Counseling Services

Play Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Traditional Counseling is a form of talk therapy, but often includes a broad spectrum of techniques and modalities. Unlike other counseling centers, Paws for Reflection Ranch offers alternative settings for traditional counseling. Many clients who opt for the traditional counseling route at the Ranch choose to have their session outside watching the horses graze, sitting under our covered porch, or strolling along the Nature Trail. Even in these sessions, all the benefits of the Ranch are available to the client. Additionally, when the weather is not conducive for outdoor sessions, there are multiple indoor spaces available for traditional counseling to ensure continuation of care. The Ranch offers a welcomed change to the hustle-bustle of everyday life. The natural environment provides an ideal place to break down challenges and quiet the mind.

We are very happy to now offer TeleHealth, or Distance Therapy, services at the Ranch. As the need has arisen for clients to continue counseling services, while still ensuring their safety in this time, we are glad to be able to rise to the challenge. Some Counselors are able to offer TeleHealth services from the Ranch, and some are offering this service remotely.

We have found that this form of Counseling service continues to meet the needs of our clients, while giving them the flexibility and security of meeting with Counselors from their own home. Paws for Reflection Ranch partners with Doxy.me and Zoom to provide these services, both of which are encrypted and HIPPA compliant platforms.

Whether you are needing to meet with a Counselor remotely during this time, or would like to receive Counseling Services through TeleHealth long term, the Ranch is able to meet your needs with qualified Counselors who are excited to be working through this new platform. Through TeleHealth we are able to provide Individual, Couples, Family and Parent Consultation Sessions. Paperwork can be completed via email, and payment can be taken through our website.

We are so happy to be able to continue providing high quality services to all our clients during this time.

Our professional therapists will help you design a counseling program that is right for you and/or your child.  Working alongside equine professionals and our animal team, sessions will be structured to help you reach your goals, to assist you on your way to optimal mental health.

* *Telehealth Services now available * *

Child centered play therapy focuses on the child's innate ability to grow and heal. It allows the child the freedom to make decisions and choices using their own natural language of play. The therapist is a facilitator tracking and processing with the child , providing an environment where the child feels safe to explore. Child centered play therapy is a means to assist the child with many things including self-esteem, independence, trauma, self-regulation, anxiety, depression, grief, social skills, and other issues they may experience in their world. They may choose to partner with one of our small animals or miniature equines, adding the elements of relationship and empathy-building to this mode of counseling.

Christian Counseling

Equine-Assisted Counseling

Equine Assisted Counseling (EAC) is a process guided by a licensed mental health professional trained to integrate the animal into the human experience to meet agreed upon clinical goals. With the assistance of an equine specialist, the therapy team offers activities, strategies, and interactions to allow the client to recognize dysfunctional behavior patterns, 
build healthy relationships, improve communication, build problem solving skills and develop coping strategies.

Horses provide a unique, real life relational experience. As social creatures craving safety and security with the herd, engaging with horses allows the client to experience relationships without judgment. Equine Assisted Counseling is an opportunity to safely explore the self and experiences past and present with the authentic response of both horse and human.

Horses are curious and social creatures whose trust in each other allows them to survive and thrive. Safety and trust are building blocks of the therapeutic relationship. No previous horse experience is necessary.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from PTSD symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Studies show that people using EMDR therapy can experience the benefits of psychotherapy more quickly that with other therapies. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body can heal from physical trauma. A study funded by HMO Kaiser Permanente found that 100% of single trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50 minute sessions. EMDR therapy is recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, World Health Organization, and Department of Defense as an effective form of treatment for trauma.

EMDR Therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, he asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist's hand as it moves back and forth in the client's field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected to the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed.

Animal-Assisted Counseling

Christian Counseling is also available at the Ranch. All of the answers to life are contained in God's Word. God provided us with this peaceful ranch setting and all of His wonderful Therapy Animals to help clients find peace, hope and healing. You can feel the Holy Spirit's presence when you first enter the Ranch. All of our other counseling program offerings can be led by a Christian Counselor.

"Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you;
I will certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand {a hand of justice, of power, of victory, of salvation}.
Isaiah 41:10

Traditional Counseling

TeleHealth

Animal assisted counseling is an integration of qualified animals into the therapy process facilitated by a licensed mental health professional.  Our therapy team assists the client in building a safe and trusting relationship with both the animal and the therapist who serve as therapeutic agents of change.  Animals provide humans with both mental and physiological benefits that contribute to a more adaptive, healthy approach to life’s most difficult challenges.