Trauma Informed Farm Animal Assisted Neurotherapy and Green Care Farming for Neurodiverse Conditions

Abstract

Farm animal assisted therapy is a novel way of interacting with neurodiverse children/adolescents, particularly those with early childhood trauma, and may help rewire brain circuits through entrainment with the gentle sounds and rhythms of a farm. This chapter will explore farm animal assisted therapy as a type of neurotherapy using a backdrop of Dream Catcher Meadows, a sanctuary for orphaned, injured and rescued farm animals whose personal stories help with bonding and attachment in neurodiverse and traumatized children and teens. Farms provide rich opportunities for language development, executive functions, sensory desensitization, skill development, fine/gross motor development, and parent-child bonding. The author provides historical and clinical perspectives to explain how farm animal assisted neurotherapy and green care farming provided within a comprehensive array of school, home, and community interventions can help neurodiverse children and teens develop a sense of community, meaning and purpose as well as adaptive functions for success in life. A range of techniques model empathy, compassion, theory of mind concepts, social communication/perception, and self-regulation through mindfulness, interspecies bonding, and entrainment. The history of Dream Catcher Meadows and case discussions from clinical practice elaborate therapeutic perspectives, augmented by session scenarios and non-clinical photographs.