STAT Ligonier Therapeutic Center

12/20/2025

Our Stom Rd location is for sale.
Our new location is
222 Horse Power
Miracles Lane

12/20/2025

I love that this story has an image that inclides horses…

The piece argues that small, sound-based interventions can help “nudge” the brain into a more effective state for learning and emotional regulation. It emphasizes that the tool is not a cure-all or replacement for medical or educational support, but a simple, low-effort aid that may help reduce resistance, improve focus, and support learning. The letter ends by encouraging parents to try the audio themselves, framing it as a small action with potentially meaningful impact.

But WHY are horses in the image?

My (Cat’s) thoughts:

Because horses naturally do what the story describes:
• horses co-regulate without instruction
• horses respond to nervous system state, not words
• horses offer immediate, honest feedback without judgment
• horses don’t lecture, punish, or diagnose

A dysregulated human brain cannot learn.

A dysregulated horse cannot be approached.

Both require the same thing first:

Safety, calm, and attunement

That’s why horses are such a —and in my world? a lived reality.

Minds-n- Motion … do you want to explore with me???

Point of departure

The modern Western concept of the self is historically bound to separation.
The self emerges as something autonomous, detachable, identifiable.
This separation requires markers. Past, history, narratives, affiliations, ruptures.

In many Indigenous cultures, we find historically different definitions of the self.
The isolated self is not at the center. Relationship, place, rhythm, and shared world are.
The self is not primarily something one has, but something one is in relation to.

This is not a lack of individuality.
It is a different ontology of the self.

⸻

Perspective shift. Not the human looking at the horse, but the horse as reference

If we attempt to view the social structure of the horse not psychologically but structurally, the following becomes visible.

The horse does not organize itself through identity.
Not through the past.
Not through narrated self descriptions.

The social structure emerges through
presence
position
movement
pressure and release
immediate feedback

A horse does not need to know who it is.
It needs to know where it stands, who is moving how, and what is relevant now.

This is not an absent self.
It is a self without narrative.

⸻

The decisive difference

The human stabilizes the self through time.
The horse stabilizes existence through situation.

In humans
identity is created through coherence.
Narrative connects past, present, and future.
I am someone because I have a story.

In horses
coherence emerges in the moment.
Attunement is situational.
There is no need for inner continuity through storytelling.

⸻

If this is taken seriously

Then the human need for narrative is not a universal feature of consciousness.
It is a cultural and historical solution to complex social layering.

The more complex the social structure
the more abstract power, belonging, and exclusion become
the greater the pressure on the individual to define the self.

Narrative then becomes not a luxury, but a survival strategy.

⸻

And here it touches the trauma theme

Trauma intensifies this very mechanism.
The self attempts to restore coherence.
It turns to the past because meaning is stored there.
Narrative becomes anchor and restraint at the same time.

From the perspective of the horse, this fixation would be puzzling.
Not wrong.
But not functionally necessary.

The horse does not regulate through memory, but through presence.
Not through meaning making, but through feedback.

⸻

Theoretical exploration, not a therapeutic instruction

If we take the social structure of the horse as a reference rather than an ideal, a question opens.

What would a concept of self look like
that is defined less by history
and more by situational attunement?

Not dissolution of the self.
Not erasure.
But a shift from identity to position.

I am not what happened to me.
I am where I stand now.
And that can change.

12/19/2025

🎄🫏 A Special Holiday Visit with Bambi & Thumper 🫏🎄

🌲❤️Today our hearts were absolutely full as Bambi & Thumper made a very special Christmas visit to AIU3 Sunrise School, spending time with 130+ incredible students.❤️🌲

The smiles, giggles, gentle hands, and pure joy on the students’ faces reminded us why this work matters so much!

There is something truly magical about the connection between children and donkeys—calm, comforting, and filled with unconditional love.

We are so grateful to the amazing staff at Sunrise School for welcoming us and for all they do every day to support these remarkable children. Being able to share a little holiday joy, donkey hugs, and wonder is a gift we will carry with us all season long. ❤️

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah from all of us at STAT—and from Bambi & Thumper, who soaked up every moment of love. ✨🎅🎄








https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/donate-to-stat
GivingTuesday

12/18/2025

Big news! Thanks to a $1 million grant from Highmark, Achieva is launching a new home transition program to help children with complex medical needs live at home with their families—rather than in hospitals or pediatric care facilities.

This initiative removes barriers by providing expert care coordination, clinical oversight, home modifications, medical equipment, and rapid problem-solving, all in one coordinated program. The goal: keep families together, strengthen bonds, and help children thrive at home.

👉 Read the full press release: https://www.achieva.info/blog/1-million-grant-from-highmark

12/18/2025

A few pics from the PBR fundraiser last night. ❤️🎅💰🌲😎🎁🎰

12/18/2025

The Casino event was SO fun!! Sorry y’all who missed it! Here is the video when we pulled the Holiday Tree of Cheer winner!
Congrats to Tia!! 🌲🎅💰

12/18/2025

So many lives touched by equine assisted therapy…. Here’s a lovely story from
a farm in Florida ❤️

12/17/2025

HAPPENING NOW!!
Ride the mechanical bull
Get tips from pros

This event at the PBR bar is today from 5 PM to 8 PM. The bar is open.!!!!

12/17/2025

This just popped up on our feed!

Wonderful. Just putting it out there to our clients and friends, local ,
Looks like an amazing facility and lots of learning on January 17 Keepsake Equestrian Center in McDonald, PA ❤️