The Hampton Trust Ecotherapy Centre is celebrating the arrival of two new therapists following a generous donation of £24,000 from the William Wates Foundation.
The William Wates Foundation was established following the tragic death of one of their family members and it aims to provide funding to help young people improve their life chances.
The Island’s Ecotherapy Centre, based in Shide, was the brain child of Dr Kim Brown who initially developed the Centre through grants from Natural England and MND. The aim of Ecotherapy is to provide mental nutrition for children and adults by helping them connect with themselves and others through the natural world.
The two new donkey therapists will have a specific role at the centre in the Leo Programme which is helping young people understand about caring and nurturing through involvement with horses and donkeys.
Dr Kim Brown explains:
“It is important for all of us to understand our own behaviour and how this impacts on lives as well as the lives of others. We all demonstrate patterns of behaviour, and as such often get the same results. Donkeys can be a catalyst for giving us insight into our actions and thoughts to help move away from negative outcomes. They do this by reflecting back human emotions and behaviour through their body language making it easy to observe the impact of our actions. So, they are ideal therapists for helping young people understand and care for themselves and others”.
If you are interested in helping to name the new donkeys then please visit The Leo Programme Facebook page and post up your ideas.
If you would like more information about Ecotherapy or the Leo Programme then contact Dr Kim Brown on [email protected] or [email protected] . If you would like to volunteer at the centre then please contact [email protected].
