Tiny homes, big potential

Coming Attractions

like teardrop campers and camper vans, as well as converting old vans or school buses into something they can take out on the road.

to explore their connection to nature for as long as we’ve made art. Our relationship to the natural world is constantly evolving and as we’ve seen over the last few years, it’s a fragile relationship we need to do everything we can to protect.

Clarke Reader

“With camper vans, it’s much easier to be o the grid and there are so many opportunities for travel,” Laubach said. ese small structures are great because they allow people to do many of the same things they’d do at home without investing in another vehicle.”

Regardless of if you’re looking to invest in a tiny home or camper van or just want to see what kind of vehicles people have built for themselves, there’s plenty to enlighten at the festival.

“We want people to see how livable these structures are and see them as viable living solutions,” Laubach said. “People are also encouraged to think outside the box in terms of recreation — there are more options than huge RVs.”

Tickets and information can be found at https://coloradotinyhousefestival.com/.

Pop culture HQ arrives in Denver

Fan Expo Denver provides hardcore nerds, pop culture obsessives and casual fans the opportunity to immerse themselves in all things fandom. Over years, the event has grown in scope and reputation to the point where massive celebrities like Hayden Christensen, Danny Trejo and Neve Campbell will be on hand, as will artists, cosplayers and vendors of all kinds. It’s one of the most fun weekends of the entire year and it’s back at the Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St. in Denver, from Friday, June 30 through Sunday, July 2.

Find all the details at https://fanexpohq.com/fanexpodenver/.

Walker Fine Art reforges connection with nature

Humans have found creative ways demand, the refuge for wild animals grows smaller. Meanwhile, a startling number of our animal counterparts have faded into extinction.

As someone who loves trail running, I understand the allure of wedding a love of wild places with the love of adventure and sport. But I’ve also come to see that the ip side of freedom is restraint, and Wilderness needs our restraint more than ever.

Dana Johnson is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She is a sta attorney and policy director for Wilderness Watch, a national wilderness nonpro t.

In Coalescing Connections, the latest exhibition at Walker Fine Art, 300 W. 11th Ave., No. A, in Denver, seven artists —Julie Anderson, Mark Penner Howell, Sara Sanderson, Brian Comber, Cara Enteles, Sharon Strasburg and Norman Epp— have the opportunity to explore their connection with nature.

Get all the details about the show at www.walker neart.com/coalescingconnections.

Clarke’s Concert of the Week — Zach Bryan at Red Rocks ere are few things a musician

VOLZ can do that is as powerful as taking the stage at Rocks and commanding the stage. As you can hear on last year’s excellent live recording, “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster,”Zach Bryan is just that kind of musician. e Oklahoma-based country star has made a huge name for himself in short order and he’s truly one of the most exciting artists working in the genre.

Bryan and his band will be returning to Red Rocks, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway in, Morrison, for two nights — 8 p.m. on Monday, June 26 and Tuesday, June 27. He’ll be joined by opener Jonathan Peyton. Find ticket at www.axs.com.

Clarke Reader’s column on culture appears on a weekly basis. He can be reached at Clarke.Reader@hotmail. com.

Barbara Ann (Schaub) Volz

October 7, 1936 - June 12, 2023

In Loving Memory of Barbara Ann (Schaub) Volz who was born on October 7, 1936 and entered into eternal life on June 12,2023. Barbara’s life began in Mitchell South Dakota where she graduated from Mitchell High School in 1955. She married Ron Volz (deceased) and made a loving home in Arvada Colorado where they raised their four kids and attended/involved in many school events. With her strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, she supported her kids through St. Annes church/school and Holy Family High, and was always on the sideline cheering at all the games. She loved the outdoors with many camping trips, sledding/skiing outings, and made Christmases with her kids a special event. e family built a beautiful mountain home in Winter Park Colorado where she was the chief helper and welcomed all to enjoy.

