NCEFT National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy

 

 

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Mental Health and Resilience

Mental Health and Resilience

Mental Health and Resilience

NCEFT offers individual and group services for children, adolescents, and adults with mental health challenges. Specialized programs for veterans, first responders, at-risk youth, and women with cancer. We also offer curated resilience retreats that promote stress relief and enhance communication and team building. Additional services may be offered depending on the needs and interests of our community. 

Current Programming:

Walk and Talk Services
Individual services
for ages 5 and up
.
Healing with the Herd
Resilience workshop for women with cancer or other chronic illnesses.
Life Review
An 8 session look-back at one’s life experiences.
Buckaroos, Steps, Strides
Resilience workshops
for youth.
Trailblazers
Resilience summer camp for youth.
Group Retreats
Curated resilience-focused team building with horses.

Research shows that being connected to the natural environment and with animals in conscious, intentional ways has significant emotional and physical benefits. Horses, in particular, are communicative animals that provide an honest reflection of human behavior—giving clients a deeper understanding of themselves. Our workshops and individual services have many benefits including helping clients decrease anxiety and depression, manage symptoms of PTSD, increase social skills and connection, lower blood pressure, and improve sleep.

Most of our programs take a team approach and include a licensed clinician, peer mentor, and equine specialist. While some Workshops may incorporate a mounted component, most utilize ground-based/unmounted interactions with horses. Mental Health and Resilience programs at NCEFT are not intended to be a stand-alone treatment for mental health disorders, but instead, are provided as an addition to traditional talk therapy. No horse experience is required to participate.

NCEFT’s Mental Health and Resilience programs may be appropriate for the supplemental treatment of:

  • Anxiety 
  • Depression 
  • Fears and social isolation
  • PTSD/trauma, including for military veterans and first responders as well as victims of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
  • ADD/ADHD 
  • Anger management
  • Family issues such as communication, marital challenges, parenting
  • Stress management
  • Relationship struggles
  • Grief and loss
NCEFT’s Mental Health and Resilience Workshops
Watch the impact of our programs for Youth

For current pricing, billing/insurance, and financial assistance information, please click here.

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NCEFT: HORSES. HOPE. HEALING.

Horses. Hope. Healing. Three simple words that, when combined, have the power to transform lives. NCEFT is centered around helping people. We are about compassion, inclusiveness, and offering the highest level of service to those in need. We do this by harnessing the unique connection between horses and humans. NCEFT is also about community. Many of our clients and families describe NCEFT as a place that feels like home with people who feel like family.

 

 

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NCEFT
880 Runnymede Road
Woodside, CA 94062-4132

P: (650) 851-2271
F: (650) 851-3480
E: info@nceft.org

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© 2022-2025 The National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy. NCEFT is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation established in 1971. Tax ID# 94-2378104.