PEACE Ranch

Peace Ranch became a legal outreach of Paraklesis Inc. in 2010. At that time little was known about how horses could help improve people’s mental health. Development of equine therapy models were in their infancy. After researching different options Peace Ranch began using Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) and the Natural Lifemanship (NL) Models that both had clear professional standards, continuing education requirements, and a strong code of ethics. The Mental Health team at Peace Ranch is comprised of highly educated, licensed and certified clinicians with years of experience in both the mental health and equine fields. Our equine staff has certification in EAGALA and NL in addition to herd management and equine experience. Peace Ranch has earned the Distinguished Program Status meeting all requirements for policy, procedure, and risk/loss assessment. Additionally, the Equine Assisted Veterans Service (EAVS) program achieved Distinguished EAGALA Military Service status. EAVS was started with seed money from the Biederman Foundation in 2014 and is currently providing over 1000 hours of veteran services annually.

Peace Ranch provides the integrated experiential equine assisted psychotherapy services for people in need. The organization is a pioneer in Michigan motivated by the Founder's experience after adopting 4 children. In the USA, these services historically have only been offered in premier residential programs like the Betty Ford Addiction Centers though rarely offered by state or local agencies where resources are limited in spite of time tested positive outcomes with difficult to treat issues and treatment resistant clients.

The integrated model used at Peace Ranch is consistent with ACE's Science following a neurosequential path for the resolution of trauma driven behavior. This is an effective intervention for victims of significant trauma like Veterans with PTSD and children that have experienced abuse and/or neglect. Trauma is extremely costly for the individual’s experiencing it, the caregivers and families who are living with it, and for our communities who are paying for it. As a mission driven, nonprofit agency, PEACE Ranch has created a way to serve these vulnerable and disadvantaged populations through creative collaborative partnerships between the ranch, other service agencies and donors.

Successful Projects include
In 2013, a Memorandum of Understanding was developed between Aleda E. Lutz VAMC and PEACE Ranch, to provide equine assisted psychotherapy for Veterans. Outcome measures from reports beginning in 2013 have consistently measured veteran improvement in the range of 85%. This partnership is the only one of its kind nationally and served as the template for VA/civilian mental health partnerships.

Similar MOUs have been developed between Child & Family Services of Northwest Michigan, Northern Lakes, 13th District Court, DHHS, CentraWellness and PEACE Ranch to provide equine assisted psychotherapy to traumatized children, families and caregivers in crisis.

In addition to the reported benefits for clients, the community has saved thousands of dollars as Veterans and children have avoided hospitalization or residential treatment and are responding positively to regular maintenance services. The program at PEACE Ranch also serves educational purposes for interns from all involved agencies, universities and local first responders. PEACE Ranch has also been able to support and strengthen partnering agencies by providing EAGALA Model sessions for staff to address secondary trauma incurred by working constantly with violence and issues of life and death.

PEACE Ranch is seeking donors interested in providing sustainability for a unique collaboration founded to invest in the lives of people who have experienced the unspeakable in order to help them come to a place of peace. 100% of donated funds is used for trauma services.