futures in the coming days
    I honor all who took part in making this experience real
    And giving us all an opportunity to heal

    ©MSG Cindy M. Judkins
    USA, Ret
    04/13/17

    Reply
    • April 19, 2017 at 10:22 am
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      Oh my gracious, Cindy, your poem is beautiful. It certainly brought tears to my face. They were tears from a bottomless well of gratitude for how perfectly designed our life-support system is, when we humans tune into it. I’m delighted to know that you and a group of fellow Vets were able to tap into equine wisdom during your times of need. Horses are the perfect healers for what ails you AND all of us now. Their extraordinary effectiveness with suffering veterans is also a great way to get the word out among the population at large. We ALL need to rebalance if anybody is to survive the ubiquitous human imbalances that appear to be on the verge of destroying life as we know it.

      Thank you for your many services. Thank you for serving in the military. Thank you double for writing of how you’re finding yourself in the aftermath of that service. You have the power to be a beacon on the path for those with whom you shared and the many more who haven’t. Your writing is magnificent, woman!

      Reply
      • April 20, 2017 at 6:32 am
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        Thank you Pat for your kind words and for honoring my struggles. Yes you’re right if we don’t all have a way to discharge the distresses that we carry and that are constantly being created by this ever-changing world that we live then we will all perish! I am also a certified grief recovery specialist and this weekend I will be purchasing two minis that I hope not only will they help me to heal but that I can use them to do grief work with others, who are willing!

        Thank you so much for this fabulous article and for being open enough to get that there are other ways to reach people besides just talk therapy. Not that I don’t think talk therapy is important it just needs help!

        Cindy

        Reply
  • April 19, 2017 at 9:57 am
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    It’s lovely to begin to make your acquaintance, Cathy. Thank you for your thoughtful share. A lot of what you say resonates with me too. I came to work with trauma because its aftermath had a huge impact on my family of origin and me.

    Over 37 years, I’ve learned a thing or two about healing it. What I know for sure is that companion critters are astoundingly astute at healing the resultant body-mind-spirit repercussions. My take is that they’ve had to learn how in order to facilitate relationships with us that work for them too. They’ve been at it a long time. They’re great at it. One reason appears to be that they heal along lines that humans have developed few defenses for. In short, they don’t know how to stay stuck when horses, dogs, cats or chickens engage with them through mindfulness.

    I fully agree with you that engaging the spirit in any sort of recovery is critical. To fail to do that would be the rough equivalent of an M.D. examining only 2/3 of a patient’s body. Yea, there’s a lot of information available, but when we ignore a third of the PATTERN, we’re flying without our glasses. Why would we leave out critical cues?

    I would love to work with you, Cathy! I have a BIG issue though. At this time, I have no horses! I’m STILL recovering from a serious health challenge. In February, I did a weekend course to see how I would hold up. I discovered two things. First, I’m not strong enough yet to cope with being up and outside among large animals for any length of time yet. I just haven’t recovered enough stamina yet. And, at this moment, I don’t have connections through which I could borrow suitable steeds in an appropriate setting with whom to work.

    What I have unlimited access to at this juncture is two very experienced domestic cats who live in my home. I can work here with them. I also live in a world-class destination resort. Its claim to fame is its stunning natural beauty. I frequently take clients into the local state park lands, which are coastal headlands and miles of beaches. The wildlife provide ample opportunities to practice mindfulness on the fly AND get results. If you’re up for that, I’m up for you. Where would you be coming from? Another possible alternative would be for me to come to you and work with you and your critters.

    Reply
  • April 20, 2017 at 2:02 am
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    Thanks Pat, but that might prove difficult as me and my horses are in the UK but Im coming to do an internship wth Horse Warriors in May so perhaps we could get together this summer?

    Im interested in how you work without using the critters?

    Reply
    • April 20, 2017 at 6:47 pm
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      Hi Cathy:

      I agree. Working with an ocean and continent separating us is unlikely to yield optimal results. Where do the Horse Warriors do their thing? I’m located in coastal Northern California.

      About 80% of human communication is nonverbal. Much of it is also unconscious. That works when we have access to all the cues plus training and experience. The system tends to breakdown as voice, scent and somatic cues are culled from the messaging. It becomes far too easy to inadvertently step on peoples’ tender bits and not know it until their resentment has come to a rolling boil.

      To me, that just looks like a petri dish for infected communications. That’s hardly the best setting to work in. I’m contending with this sort of complication with a colleague now. What a pain-in-the-butt it is for both of us. Yuck! I’m delighted to have this lesson come in through a non-client relationship now, as I was beginning to think about offering distance-learning-healing opportunities through my practice. Though I certainly dislike having any relationship on the rocks, it’s far better that it’s not with a client! In my value system, that would be a disaster. Life seems on purpose about teaching us what we need to know, though sometimes the lessons land with a thud.

      Reply
      • April 21, 2017 at 6:57 pm
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        So often, things that seem crappy, have hidden and not so hidden gifts and I wondered if this relationship melt down was one of those things Cathy – maybe an opportunity rather than a message?

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        • April 22, 2017 at 7:01 pm
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          I agree, Jenny. There are always gifts hidden in difficulties. I think that this snafu will open a bunch of new doors that I hadn’t been looking for before. I’ve signed up to learn a few new skills that are necessary for me to accommodate to some of the changes that a period of illness brought. I’m excited about moving forward.

