WMBCTV: Healing Beyond Hospital Walls - Equine Therapy Offers Cancer Patients a New Path to Recovery

It’s not your typical therapy session. No hospital walls. No sterile lights. Just open skies and a quiet path to healing. Tucked away in the serene hills of Saddle River sits Villa Marie Claire - part hospice, part haven - and now, home to healing of a different kind using equine-assisted therapy. This brand-new equine therapy program is designed specifically for those affected by cancer, whether current patients, survivors, family members or friends.

“We’re hosting a program through the cancer support community program which is run through Holy Name Hospital over in Teaneck, New Jersey to do equine therapy support which is a new program that we’ve been launching with the Villa Marie Claire, utilizing horses and the therapeutic modalities that come with their experiences and tying it into helping those that are going through the struggles of the cancer treatments through the cancer support program to help with building coping mechanisms that are going to allow them to better deal with whatever is they are going through,” said Patrick Maron, Administrative Director, Villa Marie Claire.

And while participants don’t ride the horses, experts say simply being with them, walking beside them, brushing them or just observing can bring about noticeable changes. According to the National Foundation for Cancer Research, equine therapy has been shown to lower cortisol levels, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as improve quality of life for those undergoing cancer treatment.

“The idea of the program really came about through being able to offer programs that are better geared for support that are more holistic and more naturalistic and so utilizing the horses and the calming, soothing effect that they offer, there is a lot of study and support that comes back to say that people can actually start to develop their own independent coping mechanisms without needing to go the route of pharmacological or any of the other support that conventional medicine really tried to offer us,” Maron said.

Officials say patients often report lowered anxiety and a restored sense of control and some patients say it’s the first time they’ve felt like themselves in a long time. The science behind equine-assisted therapy is growing and research shows horses can even synchronize their heartbeat with humans - what some say is a quiet reminder that sometimes, healing doesn’t come in a pill, but in a silent connection.

“A lot of what the horses provide is a bit of a mirroring affect so the temperament and the emotions that you convey and express even socially, even if you are unaware - the horses will pick up on that and they’ll read that and they’ll engage with you accordingly and so the observation of being able to self-reflect on how the horses are reacting to you allows for patients and families to really react on themselves,” Maron said.

Organizers say this session is just one part of a broader program that they plan to expand upon in the coming months with hopes to offer regularly scheduled equine-assisted sessions for those affected by cancer.

“At the Villa Marie Claire, we are in our infancy of really building out a robust equine therapy program and model - one that we really hope we can offer to a variety of community members and for all of it focusing on different areas where people are going through some sort of negative experience, some sort of traumatic experience in their lives - whether it be coming in to finding out your loved one is on hospice, going through a cancer diagnosis, we’ve worked with veteran populations in the past and so in the future we do hope to expand and grow this program. We are in the midst of actually being able to develop our own barn and have an independent program,” Maron said.

Whether it’s stress, fatigue or just the emotional weight of a cancer journey, officials say programs like this one are showing that healing can happen outside hospital walls.