This past couple of weeks I’ve been away taking an Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling course at Healing Hooves in Alberta. Healing Hooves specializes in Equine Facilitated Mental Health can be very effective for people who are not able, or do not want to, sit in an office and talk. Horses and other animals often provide the initial motivation, helping to overcome the initial fears, and to build the bridge to a relationship with the counselor. They also help to foster long term motivation and commitment to the therapeutic process. I plan to get qualified in the counseling psychology field and utilize the Animal Assisted Therapy in my practice.
On my way back home, I was lucky enough to see a host of wildlife, some of which I had not seen in quite a few years. All together I saw 5 black bears, two big horn sheep, three elk, two grizzly mama’s with cubs, several deer, a moose, coyotes, foxes and a marmot. The black bears were too quick to catch photos of and several of the other critters were too far away for my camera to be of use (I do not own a zoom lens, yet!). However, I did manage to get close enough to a mama grizzly and her curious cub, a marmot, and also took some shots from the hill on the way into the valley and the valley floor:
Young grizzly mama and her cub eating clover.
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- Young grizzly mama and her cub eating clover.
Howling Duck Ranch 