As Barbara raised her four kids with the loving grace of God, she continued to enjoy her many crafts with her friends, always a commitment to community services, helping out wherever needed with always expressing her love to strangers, friends, and family. Later in life, she moved to Fruita Colorado where she continued to be active with family and friends. Barbara is preceded by her parents Katherine (Herman Titze) and George Schaub, and sister Sharon Flesher. She leaves behind a beautiful family with her sons Mike (Cheryl) and Tim (Julie), and daughters Cathy (Peter) Golesh and Connie Volz, and 10 grandchildren; Jessica, Travis, Justin, Gregory, Marissa, Carly, and Matt, Jennifer, Jonathan, and Chelsea, along with 10 great grandchildren. www.intouch.org/about-us/ways-to-give

En lieu of owers, the family has requested donations be made in Barbara’s honor to Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries, which was a favorite ministry of hers (donation link below). A private family Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.

Therapists

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

When people think of horses, they might associate them with ranch living, horse racing or recreational riding, but horses can be therapeutic, too. erapy takes many forms, from physical to mental. Some people travel to a ranch to work with horses as part of the therapeutic process.

Equine-assisted therapy was something Arvada native Kelsey Petitt discovered while studying occupational therapy at Pima Medical Institute in Denver. Having grown up riding horses, it immediately caught her attention.

“I just, kind of, was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the coolest thing ever. I can combine my true passion of horses and really being able to help and assist participants and patients with doing therapy and reaching their functional goals while also having fun with horses and having that relationship,’” Petitt said.

Although she knew immediately that equine-assisted therapy was something she wanted to pursue, she did not do so immediately. Following her schooling and clinical internships, she quickly began working and then had her daughter.

However, in 2021 Petitt, who now lives in Brighton, decided to establish the Brighton-based Prestige erapeutic Equestrian Center, o ering an occupational therapy program that brings the four-legged companions into the practice.

“Now, I’m going on 11 years of being a therapist and so it’s taken me a little bit of time to get back to, really, what I wanted to do,” said Petitt, who also works as an occupational therapy assistant for a company called erapeutic and Rehabilitative Associates.

Her purpose, like many other therapists incorporating horses into their practice, is clear: “Transforming lives through the therapeutic power of horses.”

Bringing horses into occupational therapy

Occupational therapists help people develop skills so that they can perform day-to-day tasks such as bathing, dressing and eating, as well as techniques to aid in memory and concentration, according to the American Occupational erapy Association.

For example, occupational therapists may work on a person’s ne motor skills, such as being able to button a jacket or holding a fork, Petitt said.

ey also work on sensory integration, which she said usually comes up when working with someone who is on the autism spectrum.

Another example of work they do is helping someone with their feeding skills, such as for patients with Parkinson’s disease who experience a lot of tremors. Improving core strength may also be a focus for patients, such as for someone who struggles to put their shirt on due to a lack of strength.

“ ere’s an array of di erent settings that you can get into in the occupational therapy eld, but I think for me, the equine-assisted movement is just something that I’ve always loved,” she said. “Horses are just so therapeutic in general, for anybody.” e term “hippotherapy” refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology professionals use equine movement as a therapy tool, according to the American Hippotherapy Association.

To use hippotherapy in treatment, a person must be a licensed therapist who has completed continuing education in the inclusion of horses and equine movement, per the association. Petitt has gotten her rst level of training with the association, and she plans to continue with her training this fall.

However, Petitt explained that she does not refer to herself as a hippotherapist because hippotherapy is not its own therapy.

“We’re not hippotherapists,” she said. “Hippotherapy is utilizing the horse. All of our treatments are either occupational therapy, speech therapy or physical therapy, and we’re just using the horse as a treatment tool, basically.”

With her clients, she said she is working on all of the same therapy interventions that she would be in a therapy gym or in an outpatient program, but instead she’s now doing it by having her clients get onto a horse and incorporating the horse’s movement into the treatment.

“We work o the horse’s pelvis, so their pelvis is very similar to ours,” she said. ere are di erent planes for the horse in the way that their pelvis moves — the sagittal plane, frontal plane and transverse plane, she said.

