loss Archives

Healing with Horses is a program of TRU Community Care and a part of our grief services for youth coping with death and loss. This week we sat down with Raegan Gyorffy, the Director of Grief and Volunteer Services, to gain insight into the immeasurable value of the program.

While describing the group and how the horses impact the participants’ lives, Raegan says, ”The group is truly special. Horses are large and intuitive, able to mirror emotions, and provide a conduit for conversation and a good alternative to traditional group talks.”

The program runs for an 8-week period in the fall and again in the spring. Each week the participants meet for themed sessions that pair conversation with interaction and care for the horses. Youth are partnered with one another based on the similarity of age, their stage of grief, and their type of loss. Additionally, they are matched with a horse for added support. Each program has eight youth and up to six adults to ensure the safety and care for everyone involved.

A coordinator of the program expresses her experience and perspective of the impact the horses have in the participant’s grief process by explaining that,

“The relationship with the horse offers connection that helps ground the kids and breaks down barriers. We often see kids who are silent during the talking circle and come alive and expand once they are with the horses. It seems to offer a non-threatening space for kids to open up, move their bodies, and engage their senses in a way that gives them access to their emotions and thoughts. Also, being outside, getting exercise and having fun are all healthy ways to cope with big emotions!”

She herself has learned from the youth participants how to cope with grief and loss, the power of connection and being understood, and the importance of the power of feeling seen in our grief. One father told her that his son says “grief camp” is his son’s favorite activity of all the things he does for fun.

Stories like these are truly why Grief Services and specialized programs like Healing with Horses are so crucial to the heart of TRU Community Care. We could not do it without the heart and dedication of our staff, volunteers, families, donors, and overarching community.

To learn more about Grief Services and how you can become involved with Healing with Horses, please visit our Services and Volunteer page.

In honor of National Social Workers’ month, TRU’s Director of Volunteers and Grief Support Services, Raegan Gyorffy, LCSW, shares on bringing people from despair to hope.

Death is as universal as birth. No one escapes its reach. This includes Grief Counselors. What draws most to this profession is the touch of death itself in our personal lives. It sets us on a path of exploration and slogging forward, until ultimately we find some comfort and peace. That was it for me.

When death touched my life, the thing I came back to was Hope. This is what sets my practice apart, and what I infuse into my work with others journeying through grief.

Paul E. Miller captured it perfectly when he wrote:

What’s the point of love if the journey ends in despair? Love is what you do on the journey. Faith is how you make it through the journey. But hope is the end of the journey. Without hope, love makes no sense. – Love Walked Among Us

Helping people find their way back to hope from despair is a true joy for me. Everyone’s hope is different, but it is the essential ingredient to a life well lived and a life well memorialized. Walking with my clients as they seek to find a hope to anchor them to the “land of the living” again is a sacred journey.

Grief often muddles our brains. Grief makes life difficult to navigate. Grief feels like swimming in the middle of an unending pool. You get tired. You go under water. You have to find the energy to somehow fight to get your head back above water.

This is where grief counseling is helpful. We strive to help you find your strength again when you feel depleted. Our counselors work with you to find your Hope.

Sometimes this journey is a short one, sometimes it is longer. Honestly, no one’s journey to hope is the same. At TRU Community Care we’re here to guide you as you integrate the loss of your loved one into your everyday life for however long that takes. We have different ways of providing that support, from individual counseling to support groups, informational mailings and periodic phone calls, there are many ways to provide just the right support for you. We strive to tailor the grief support experience to the individual’s needs so that you have just what you need when you need it.

– Raegan Gyorffy, LCSW

Please share about your journey through grief and learn more about TRU’s grief support services.

What does your journey through grief look like?

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