VistaTaos

If you’re wondering how a horse can help you on your journey to addiction recovery, you aren’t alone. Many people find the concept of equine therapy--in which you work with horses as part of your treatment plan--a little strange at first. More and more drug and alcohol treatment centers are offering equine therapy as part of a comprehensive, holistic rehab program, and their clients are quickly discovering the remarkable benefits of working with horses.

Benefits of Equine Therapy:

• One of the greatest benefits of equine therapy is that you have the opportunity to work closely with a creature who is not judging you. Your horse does not care about your past, only about how you act in the present.
• Taking care of a horse helps you to relearn the importance of responsibility.
• Interacting with your animal is like looking into a mirror--your horse will react immediately and honestly to your behaviors and emotions, teaching you about yourself and how your actions and state of mind affect others.
• Riding and caring for a horse is a positive and soothing activity that can take the place of your former negative activity of drug use.

If you think equine therapy sounds like something that can help you, look for drug and alcohol treatment centers that offer complementary therapies in addition to more traditional addiction treatments.

The holistic drug addiction treatment offered at Vista Taos includes a number of complementary therapies that have long been used to treat both physical and emotional problems. We know therapies like meditation and acupuncture can be essential parts of a holistic drug addiction treatment program because we've seen how they have helped clients. Now you have even more reason to consider our holistic drug addiction treatment program—two new scientific studies show that meditation and acupuncture are effective at alleviating pain, a common symptom of drug withdrawal.

Meditation:
Researchers recently found that people who habitually practice meditation find pain less unpleasant and are less likely to anticipate pain. Instead of focusing on negative events that may happen in the future, meditators train their brains to focus on the present. Reducing pain caused by drug withdrawal symptoms and learning techniques that help change the way your brain responds are ways that meditation can be a key component of holistic drug addiction treatment.

Acupuncture:
A new study found that acupuncture relieves pain by stimulating the naturally-occurring compound known as adenosine. Adenosine helps regulate sleep, acts as an anti-inflammatory, and is a natural painkiller. Research on acupuncture suggests that it can help ease physical drug withdrawal symptoms and improve sleep, especially in combination with other holistic drug addiction treatment methods.