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Supporting our Veterans and Families
military
The Path of the Horse was established as a Registered Charity (ACNC) in 2016 primarily to assist military veterans achieve better mental health. Inspired by similar work in the USA and Europe we felt we could offer something unique for Australian ex Service men and women and First Responders.
Since our inception over seven years ago, we have supported many veterans and their families. We have worked hard to build a facility in Trentham Victoria where veterans can come and get the support they need that is unlike traditional Psychology. We are very proud of the respected reputation we have earned within the veteran community for our genuine care and work. Our work is powerful, wholistic, effective, and empathetic and these elements assist our clients in making positive changes in their everyday living and better managing their lives.
We understand first hand what it's like to serve in the military and have a great awareness of emergency service workers from our years of experince working with them. You won't need to explain your work culture and what you did for a living, we get it.
Looking After our Veterans
We support military veterans and their families in better managing conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Injury, Anxiety, Depression and Moral Injury. It doesn't matter when or wher you served, wether you were deployed or not, we care for you.
We have had the privelege of working with military personel currently serving seeking better mental health. We also work with personel transitioning from the ADF to civillian life supporting them on this journey that can be daunting, we are here for you too.
We’ve taken many referrals from The Austin Repatriation Hospital (Ward 17), the Geelong Clinic, TPI Victoria, directly from RSL Sub-Branches, Open Arms, Psychiatrists, Psychologists and various ESO’s that know of the proven value of our work. We receive very limited funding for our work with veterans. It is our hope that this will change as not all traditional therapies are for everyone. Some veterans are eligible for limited sessions under a DVA approved Rehabilitation Plans.
What is will cost a Military Veteran or First Responder?
If you hold a DVA White Card or Gold card and are on a DVA pension, we never charge for our service to you or you family. If you are waged and going OK, talk to us about discounted rates, we are here to help, not make a profit. The same for First Responders on a pension too.
Largely, we get by on much needed donations to support our work and it’s tough going for us. Our valued partnership with Melbourne Legacy, Daylesford RSL and Darebin RSL has seen them able to assist us with desperately needed funding for their participants. Young Veterans, the War Widows Guild and a few RSL Sub Branches have helped us too along the way.
The Path of the Horse was established as a Registered Charity (ACNC) in 2016 primarily to assist military veterans achieve better mental health. Inspired by similar work in the USA and Europe we felt we could offer something unique for Australian ex Service men and women and First Responders.
Since our inception over seven years ago, we have supported many veterans and their families. We have worked hard to build a facility in Trentham Victoria where veterans can come and get the support they need that is unlike traditional Psychology. We are very proud of the respected reputation we have earned within the veteran community for our genuine care and work. Our work is powerful, wholistic, effective, and empathetic and these elements assist our clients in making positive changes in their everyday living and better managing their lives.
We understand first hand what it's like to serve in the military and have a great awareness of emergency service workers from our years of experince working with them. You won't need to explain your work culture and what you did for a living, we get it.
Looking After our Veterans
We support military veterans and their families in better managing conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Injury, Anxiety, Depression and Moral Injury. It doesn't matter when or wher you served, wether you were deployed or not, we care for you.
We have had the privelege of working with military personel currently serving seeking better mental health. We also work with personel transitioning from the ADF to civillian life supporting them on this journey that can be daunting, we are here for you too.
We’ve taken many referrals from The Austin Repatriation Hospital (Ward 17), the Geelong Clinic, TPI Victoria, directly from RSL Sub-Branches, Open Arms, Psychiatrists, Psychologists and various ESO’s that know of the proven value of our work. We receive very limited funding for our work with veterans. It is our hope that this will change as not all traditional therapies are for everyone. Some veterans are eligible for limited sessions under a DVA approved Rehabilitation Plans.
What is will cost a Military Veteran or First Responder?
If you hold a DVA White Card or Gold card and are on a DVA pension, we never charge for our service to you or you family. If you are waged and going OK, talk to us about discounted rates, we are here to help, not make a profit. The same for First Responders on a pension too.
