Spirit Warrior – Hippotherapy for children, therapy and treatment with horses, Kiev | SPIRIT

Spirit Warrior

Spirit Warrior

The “Spirit Warrior” project is aimed at military personnel who are stationed in Kyiv on rotation or undergoing recovery after injuries.

Military personnel who have just returned from “hell” have a crisis in their psycho-emotional state caused by combat operations, experiencing the horrors of war, mourning the loss of comrades and civilians, a sense of responsibility. Many of them have symptoms of PTSD.

It is important and extremely necessary to help military personnel who have just returned from the front to recover psychologically and physically, relieve tension, improve mood, boost morale, and provide an opportunity to restore the resource state of the psyche.

This is exactly what the Spirit Warrior project’s program is designed to do. The methodology developed by the Spirit Rehabilitation Center is based on interaction with animals (horses, dogs, cats).

Animals are very sensitive and do not provide judgments or advice that can be very keenly perceived, especially when a person is traumatized, has just returned from the front, has PTSD, is preparing for combat operations again, has been injured, or simply lacks energy.

The techniques used by the center are focused on experiencing reality here and now and complete concentration on the process. This helps to relieve tension and restore the resource state of the psyche, launching the mechanism of its recovery.

For a group of 12 military personnel, group therapy sessions in hippotherapy, canistherapy, and psychotherapy are conducted. The meeting follows the following program:

The group of military personnel arrives at the Rehabilitation Center, where they are greeted by the administrator, introduced to the center’s staff and animals that will participate in the program, and told about the structure of the day. Coffee break.

The group sits in a circle and works with a psychotherapist.

Dogs and cats (4 dogs and 2 cats) are invited into the group to interact with them, and then they discuss with the psychotherapist (the psychotherapist provides certain exercises to perform).

The group moves to the stable, where they meet the horses, clean them, feed them treats under the supervision of the Hippotherapist.

The group, in groups of three, rides horses and performs various exercises while riding.

Coffee break after horseback riding.

The group sits in a circle and ends the meeting with the psychotherapist.

Currently, the Spirit Rehabilitation Center is hosting two such groups per week.

Video stories about the project

  1. Story in the TV news service on the channel “1+1”: Відео — Кінна терапія для ветеранів: як іпотерапія допомагає боротися зі стресом українським воїнам — Сторінка відео (tsn.ua)
  2. Telegram channel «Оперативний ЗСУ»: https://t.me/operativnoZSU/69325
  3. Television story of the channel «ICTV»: https://youtu.be/QKJsRKxcJjQ
  4. A television story in Edyni news: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0KjjjMeYwBkTzbk9QXpZHfDx1yAnHPbReFfiiRtFHrUJXt5SrUa2U3WDg6uX55s4Kl&id=100001049851740
  5. The story of the Separate Presidential Brigade named after Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=728049985625891
  6. The story in the morning information and cognitive project of the TV channel “Дім” “Ранок Вдома”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lyeh7nGqXWY
  7. АрміяInform about our project: Як програма Spirit Warrior допомагає в реабілітації захисників – АрміяInform (armyinform.com.ua)
  8. Reportage from National French Radio: REPORTAGE. Guerre en Ukraine : l’équithérapie “nous aide à oublier, à nous changer les idées”, confie un soldat victime de stress post-traumatique (francetvinfo.fr)
  9. Reportage from the television network Al Jazeera: Ukraine soldiers ride out war stress with animal therapy – YouTube
  10. Reportage on the TV channel CBS News: Ukrainians use horses to process trauma of war – YouTube
  11. The story is on Chinese television: 烏克蘭採取動物治療方法應對士兵心理傷害-鳳凰秀 (fengshows.com)
  12. Article on the “Tvoe Misto” media hub: https://tvoemisto.tv/exclusive/zabuty_pro_realnist_yak_u_kyievi_likuyut_viyskovyh_iz_dopomogoyu_koney_149299.html
  13. The story in “Edyny noviny”: https://youtu.be/5cir4jvWLc4