“We’re working on that constantly, so when we have our riders on the horse, they’re also working on that. And it’s one of the most multi-dimensional movement(s) that’s rhythmic and repetitive,” she said.

For someone experiencing conditions such as limited mobility, limited core strength, cognitive delays, or sensory processing disorders, “it can really just kind of help bene t and improve all of those elements,” she said of equine-assisted therapy.

According to a study published in the international journal, Physiotherapy eory and Practice, there are “signicant positive e ects” of equine-assisted therapy on exercise tolerance, mobility, interpersonal interactions and quality of life of people with disabilities.

Another study focused on the ef- fects of equine-assisted activities and therapies for individuals on the autism spectrum and concluded that these programs “substantially improve” the social and behavioral functions of people who are on the autism spectrum.

“Communication is pretty key, too … because horses mirror us, so a lot of our participants can learn a lot more speech and communication successfully with the horses, which is really great,” she said.

Petitt has three horses she works with. e horse a client is paired with is dependent on their individual needs, she explained.

“Part of what’s so cool is because we can kind of tailor it to that participant, that patient, and kind of really work on what we need to work on with them,” she said. “ eir postural control, sensory systems, motor planning.”

In a typical therapy gym for occupational therapy, Petitt said there are tools such as a swing, a ball and a mat to use for the session. However, these do not provide the same level of sensory input and rhythmic, consistent movement that equine-assisted therapy can, which she said is great at building overall strength, control and balance.

“We can work in the therapy gym all day but the bene ts and the outcomes that we’re seeing while doing therapy on the horses are just so much more transformative and more meaningful than we can get in the gym,” she said.

Looking ahead, Petitt said she hopes to soon expand her team to include a physical therapist.

“And then I’m really hoping to hire a speech therapist as well, because riding the horses … there’s so much to do with our respiration rate when we’re riding them,” she said. “What that can do for speech language pathologists is really help with that physiological system of how we talk.”

At the Prestige erapeutic Equestrian Center, Petitt also o ers “therapeutic horseback riding,” which she explained is not a professional therapy service but is rather like a recreational sport where individuals learn riding skills. is experience can, in turn, lead to other bene ts such as helping deal with anxiety.

However, when it comes to getting professional therapy treatment for mental health conditions like coping with trauma, grief, abuse, or other challenging experiences, community members have an equinebased option — the therapists with Rocky Mountain Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, LLC.

Horses and psychotherapy

Carina Kellenberger and Dana Schultz, both licensed clinical social workers who grew up loving horses, established Rocky Mountain Equine Assisted Psychotherapy in 2013.

Schultz, who lives near Superior, and Kellenberger, who lives in Longmont, primarily practice at the Happy Dog Ranch in the Littleton area and at Medicine Horse in Boulder.

“We are licensed clinical social workers that have a trauma-specialty focus in … equine therapy,” Schultz said, explaining they do formal intakes and development clinical-based treatment plans.

ere is a di erence between equine-assisted therapy and equine-facilitated therapy, Kellenberger noted.

“When we rst started our business back in 2013, the word ‘equine-facilitated learning and psychotherapy’ did not exist, but that is the work we are doing,” Kellenberger said. “Equine-facilitated psychotherapy and learning means that the horse — the relationship with the horse is the vehicle for change.”

Under the practice of equine-facilitated psychotherapy, it is the client’s relationship and connection with the animal that is moving the sessions forward, she said.

“ e di erence between the learning and the psychotherapy are, like, a lot of the group work is mainly more learning because we’re not really diving into personal issues and we’re keeping it a little more surface level,” Kellenberger said. “But (in) the psychotherapy … we go as deep just like any o ce therapist would.”

Equine-assisted therapy is di erent because while horses are incorporated into the practice, the client’s relationship with them is not the driving force, she said. Rather, the horses are more of a tool component of the therapy.

“ ey might be being used more as a metaphor or as a way to help move through an activity, but they’re not — the relationship with the animal isn’t the central piece,” she added. “In the facilitated work that we do with our clients, it’s the relationship as the primary drive and the connection with the horse.”