Largely, we get by on much needed donations to support our work and it’s tough going for us. Our valued partnership with Melbourne Legacy, Daylesford RSL and Darebin RSL has seen them able to assist us with desperately needed funding for their participants. Young Veterans, the War Widows Guild and a few RSL Sub Branches have helped us too along the way.
Trauma, Moral Injury and other related matters
We support individuals and their needs in private sessions. These can range from a few sessions to those who have been supported by us for several years as they learn to better manage their trauma and take back their lives. We also offer a comprehensive program over several weeks that supports groups and individuals in discovering an awareness of their boundaries, feelings, and thoughts - working with this knowledge helps us to introduce ways to face future challenges, build resilience, learn so self-regulate and respond rather than react.
What we don’t do is ever judge anyone or rush into their traumatic experiences. We see ex ADF personnel who have endured trauma through their deployment/s, service-related trauma and other trauma that they have experienced in their entire life. After all, we are the sum of all our lived experiences not just our service.
We want to ensure that our veterans have the skills to self-regulate and be able to sit with their emotions and feelings and be able to bring their minds back to the here and now. Moral Injury is a significant matter for most ex ADF personnel who come to see us. This is a vital issue to address as experiences such as feeling abandoned, betrayed, unheard and a failure of the chain of command have powerful implications on our mental health. Our decisions to do something or not do something that goes to the heart of our core beliefs, can have a major impact on us. We work with people and really hear their experiences and help them develop the ability to take the power away from those events and move forward.
Avoidance, anger, anxiety, hypervigilance, depression, moral injury, neuro diversity are all things we understand and assist with. Maintaining each of our clients’ physical and emotional safety and that of our herd is always our priority.
We are not a riding school or trail riding business. The nearby Silver Brumby Trail Rides will take care of that for you.
What to expect on a visit to us?
To be made welcome, respected, never judged and to be heard and cared for.
Some of our veterans may just want to talk things through with us or discuss their thoughts, feelings, struggles and experiences. We mostly do that outdoors in the beautiful bush environment or with one of more of the horses. We never plunge in to trauma, that can wait until you are ready and want to process it more to build resilience and manage your life better. Your first session will be all about meeting us and the herd and seeing if the approach is one that feels safe and OK for you.
Our veterans and their families are invited to take part in safe activities with the horses. No previous horse experience is required, just an open mind and a willingness to encounter a new way of allowing yourself to feel. You may be invited to meet the whole herd, take time to groom a horse, participate in controlled lead work, perhaps a mounted experience or just share space with one of the herd that you feel drawn to.
Most veterans will say that they feel ‘calm’, ‘safe’, ‘present’ and being ‘in the here and now’ when with the horses. So much so that it can feel new and is so important in their recovery. We then build on these experiences teaching skills to help manage our lives better and we are very proud of our work.
We do have limited on-site accommodation available upon request and pending availability. Young Veterans and the Australian Workers Union has helped with support that will enable us to have individual accommodation units soon.
We support individuals and their needs in private sessions. These can range from a few sessions to those who have been supported by us for several years as they learn to better manage their trauma and take back their lives. We also offer a comprehensive program over several weeks that supports groups and individuals in discovering an awareness of their boundaries, feelings, and thoughts - working with this knowledge helps us to introduce ways to face future challenges, build resilience, learn so self-regulate and respond rather than react.
What we don’t do is ever judge anyone or rush into their traumatic experiences. We see ex ADF personnel who have endured trauma through their deployment/s, service-related trauma and other trauma that they have experienced in their entire life. After all, we are the sum of all our lived experiences not just our service.
We want to ensure that our veterans have the skills to self-regulate and be able to sit with their emotions and feelings and be able to bring their minds back to the here and now. Moral Injury is a significant matter for most ex ADF personnel who come to see us. This is a vital issue to address as experiences such as feeling abandoned, betrayed, unheard and a failure of the chain of command have powerful implications on our mental health. Our decisions to do something or not do something that goes to the heart of our core beliefs, can have a major impact on us. We work with people and really hear their experiences and help them develop the ability to take the power away from those events and move forward.
