(Instagram/Healing Grounds)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Keys to Hope expanding

May 13, 2022 | 4:45 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB– Imagine going to therapy, but instead of being encased in four walls with your therapist, you are in the great outdoors with animals by your side. That picture is now reality for more people in Medicine Hat.

Keys to Hope, a counseling centre in the city is expanding. They recently got approval from Cypress County to open a nature and animal therapy program, called Healing Grounds, on Range Road 63, north of Medicine Hat and Redcliff.

The organization already offers animal therapy through the use of horses but they are hoping to add other animals like donkeys, goats, and miniature ponies into the mix.

Co-owner Deena West says there are many benefits to this kind of therapy.

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” It gives people the opportunity to just process their feelings with the animal as well, not just through talking but sometimes there is a lot of energy just passed through the animal,” she said, noting horses are highly equipped to sense feelings.

Since the pandemic, she said demand for animal and nature therapy has been strong.

” When COVID-19 first started we saw people move to the online rather than the in person and just as we are coming out of COVID-19 we are seeing alot of people feeling that isolation, being stuck in doors and even now so, wanting to venture out, and in the space such as the Healing Grounds it provides tons of space, where people can feel safer.” she said.

Aside from nature and animal therapy, they are also looking to host retreats and intensive therapy sessions in the space.

Anyone interested in animal or nature therapy is asked to contact Keys to Hope at 403-487-1607