          I also find it enormously amusing that just as I’m preparing to launch in a new direction, the old one is enjoying a growth spurt. I’m still a little confused by what appears to be mixed messages from Life. I’ve learned to respect the cloud of confusion and discontent that arises when I’m confronted by certain behavioral patterns.

          That’s a sign for me to back up and watch. Sometimes, the next step is to process, other times withdrawal works better. When a processing invitation is met with unrecompensed demands, it’s clearly time for me to just keep walking. Why have another fight?

          Stress comes up during change and usually precipitates it. It all takes time to metabolize. The important thing is to know when it’s time to move on. That’s how to thrive.

          Reply
  • April 20, 2017 at 6:38 am
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    Pat, here is one of the other three poems that I wrote about my experience with Saratoga Warhorse and the work they are doing with veterans. Not only are they dealing with vets with PTSD but the horses they use are retired race track horses who carry their own level of distress. Part of this program is for the vets and the other part is to re-integrate and re-habilitate the horses so that they could be adopted. So it’s a win-win for both discarded groups of beings!

    I Met You (Saratoga Warhorse)

    I met you in all your glory
    Each of us had our own traumatic story
    I looked at you, you looked at me
    Both of us apprehensive and looking to flee

    I knew you were scared you kept moving your feet
    In this ring we were sent to go face to face and meet
    You didn’t trust me; I’m not sure I trusted you
    Neither of us knew exactly what to do

    You turned and ran as fast as you could in that circle of steel
    The power of your hooves hitting the ground made me want to reel
    You were so much bigger than me
    Yet I knew we had to do this if we wanted to be free

    You kicked and snorted with the fury of a wild beast
    The fear in you just had to be released
    You would never trust me as long as you were afraid
    As badly as I wanted to run, I took a deep breath and stayed

    Eventually you slowed and nodded your head
    In our silence we both knew what the other had just said
    I turned, centered myself and stood my ground
    And waited for you to come around

    I held out my arm asking you to please meet me here
    I could feel your warm breath on my hand as you slowly came near
    The softness of your muzzle told me you had made a choice
    I understood you even though you did not use your voice

    You, with all your strength and grace
    Allowed me to once again look upon your face
    The power in that moment almost took me to my knee
    For the first time in a long time, I knew someone understood me

    We let one another into our wounded hearts
    And this is where the healing starts
    The journey back to our true selves has begun
    We now have hope and the distress has not won

    ©MSG Cindy M. Judkins
    USA, Ret
    04/14/17

    Reply
  • April 20, 2017 at 7:19 pm
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    Cindy, that’s a magnificent poem. Thank you for sharing it! You’ve captured the bliss available through reciprocal healing. That’s no small feat! If I had my way, it’d show up on milk cartons that people read over their breakfast coffee every morning.

    I’m a HUGE fan of reciprocity in healing, especially when working with critter co-facilitators. Decades ago when I began this work, I lived adjacent to an 18,000-acre watershed where a lot of folks dumped their unwanted companion animals. Many found their way to our property. Being the softy I am, I began taking them in. This generated stress with my husband. Life took a couple of turns and I began using my companion critters to treat stress. Many of the rescue critters just gradually moved into the practice. As my clients began to heal through practicing Mindfulness with the critters, the rescues also healed, bonds formed. Often, ending our initial work together included a dog or cat going to a new home. It worked well for both the humans and the critters. It also provided the human clients and me a great reason to touch base regularly so I could assure myself that their relationships were still in good order. That proved to be an important benefit for all of us too.

    Reply
  • April 21, 2017 at 8:46 am
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    Thanks Pat for your feedback!

    Equine Rescue

    How could someone cast you aside
    Like the outgoing ocean tide
    And let you ride the wave of despair
    To a place where nobody cares

    You have outlived your usefulness to them
    They didn’t understand you; they didn’t see the beautiful gem
    To them now you’re an expense they can no longer afford
    You never got to feel loved and adored

    Sent to the kill pen and off to the slaughter
    No food was given to you, not even a drink of water
    Days away from your final demise
    The very thought of that brings tears to my eyes

    Then someone steps in and says, ‘Hey, wait a minute
    I see you, I know you, I actually get it’
    They can see the fear in your eyes
    You can feel the way their heart cries

    They see your value, they see the truth
    They walk you out of the slaughterhouse booth
    Outside you tremble, feet gotta move
    There is nothing now you have to prove

    With gentle hands they touch you with love
    Something you’re not sure you know much of
    They walk you around, work off some of the fear
    You walk shoulder to shoulder; it is their heart you now hear

    They take you to a place with sunshine and green fields
    There you are allowed to flourish and heal
    With others who have come before you
    They’ll show you what to do

    With love and kindness they get you ready
    Their treatment of you is consistent and steady
    Soon you will find a forever loving place to live
    With people who have tons of love to give

    ©Cindy Judkins
    04/21/17

    Reply
    • April 22, 2017 at 7:10 pm
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      Cindy, this is a magnificent poem too! I love it. Have read it to a few friends. I have to stop to dab off tears each time. You had the whole coffee shop sniffling happy tears this morning. Thank you!

      I worked with rescue animals during most of my career. There’s no better healer on the planet than critters who’ve emerged from trauma and found their wholeness. That’s as true of two-legged critters as it is of four. From what I see here, you’ll make a magnificent grief counselor with your two four-legged allies. Best wishes to you and your new team.

      Reply
    • April 22, 2017 at 1:31 am
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      You’re welcome Jenny, I’m glad you enjoyed it and that it touched you as much as it touched me to write it!

      Reply

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