This Coastal Connection is sponsored by Baths by Spicer Bros.
LINCOLN, Del. - For people going through difficult times, healing can come from unexpected places. At Courageous Hearts in Lincoln, horses are helping patients process emotions, rebuild confidence and find connections they may have thought they had lost.
For Addy Flaherty, that connection came through a horse named Sea.
Flaherty said her journey began after she discovered two lumps in her breast. What followed was nearly a year and a half of medical treatment, including two surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation.
Sea and Flaherty.
During that time, she said she often felt broken and struggled to find ways to cope with what she was going through.
That changed when she was introduced to Courageous Hearts and met Sea.
"He always comes and he always says hello. So I have somewhere that I can go, and there will be somebody that will be happy to see me," Flaherty said.
Courageous Hearts offers equine-assisted psychotherapy, a form of therapy in which counselors work with patients alongside horses to help them explore and express their emotions.
Through activities with the horses, patients are encouraged to build trust, work through difficult feelings and develop a stronger sense of self.
"It was such an experience because it opened a whole new channel for my heart to go. My heart had nowhere to go. When you're hurt that bad, it sticks. It sticks in here," Flaherty said.
For Denise Quimby she said another horse, named Seth, helped her recognize her emotions and find ways to shift her focus from pain toward positivity.
Seth and Quimby.
"He was a big part of my process. So we talked to him to see what feelings we felt. And I wrote on here I was feeling pain, but I didn't want to feel the pain. So I tried to erase it, and I did. And then I wrote on here happy because I wanted to change that around instead of having a negative. I wanted to go to a positive."
Quimby said the experience helped her open up emotionally.
"I am so elated. I am so happy. It makes me want to. I have to. Tears of joy. Tears of joy. I'm so grateful to be here and to meet him," Denise said.
For Flaherty and Quimby, the experience was about more than spending time with horses. It gave them a place to work through difficult emotions, develop trust and reconnect with themselves.
Both said they will always remember the role Sea and Seth played in their journeys.
Today, they say they are different people than when they first walked through the doors of Courageous Hearts, a change they are proud of.
