Horses to help with mental health wellness at Bergen Equestrian Center in Leonia

While therapy dogs are well-known companions to those seeking ways to manage their mental health, the Bergen Equestrian Center is hoping to spread the word of a program with its own four-legged friends: horses.

The center has opened a dedicated space for the county’s first equine emotional wellness program called A Stable Life in Overpeck Park in Leonia. The ribbon-cutting at the program's new center, which was formerly a separate boarding building for horses at the park, on Tuesday morning was celebrated with local officials, nonprofit leaders and members of the program.

Anna Gassib, co-owner of Bergen Equestrian Center and founder of A Stable Life, started the program 12 years ago when she had a vision of combining horses and therapy.

A Stable Life is a treatment program that helps those dealing with anxiety, isolation, addiction, loss of loved ones, phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder by taking part in non-riding activities with horses as a way of working on life management skills. The therapy is dedicated to helping people of all ages, with clients as young as 12 and as old as 89.

The new dedicated space for A Stable Life program will help make sessions more private and separated from the bigger equestrian center at the park, said Gassib. Formerly, clients would take part in sessions in the main stable used by many people.

“I’m very excited,” said Gassib about the new space. “I think it’s going to allow us to expand even more and help more people from the county.”

The treatment plans are created in partnership with mental health experts and are individualized based on each person's needs, said Gassib. Those with anxiety, for example, might work on breathing exercises in the presence of a horse.

The program aims to have therapists help “integrate the feelings, thoughts and behaviors that arise as clients work with horses, and can help clients make sense of how horses respond to them and how that relates to other relationships in the client’s life.”

Over the years, the group has partnered with Columbia University, the Women’s Rights Information Center in Englewood, Bergen Family Center, Spring House, Covenant House, Bergen County Division of Family Guidance and the New Jersey Victims of Crime Agency to help those in need of their services.

The Women’s Rights Information Center of Englewood helps bring together groups of women, many whom have experienced domestic violence and trafficking, to take part in 10-week sessions, said Executive Director Lil Corcoran. Next year, Corcoran is hoping to get funding for research that equine therapy can address people with all types of mental health symptoms.

Karen Arnone, of Palisades Park, said her 15-year-old granddaughter Jazmine joined the program 18 months ago and comes once a week to help manage PTSD after her mother’s murder. Arnone said the difference the program has made in her granddaughter’s life has been “remarkable” and the program has truly become a place where she can feel safe.

“Once she started here, it was incredible,” said Arnone. “Once when we walked in, there was this one horse that was making a noise that drew her attention. Anna just said to her ‘the horse knows that you have something inside of you.’”

Arnone said the horse would later place its head on Jazmine’s shoulder, almost like it was hugging her, which became a special moment for her.

"She feels safe since it's a large animal," said Arnone. "She feels like she's in a protected space and I believe it's the way Anna does the therapy. She doesn't do textbook [therapy with Jazmine], she has talks with her, they discuss the problem and they collaborate ways to overcome that."

Those who wish to learn more about A Stable Life can visit bergenequestrian.com.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen Equestrian Center using horses to help mental health