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The job of a mental health professional at Transitioning Families is to shine a light in to areas that may be otherwise avoided or missed. Sometimes, clients arrive at Transitioning Families carrying anxiety about working with horses. The overarching goal of the Transitioning Families Therapeutic Reunification Model is to assist families in transitioning from crisis, challenge or conflict to connection and growth. Equine-assisted therapy provides a powerful tool for the treatment and management of anxiety, grounded in the theory of experiential learning and therapy. At Transitioning Families, equine-assisted therapy is a large component of treatment. At Transitioning Families, using real life experiences as well as equine therapy and other therapeutic techniques can vastly decrease the time needed for developing and problem-solving approaches to anxiety-laden responses. Individuals and families come to work with the team for assistance in moving forward in their lives, to solve problems, to reconnect with one another, or to address specific issues.

The effects of trauma and adverse stressful events on families are numerous. In this chapter, the Transitioning Families Therapeutic Reunification Model is presented as a treatment to process the trauma or major stressor as a family, to provide a pathway to recovery, to reduce and cope with stressors, and to help the family to connect in a therapeutic context. In equine-assisted mental health therapy, horses provide opportunities for projection and transference from a new perspective, and the family’s various reactions can be considered within the framework of psychodynamic therapy. Horses are viewed as colleagues and, with their help, learning is usually both remarkably efficient, given the normal short nature of intensive treatment, and is effective.