by Kelli Navarro, BS, ESMHL
The Shea Center provides customized services for veterans and active-duty members of the Armed Forces. These services include family reunification, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, couples groups, adaptive riding, Equine Assisted Learning, drill team, and support groups. The individuals we serve are veterans with disabilities, including post–traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and other mental health disorders. The unique partnership with the horse, combined with a dynamic outdoor environment, expert staff, and dedicated volunteers, offers an environment of learning, achievement, healing, and fun to our military community.
Our various programs focus on learning horsemanship skills as well as improving mental health. Veterans learn to identify personal stressors and improve communication with others in their day-to-day lives. Horses are extremely intuitive and naturally react to behaviors and cues. This creates awareness in the client and gives them individual tools from their equine experiences. Riding on a horse helps clients physically by increasing strength, balance, motor planning, and coordination. Cognitively, clients improve planning, judgment, memory, orientation, concepts, attention, and language. Activities focus on building strength, horsemanship skills, confidence, social interaction, self-esteem, and gaining a greater sense of independence. Teaching horsemanship and overlapping clinical therapy allows for beneficial psychosocial impacts for the veterans.
The Shea Center’s military program services remain our fastest-growing area of client services. In 2022, military services set a second consecutive record in the history of The Shea Center at 3,433 hours; 25 percent higher than the previous record in 2021. The Shea Center’s overall success is measured by the number of military participants we serve and the feedback from their mental health professionals who track positive progress in cognitive function, emotional growth, and development. Military programs are the fastest-growing area of client services, doubling the number of service hours provided over the last few years and going from 1,810 hours in 2019 to 3,433 hours in 2022. Our programs for veterans with PTSD have become highly successful at positively impacting our veterans.
Our staff raises funds annually to provide financial aid specifically for military program participants, which allows us to heavily subsidize or completely eliminate fees for service and ensure accessibility. Funds go directly to support program expenses including financial aid for all military program participants, horse care, staff, and equipment. With the increased demand for our military services, our greatest need is funding support to sustain our military programs, which directly cover program expenses, including horse care, staff, equipment, and financial aid for all program participants. To help The Shea Center programs grow, consider making a donation at SheaCenter.org/donate.
If you are interested in receiving services please email info@sheacenter.org or call (949) 240-8441.