Avoidance, anger, anxiety, hypervigilance, depression, moral injury, neuro diversity are all things we understand and assist with. Maintaining each of our clients’ physical and emotional safety and that of our herd is always our priority.
We are not a riding school or trail riding business. The nearby Silver Brumby Trail Rides will take care of that for you.
What to expect on a visit to us?
To be made welcome, respected, never judged and to be heard and cared for.
Some of our veterans may just want to talk things through with us or discuss their thoughts, feelings, struggles and experiences. We mostly do that outdoors in the beautiful bush environment or with one of more of the horses. We never plunge in to trauma, that can wait until you are ready and want to process it more to build resilience and manage your life better. Your first session will be all about meeting us and the herd and seeing if the approach is one that feels safe and OK for you.
Our veterans and their families are invited to take part in safe activities with the horses. No previous horse experience is required, just an open mind and a willingness to encounter a new way of allowing yourself to feel. You may be invited to meet the whole herd, take time to groom a horse, participate in controlled lead work, perhaps a mounted experience or just share space with one of the herd that you feel drawn to.
Most veterans will say that they feel ‘calm’, ‘safe’, ‘present’ and being ‘in the here and now’ when with the horses. So much so that it can feel new and is so important in their recovery. We then build on these experiences teaching skills to help manage our lives better and we are very proud of our work.
We do have limited on-site accommodation available upon request and pending availability. Young Veterans and the Australian Workers Union has helped with support that will enable us to have individual accommodation units soon.
Why Horses and how do they help?
We all have many experiences in life, many are joyful and calm. Other experiences can be difficult, challenging and traumatic and it is these experiences that can affect our wellbeing in a negative manner.
Nature is an incredible resource that we can draw on to re-connect to our own truth and inner calm. We all do have an inner calm - but with some of us it is often hidden deep in ourselves. Being with horses is one of nature’s gifts that can assist us with healing and finding calm.
Horses know how to be completely at home in themselves. They know how to be in harmony with a herd and the world around them. They know how to play, be calm, be joyful and soothing to each other. Horses also know how to communicate their boundaries.
Horses don’t struggle with the critical inner voices that we live with every day – voices that say we aren’t good enough, that we have failed, that we don’t deserve. Horses do not judge, and they are wonderful teachers who help us to discover how to cultivate genuine peace, and experience a more, authentic connection with each other.
Dean Mighell is the Founder and a Director. He is a Trauma Trained Psychotherapist (Gestalt). Dean qualified and trained at the Equine Psychotherapy Institute as an Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning Practitioner. Dean is also trained in Mindfulness, Autism and ADHD (Kings College London) and other related therapy topics. Dean served with the 1st Commando Regiment and specialises in veterans.
We all have many experiences in life, many are joyful and calm. Other experiences can be difficult, challenging and traumatic and it is these experiences that can affect our wellbeing in a negative manner.
Nature is an incredible resource that we can draw on to re-connect to our own truth and inner calm. We all do have an inner calm - but with some of us it is often hidden deep in ourselves. Being with horses is one of nature’s gifts that can assist us with healing and finding calm.
Horses know how to be completely at home in themselves. They know how to be in harmony with a herd and the world around them. They know how to play, be calm, be joyful and soothing to each other. Horses also know how to communicate their boundaries.
Horses don’t struggle with the critical inner voices that we live with every day – voices that say we aren’t good enough, that we have failed, that we don’t deserve. Horses do not judge, and they are wonderful teachers who help us to discover how to cultivate genuine peace, and experience a more, authentic connection with each other.
Dean Mighell is the Founder and a Director. He is a Trauma Trained Psychotherapist (Gestalt). Dean qualified and trained at the Equine Psychotherapy Institute as an Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning Practitioner. Dean is also trained in Mindfulness, Autism and ADHD (Kings College London) and other related therapy topics. Dean served with the 1st Commando Regiment and specialises in veterans.
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