EMOTIONAL THERAPY IN A MUTUAL CARE MODEL – COOPERATION WITH ORANIM COLLLEG
Dreams do come true and we prove that the connection between humans and other living creature can be different!
After a long thought process, we embarked on a joint project with Oranim College.
As part of the students’ training program, they began an emotional therapy for children in the unique surrounding of the Freedom Farm Sanctuary. The students Efrat Rubinstein and Galit Belu are the first to lead the project.
Freedom Farm joined the revolution led by Oranim College’s program for emotional therapy in a model of mutual care.
In this model the emotional therapy is carried out in unique spaces that see the needs of animals without compromise. The patients arrive to an individual meeting with a student and the animals choose whether to attend the meeting or not.
The emphasis is on emotional work done through mutual contact, with a deep knowledge of the story and personality of each animal. It is important to emphasize that in this model, the connection is made with full respect of the freedom of choice of both humans and animals, there is no use of the animals but in the dynamic content that they invites in the unique encounter with them.
The animals of the freedom farms Sanctuary invite unique content for discourse such as the ability to overcome pain and injury, coping with physical or mental disability, trust in the other even after disappointment and injury, acceptance and friendship between me and those who are different from me.
Just as the animals choose whether to participate in the session or not, so are the patients. They can choose whether they need a quiet and intimate place for themselves, without other animals or with them.
For this specific purpose we set up a treatment room and thus brought the model of mutual care to an exciting new climax!
INTEGRATING ACTIVITIES FOR SPECIAL NEEDS POPULATIONS – FEB 2019
The Freedom Farm Sanctuary was established with the aim of bringing people and animals saved from the food industries together. As part of our activities, we are happy to integrate special populations in the farm. We emphasize long-term plans with continuity. From our experience, this is the way in which the animals and the people who come to the farm, benefit from in the best possible way.
In February 2019, we started a project in cooperation with a hostel for young adults with autism at the farm. Once in every two weeks, the residents of the hostel come to volunteer with the animals and take care of them in order to expose them to a new environment and teach them about independence, care and concern for others and empathy.
Gradually, the hostel residents learn to care for the animals, cut them salad for dinner, arrange their bedrooms and help with whatever else needed. The meeting between the residents of the hostel and the residents of the farm is exciting and meaningful. The residents of the hostel identify with the personal stories of the animals and were happy to arrive regularly to the farm. The animals’ environment is good for them and in this environment they manage to overcome the difficulties they experience in different situations.
