For Salamones, horses offered right therapy after 9/11- The Progress
September 7th, 2011
For Salamones, horses offered right therapy after 9/11
Posted: Friday, August 26, 2011 2:48 pm
BY LORIE RUSSO GREENSPAN EDITOR
Editor’s note: This is the first of two articles focusing on the lives of the Salamone family of North Caldwell, 10 years post 9/11 and the death of husband and father, John Salamone from the attack on the World Trade Center. The second article will appear in the Thursday. Sept. 1 edition of The Progress.
NORTH CALDWELL – In the 10 years since the terror attacks of Sept 11, 2001 killed John Salamone, his wife, MaryEllen and her three children have tried to find a way to heal.
A chance afternoon spent at a friend’s farm in New York, riding horses, gave the family their release.
The experience led Salamone to Christianna Capra, CEO of Spring Reins of Hope-Growth in Pittstown, which provides equine assisted services using horses as “teachers” and “therapists” under the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association model.
The program provides equine assisted life-skills and equine assisted psychotherapy services on a wide variety of topics and issues from corporate training to depression. Salamone had attended an open house held by Capra and fell in love with the idea of horses as therapists.
That connection prompted her to found Spring Reins of Life – Horses, Humans & Healing, in 2011 as the non-profit extension to Spring Reins of Hope-Growth, also based at High Point Equine Farm in Pittstown.
Salamone herself is no stranger to the inner-workings of non-profits.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks that killed her husband, who worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center for Cantor Fitzgerald, she served as president of Families of September 11. She was a founding member of the 4 Action Initiative, a national curriculum assisting teachers in their efforts to teach children about global terrorism, and serves on the Board of the National School Center for Crisis and Bereavement. Salamone said she is also proud of her work with the White House appointed National Commission on Children and Disasters.
“I feel like I have accomplished many of my goals and have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to help children who have suffered through trauma nationwide,” she says. “But now, 10 years later, I want to take the best of what I have learned over the years and really give back.”
Horses Become Therapists
After the horse-riding experience with her children, Salamone came to believe that “just hanging out with horses” helped to center her kids and allow them to experience a moment of peace. Soon after 9/11, all three Salamone children began to ride horses but her daughter Anna, then 3, in particular, bonded with the experience.
“The special relationship they formed with the horses became a life metaphor for them, and enabled them to realize that they had the ability to gain control and earn acceptance with the horses, something much bigger, as the events of 9/11 were in their life,” Salamone said in a press release. “While many people offered help after 9/11, the horses were their best “therapists.”
Both Salamone and Capra maintain that animal-assisted therapy has been proven to improve both physiological and emotional healing after loss and trauma.
“One size does not fit all,” Salamone stressed. “Traditional therapy modalities might not work for some people who are suffering, and others avoid seeking help because of the stigma attached to it. Animal assisted therapy with horses works, but so many people do not have access to programs that offer it.”
Spring Reins of Life was formed to provide services to those who would derive the most benefit but have the least access to services of this kind. Currently, they provide programming free of charge to bereaved children, military and their families, and at-risk youth in the New York/New Jersey region.
The undertaking is a labor of love for the whole family, who works at the farm in Pittstown and look forward to participating in the groups with bereaved kids.
“Horses helped me when my dad died; I know they can help other kids too. Maybe if they see me and how well I am doing now, they will know one day they will be OK, too,” said Anna, now 12.
The boys said they look forward to working side by side with the military.
“Men like Pat Tillman left their jobs and their families to protect us; some of them for joined the army because of 9/11. I want to work with them as our way to say thank you,” said Aidan Salamone, 14.
“Working on the farm is hard work, but I always leave feeling better than when I came”, said Alex Salamone, 16.
“The next 10 years will be different from the last,” Mrs. Salamone said. “It will be about healing, a journey my kids and I are still on. It will be rewarding to share what has helped us with others.”
For information on Spring Reins of Life visit www.springreinsoflife.org.
See the full article here.
Posted in SROL in the Media
Tags: 9/11, Bereavement, Childrens bereavement, Complicated grief, EAP, Horses and Grief, Salamone
