Our Approach
Heartfelt Farm is a place where your child will be supported in nurturing connections to themself, others and the natural world. Your child will be immersed in a well-contained setting, surrounded by the beauty and slow pace of the Oldfield Valley (W̱SÁNEĆ Territory). They will be accompanied and supported by the calm and gentle creatures who call this place home.
Heartfelt Therapy provides a trauma informed, developmentally appropriate, and culturally sensitive approach to support your child in their natural processes of healing, growth, and becoming. We do this by working with you and your child to curate an individualized treatment plan unique to your child and their needs. Each session within this treatment plan will offer an opportunity to settle, feel safe and explore new possibilities and outcomes. This plan may include restorative and evidence-based modalities such as Art Therapy, Expressive Play Therapy, Equine Facilitated Wellness, Animal Assisted Therapy, Land-Based Interventions, and Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy & Complex Trauma.
Whether your child is participating in our individual or group (Leadership, Social Skills, and Emotional Regulation offerings) mental-health and wellness sessions, we will support your child in their natural process of returning to their truest sense of self. (Scroll down to learn more).
What makes us different?
At Heartfelt Farm we provide opportunities to step out of traditional talk therapy and the
clinical setting to engage children in the language that makes most sense to their growing minds, that of Expressive Play, Symbol and Metaphor. Through experiential learning, curiosity and wonder your child will be given the opportunity to utilize modalities that make it easier for the child to be with, express, make meaning of and integrate what has been so hard to walk with.
Through our approach, we offer your child the opportunity to take the time to settle into the farm and experience something they may not otherwise encounter in their day-to-day lives. In our approach we create opportunities to safely interrupt long held patterns of functioning, create new neural pathways and opportunities to therefore choose different responses and develop new behaviors and outcomes.
Animals as Co-Facilitators
It is often easier for children to share their process with our gentle and trustworthy animal-helpers than to other humans. Your child will be given opportunities to understand that we are more alike than different to our animal friends and that we can learn to become “good creatures”. We will facilitate meaningful and safe encounters between your child and the gentle creatures who call this little sanctuary home.
A Place of Respite
Heartfelt Farm is a sanctuary and place of respite for all. Our qualified practitioners work daily with children and youth who struggle with an assortment of challenges such as:
Complex Trauma, Traumatic Stress, Grief and Loss, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Divorce & changes in the family system, Bullying, Eating Disorders, Sexual Abuse, Low Self-Esteem & Poor Self-Concept, Social struggles, Body Dysmorphia, Selective Mutism, & more.
Inclusivity & Awareness
We offer our services to children and youth from all walks of life, and work extensively with children from Indigenous, LGBTQ and BIPOC families. We strive to create a child-centered culture of caring, acceptance, trust and enjoyment. We offer a nurturing environment in a natural setting which moves at the child’s pace and creates openings for children to deepen connection to themselves, others, and the natural world.