Kellenberger and Schultz may use an equinefacilitated or an equine-assisted therapy approach when treating a client, as it depends on what the client is seeking, Schultz said. Kellenberger added that equine-assisted therapy is bene cial as an assessment tool.

Both Schultz and Kellenberger received certi cation in animal-assisted social work from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work, as well as completed training through the organization Natural Lifemanship in trauma-focused equineassisted psychotherapy. e trauma a lot of their clients experience is a ecting the way they show up in their human relationships, Kellenberger said. ese therapy sessions provide a way for clients to, in a safe space, start to make changes to those patterns and feel more comfortable not only in their relationship to the horse but in their relationships with people, explained Kellenberger.

“A lot of our clients, they’re coming to us because they’ve experienced trauma, and so we’re making sure that everything that we’re doing is through that lens as well,” Kellenberger said.

Schultz noted their approach is always using a clinical, evidence-based lens and horses are a part of the team. She works with clients to identify their primary goals and the horse becomes their partner in that journey.

“We know that therapy is hard and incredibly personal, and it’s a di cult journey for people to admit, like, ‘Hey, I need help.’ And so one of the things that we always do is provide our potential clients with a free meet-and-greet,” Schultz said, explaining the person can visit the ranch to meet her and hear the elevator pitch.

“Part of that elevator pitch is recognizing how difcult the therapeutic process and journey can be for some, and that the relationship that you have with the therapist is as important as the relationship that you are going to form with your horse,” she added.

Most of the work during therapy sessions is unmounted, Kellenberger said, explaining the clients may do things like grooming the horse, leading the horse or doing other things that help them feel connected to the horse.

Once sessions begin, Schultz said herself and Kellenberger are skilled at identifying patterns in people’s behaviors.

“We basically say, ‘I’m noticing this pattern. Is it helpful or not?’” Schultz said, explaining they use the identi cation of patterns to build rapport and trust with clients before then delving deeper into working through their trauma.

“Working with the horses — who are prey animals and are highly sensitive and attuned to our intentions, our emotions — they make excellent partners in this work, because they are able to kind of mirror or … show the patterns that people have in the same way that a human would,” Kellenberger said.

Schultz noted that the work being done during these therapy sessions happens in the moment, providing an opportunity for real-time change.

“Our horses … they are not magical unicorn creatures. ey are going to ignore our clients. ey are going to resist,” Schultz said. “And the client is going to, you know, respond or react.

“And that’s kind of what we’re observing and saying, ‘Hey, is this pattern helpful for you? Because it’s happening right here, right now. So, right now, in this moment, you’re feeling frustrated, you’re feeling abandoned, you’re feeling unheard, (or) you’re feeling whatever. What can we do right now in this moment to help shift the way that you’re feeling to a more balanced thought?’” she continued.

“ e actual brain starts to change while they’re working with the animal,” Kellenberger said. “And horses are really great at this, also, because they are prey animals. ey are looking for vulnerability and congruence from us because that’s how they keep themselves safe in the wild.”

“If a client is really holding back an emotion, they’re being incongruent, you’ll see the reaction from the horse in that way,” she continued. “As soon as … our clients are able to start to be more congruent in their own bodies, that feels very safe for the horse and that’s where the connections really start to form.”

It is through this real-time therapy work with the horse that the clients can begin to learn how to transfer the shifts in their approach into their everyday lives, Schultz explained.

“Having done this for 10 years, I can tell you, we have seen so many clients who come in and they’re like, ‘I’ve tried everything else. Nothing else works,’” Schultz said. “We see clients, I think, for a shorter period of time, I think, on average, than maybe what a traditional talk therapist in an o ce setting would see because it isn’t so retroactive or future-oriented.” Kellenberger added, “It’s kind of just eye-opening, and it can unlock patterns that people didn’t know that they had that they’ve been working on for years in the o ce. So I would say that the horses are amazing partners because they are so sensitive and they can show us a lot about ourselves pretty quickly.”

Spreading the word

All three therapists expressed a desire to raise awareness of the existence of their practices and how it can help people.

“It’s as good as … any other therapy,