Astro Bug

WALLINGFORD, Conn. - AstroBug -- Kate Nicoll cried happy tears in a full circle moment when in collaboration with the Cove, a CT statewide nonprofit for grieving families, and Soul Friends, animal assisted therapy programs of CT, received funding to provide equine assisted psychotherapy to grieving families.  Nicoll knows the pain of grief as her first husband Fran died at the age of 37 when her children were 4 and 18 months.  She was one of the first families to be part of the Cove program and her children, now 30 and 28, still remember art projects done in the program that provided emotional support, a sense of community and helped heal their wounded hearts.  Kate later led a Cove program in New Britain and a young widow's group.   Her sorrow has been one of the greatest teachers of her life, to give back

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And now all these years later the Cove and Soul Friends unite in a grant to provide 12 families with the Horses Inspire program. Soul Friends created the First in the Country Equine assisted therapy curriculum for veteran and first responder families last year and have served over 10,000 clients, and now they will partner with horses to bring healing to families who have experienced a death.  Animals can often provide a comfort that humans sometimes can't when adults and children are grieving through touch, non-judgmental presence and attachment. One teen who participated in the equine parent-child program last year said the 6 sessions ``broke the chain of 3 or 4 generations of trauma."  Soul Friends believes that horses can provide connection, normalize responses to trauma and provide in the moment interactions for the parent-child dyad to work on collaboration, communication and connection.   http://www.soul-friends.org