Hot Mess Healing, with Casey and critters

12/10/2025

12/09/2025

🐴✨ Healing Through Movement, Connection, and Trauma Processing ✨🧠

Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy + EMDR = A powerful path to change

At Valor Horses for Heroes, many clients make meaningful progress when we combine EMDR therapy with ground-based, no-riding EAGALA-model equine-assisted psychotherapy—often alternating weekly between the office and the arena. Here’s why this integrated approach can be so effective:

🌿 1. Supports nervous system regulation
Working with horses on the ground—observing, interacting, and moving at your own pace—helps clients access calm, grounding, and body awareness. This regulation prepares the brain for deeper EMDR trauma processing.

🐴 2. Experiential learning enriches the cognitive work
Office-based EMDR allows the brain to reprocess trauma.
Ground-based equine sessions help clients experience new patterns—confidence, boundaries, trust, and connection—through nonverbal interaction and feedback from the herd.

💡 3. Builds internal resources between EMDR sessions
Horses mirror emotions and respond to authentic presence. Clients naturally practice mindfulness, attunement, and core Self qualities—skills that strengthen resilience and support future EMDR work.

🤝 4. Enhances integration of insights
What emerges in EMDR often becomes more tangible in the arena.
Clients get to see and feel their growth through their interactions with the horses, helping new patterns stick in daily life.

🌱 5. Ideal for clients who benefit from movement and sensory engagement
For clients who struggle with traditional talk therapy alone, ground-based experiential work offers another pathway into healing—without riding and without pressure.

🧠🐴 **EMDR helps reprocess the past.

Ground-based equine-assisted psychotherapy helps you embody the future you’re working toward.**

If you’re curious about combining these approaches—or want to explore alternating EMDR sessions with equine work—our team would love to support your healing journey.

📞 Learn more or schedule today: 252-631-8150 valorhorsesforheroes@gmail.com www.valorhorses.com

12/09/2025

🌟 We’re excited to welcome our newest EAGALA-Certified Mental Health Provider! 🌟

Rosemary Curry:

Please join us in welcoming our new EAGALA-certified mental health clinician, who brings over 20 years of experience serving the New Bern community and a deep passion for integrating equine-assisted therapy into mental health care.

Originally from New York, she is dual certified as a Nurse Practitioner in Adult Health and Mental Health and has dedicated much of her career to working with veterans. In 2017, she returned to school to pursue advanced certification in Psychiatry and Mental Health through Frontier University in the Appalachian Mountains—an institution renowned for its legacy of nurses traveling by horseback to reach rural clients. It was here that she first discovered therapeutic riding and Equine-Assisted Growth and Learning, sparking a lifelong commitment to equine-assisted modalities.

Her journey deepened after a transformative trail-riding trip to Montana, inspiring her to learn everything she could about horses, horsemanship, and the healing power of the human–equine connection. She recently completed her EAGALA training and certification and volunteers at a local therapeutic riding center. She is also continuing her studies in the Equine Studies program at Post University in Connecticut.

Outside of her clinical work, she enjoys kayaking, yoga, gardening, and volunteering. She is also a proud mother of three grown children and grandmother to four grandsons, who draw her to frequent visits in Texas and Florida.

🐴✨ We are thrilled to add her expertise, compassion, and equine-informed perspective to the Valor Horses for Heroes team.

Reach out for appointment availability and ways to connect with her for equine-assisted or traditional outpatient services!
252-631-8150 www.valorhorses.com valorhorsesforheroes@gmail.com

12/07/2025

12/07/2025

You're never rambling. Process the trauma, cry through the anxiety, show us the receipts, whip out pics of his new girlfriend... we're here for it all. We're here for YOU.

12/02/2025

My therapy cat Lil Bit is here with a message for my veterinary community:
⸻

🩺🐾 Supporting the Emotional Well-Being of Veterinary Professionals 🐾🩺

Those who work in veterinary medicine carry incredible compassion—and often an incredible weight. From chronic stress and compassion fatigue to the impact of traumatic loss and high-pressure decision-making, the emotional toll can be heavy. You deserve support, too.

That’s why Trauma-Informed Therapy and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) can be life-changing tools for veterinarians, vet techs, and animal care staff.

🌟 Why EMDR?
EMDR is an evidence-based therapy that helps the brain safely process and heal from overwhelming experiences. Whether it’s:
• difficult clinical outcomes
• moral distress
• repeated exposure to grief
• workplace trauma
—EMDR can help reduce emotional reactivity, anxiety, and burnout, allowing you to move forward with clarity and resilience.

🌿 A Trauma-Informed Approach
Trauma-informed therapy recognizes the unique challenges of your profession. It prioritizes safety, empowerment, and understanding—meeting you where you are with compassion and without judgment.

If you’re a veterinary professional carrying more than others realize, know this: your well-being matters, your story matters, and support is available.

💬 If you’d like to learn more about EMDR, trauma-informed care, or how therapy can support you in your work, feel free to reach out. You don’t have to navigate this alone.

🐾 Taking care of animals starts with taking care of yourself. 🐾

⸻
To schedule call 252-631-8150

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/casey-bennington-palmer-grantsboro-nc/1587361

valorhorsesforheroes@gmail.com

www.valorhorses.com

12/01/2025

Healing from domestic violence is not just about moving forward — it’s about reclaiming your sense of safety, worth, and control. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based therapy that helps survivors process traumatic memories without having to relive every detail.

With EMDR, survivors can:
✨ Reduce triggers and hypervigilance
✨ Heal from emotional, physical, and psychological abuse
✨ Rebuild confidence and self-trust
✨ Release shame and fear that never belonged to them
✨ Create space for safety, stability, and hope

At Valor Horses for Heroes, we offer EMDR in a supportive, empowering, and trauma-informed environment. You deserve a place where your story is honored, your boundaries matter, and healing unfolds at your pace.

If you're a survivor of domestic violence and ready to explore healing in a safe therapeutic space, we are here for you. 💛
Reach out anytime to learn more or schedule an appointment. 252-631-8150 www.valorhorses.com

11/30/2025

"WHY HORSES?

INTELLIGENT PREY
ANIMALS
To evade predators, horses have evolved to be extremely sensitive to their environment. They instinctively analyze and react to our body language and other nonverbal cues providing us with valuable feedback and insights for other areas of our lives.

LARGE AND POWERFUL
It's hard to ignore a horse with their size and presence. We can't just control a powerful horse. Approaching horses helps us reflect how we approach our relationships and how we can face other big or overwhelming things in our lives.

HERD ANIMALS WITH DISTINCT PERSONALITIES
Horses are social animals with defined roles within a herd. They have distinct personalities, attitudes, and moods. They could be stubborn or they could be playful. In other words, horses are a lot like us."
-EAGALA.org