Mental Health Professional - Mike Delaney helped to introduce equine facilitated psychotherapy to the UK in 2004 and describes how this work feeds his soul besides benefiting people suffering following severe trauma

Mike Delaney helped to introduce equine facilitated psychotherapy to the UK in 2004 and describes how this work feeds his soul besides benefiting people suffering following severe trauma

- By Kate Johnson

Mike Delaney helped to introduce equine facilitated psychotherapy to the UK in 2004 and describes how this work feeds his soul besides benefiting people suffering following severe trauma

This is my 48th year working in mental health, having started as a nurse. I went into rehab in 1996 – I’d become addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs and got myself into a real mess. There, I started to understand therapy, group work and how people reacted to trauma. I was in for five months. It’s a full life review, all the relationships you hurt or that hurt you, a massive clear-out to make amends, using that to change how you live. When I came out I started again, working in therapy instead of nursing.

In 2004, I was clinical director at a new rehab centre in Gloucestershire. The owner’s wife had seen the film 28 days with Sandra Bullock, where there were stables in their rehab facility, and, having seen the film, she then wanted horses. I thought, “Oh my God!” but she convinced me.