Covid 19 acted as a worldwide wake up call to step up mental health services and support in all areas of life. In the first year alone global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25%, according to a scientific brief released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and this bruising affect can still be seen throughout our communities in how people handle everything from day-to-day life to the bigger issues such as grief, eating disorders, betrayal and depression (to name but a few)

Fortunately, most of us will never need to be hospitalised for mental health treatment, yet for many of us, some type of self-care treatment can be incredibly beneficial. This usually takes the form of doing something ‘therapeutic’, like yoga or mediation; reading self-help literature; or going to a counsellor or psychotherapist.

But this at times is not enough and this is where the incredible healing effect of horses comes in. Leading equine assisted psychotherapy operators Operation Centaur have designed a weekly day clinic programme running over eight weeks using horses as the core method of their delivery.
The programme consists of equine-facilitated mindfulness, psychotherapy, processing and educational work. Horses are incredible facilitators of this work and enable people usually inhibited by a clinical environment to feel much more at ease. Horses speed up a patient’s exploration and understanding because they are extremely sensitive communicators without the need of language – put simply Horses enable us to do what we have always done – get there faster.

The programme consists of equine-facilitated mindfulness, psychotherapy, processing and educational work and is delivered in the heart of Richmond Park by a team of psychotherapists and psychologists, and a herd of therapy horses.

The day clinic (10am-3pm) is a weekly group event that runs for eight weeks. Each week sees has a specific theme and each day consists of four elements: mindfulness, equine-assisted psychotherapy, processing group and psychological education.

The fee for the full programme is £2,995 Next intake for the day programme is 26th October.