DONKEY healing
By Andrea Louise Thomas Photos Yanni
Donkey Love Therapy is an idyllic 6.5-acre property in Balnarring. It’s a place where people go to escape, learn and heal. It’s a place where people with disability and/or mental illness, who have fallen through the cracks in society can be seen, heard and transformed by the healing power of nature. It’s a place where anything can happen. The property features gardens, mediation spaces, a lake with an island, quiet places to sit and contemplate, creative spaces for arts, woodworking or gardening and four miniature donkeys named Sebastian, Angela, Bentley and Georgina. Owner, Michelle Lowe, trained them to be therapy animals using love, kindness, gentleness and trust. The donkeys reflect those qualities back. Michelle believes there is no better healing environment than nature and no better therapy animal than the miniature donkey. “Donkeys have the same personality traits as dogs. They wag their tails when they are happy, follow people for their company, pick up on human emotions and comfort them when needed,” Michelle says. continued page 22...
E ssence
20 | PENINSULA
August 2022