Vanessa, founder and director of The Wild Hope in Austin, TX, knows that the most basic interactions with a horse can mean so much. Before she started the equine therapy program to help the survivors of sex trafficking, she did one-on-one mentoring with survivors. One story relates how the act of looking up while leading a horse can help a person who has faced serious trauma feel human again.
Learn more about the programs at The Wild Hope.
The Wild Hope in Austin, TX, helps the survivors of sex trafficking by facilitating healthy and collaborative relationships with mustangs. Vanessa, the program’s founder, says that mustangs are especially qualified for this type of therapy because the survivors can see shades of themselves in the stories of the horses. Seeing themselves in the horses helps the survivors build a relationship, and that relationship helps them reflect on themselves.
Vanessa says that the interactions that someone has with one of the mustangs prompts a survivor to look inside themselves and try to understand what challenges they are working to overcome.