作为一个社区大学, our job is to help guide our students through the complicated process of figuring out what is next for them. For many people that could mean becoming a nurse or early childhood educator or transferring to a four-year university. We always hope that each student can look back on their time on our campuses and be able to say it helped get them where they want to be.
谢丽尔·埃里克森从哪里开始
Cheryl Eriksen says her time at 十大平台网赌下载最新 helped her prepare for what was next in her life. She recently returned to the East Campus for what she calls an extraordinary moment. 他最近出版了一本名为《十大平台网赌下载最新》的回忆录, 朋友:未确诊的创伤后应激障碍回忆录, 以及马与人关系的治愈力量,” she held a book signing on the same campus where she developed an even stronger love for horses.
埃里克森来自卡拉马祖, MI, 她说她真的没有接触过来自城市的马吗. It was a family vacation to Busch Gardens where she fell in love with horses after seeing a Clydesdale statue.
From there she got more into horses after she started riding lessons and eventually became a part of 4-H where she began showing horses. 高中毕业后，她知道她想继续她的教育. She began looking for schools that offered an equestrian science program. 她想要一个为期两年的项目, 而十大平台网赌下载最新东校区正是她想要的.
During her time at the East Campus, she found a job helping look after and train horses.
“That is when I realized I have a talent for working with young horses,” she said. “The program at East Campus is really outstanding, even compared to four-year universities. 你可以从亲身体验中学到很多东西.”
恢复过程的开始
After graduating from 十大平台网赌下载最新 with her associate’s degree in Equestrian Science, 埃里克森在基瓦尼地区待了大约六年, 训练的马. It was during this time of her life that she started to deal with symptoms of PTSD.
She would later learn that this PTSD was from a traumatic event that happened to her as a small child. “It’s one of the ways that children cope with trauma, to repress the memories. If you can forget about it then you don’t have to deal with it and that is what I did,” she said.
“创伤的问题是，你无法真正忘记它. It may not consciously be there but it will still inform every part of how you interact with the world,她补充道。.
The trauma manifested itself in many different ways while Eriksen was going to school and at the beginning of her career. 她处理了很多自我否定和自我憎恨的问题. “表面上，我显得害羞和不自信. Inwardly it was just this inner struggle of just not knowing how to survive with what I was dealing with,埃里克森说.
Her battle would come to a head when she had an accident with her own horse. “那次事故造成的创伤动摇了我所有的记忆. I could no longer hide the memories and had to deal with them,埃里克森说.
The most significant shift in the battle with those feelings came when her horse Farletta started to act strange around her. “I would come into the barn and she would be excited to see me but then immediately get uncomfortable around me,埃里克森说.
谢丽尔接下来要做什么
Eriksen’s next step was going to talk to a counselor but not for herself at first. She wanted to figure out what she was doing to create the nervous feeling in Farletta and what she could do to improve it.
These conversations with the counselor were the beginning of her recovery process. She was finally uncovering the traumatic memories so that she could begin to overcome them.
The major breakthrough came when she decided to explain what she was dealing with to Farletta. “I didn’t necessarily believe that a horse can understand words but they understand our energy and intention. 他们能感觉到，”埃里克森说.
This new understanding of how important relationships can be between people and their animals was why Eriksen became more interested in helping others recover.
Eriksen went on to get her bachelor’s and her master’s degree in social work. She spent a couple of years working at an equine therapy facility where she used her writing and speaking to help others understand and help with PTSD in themselves or someone they love.
The facility uses horses to help people cope with PTSD and gives them an outlet to begin the recovery process. 除了这种形式的治疗, 马被体力所利用, 职业, 语言治疗专家.
“Hippotherapy basically means therapy that incorporates the use of a horse. Movements of the horse mimic the normal movement of the human pelvis during walking,BHC物理治疗师助理项目的黛安娜·阿贝尔斯说.
BHC’s Physical Therapist Assistant students will have a chance to learn more about this type of therapy from two different facilities located within the Quad-City area.
As for Eriksen, she continues to study and learn new ways to use horses to help others. She says the response from people who have read her book is exactly why she wrote it.
For her, it was about finding the person who could relate to how she was feeling before she began her recovery process and giving them hope.
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