Nature Deficit Disorder or The Power of Nature?
Getting back to nature...
by Erin Repasy, MA, LPC; Clinical Coordinator
May 13, 2025
Many clients come to Take Heart looking for a connection with one particular horse and in the end, they also find a connection with the environment. Take Heart provides about 52 acres of lush, green pastures with a multitude of wildlife including bald eagles, red tail hawks, barn swallows, blue birds, cardinals, woodpeckers, and other beautiful small birds, crickets, foxes, rabbits, squirrels, deer, and so much more. From atop the hill, you can see in every direction for miles – much of it rolling farmland and the forested hills across the valley. It is a beautiful and humbling experience to be so close to nature in a world filled with technology.
We help women, men, children, people with a spectrum of diagnoses, victims of sexual trauma, childhood trauma, veterans, parents, couples, families, anyone in emotional pain or those who have been hurt. It is vitally important find a healing, vulnerable place for people looking for a safe environment to work through their hurts.
Rediscovering a natural world can feel overwhelming at first as technology is its own separate world which includes several of its own worlds with each social media platform. Such as Facebook, Instagram, tik Tok, twitter, roadblocks. These technological worlds mean you never have to be alone. It also means I don’t have to sit with my emotions or feel them in my body; I can just numb out how I feel by ignoring feelings with technology. Video games, social media, phone games, Tik Tok, scrolling, it is all numbing. Along with all of this we have no need to interact with one another face to face. Even schools are now implementing schoolwork, tests, papers, teaching be completed on computers. When do people have face to face connection? When do people have time to connect with nature outside of the new technology world. People are struggling not only with socialization skills, but emotional identity, somatic (physical) validation. We now have several generations who were not raised in nature, and this is impacting their mental health in a big way.
In equine therapy, people find acceptance by being their authentic selves not just what the outside, technological world expects them to be. People have found their unique identities through the authenticity and judgement-free companionship that horses provide in a world where society tells people to be compliant. People learn that they can form relationships and communication skills with horses and transfer those skills to peers, coworkers, and family members. They can learn to trust themselves to interact in person with other people.
In equine therapy, people find acceptance by being their authentic selves not just what the outside, technological world expects them to be. People have found their unique identities through the authenticity and judgement-free companionship that horses provide in a world where society tells people to be compliant. People learn that they can form relationships and communication skills with horses and transfer those skills to peers, coworkers, and family members. They can learn to trust themselves to interact in person with other people.
During sessions clients can find their stressors and emotional experience reflected back to them in therapeutic activities with the horse. Such as a young teenager’s dysregulation can be seen how the horse responds to the client during activities. As the horse becomes attuned to the client’s body language and emotions the horse will communicate what they feel through body language and movement. Equine therapy and attuning to nature can help people make connections in their own understanding, and help them become aware of their dysfunctional patterns. The support people learn from the horse is a ripple effect of awareness, attunement to self, and empowerment to rediscover a new, natural world.
Why does this matter?
The experience from interacting with a horse and nature provides an opportunity to build a new life and relearn who you are in the present moment. Working with a horse in a nature-based environment provides the client an opportunity to look beyond their own experiences and step into the world of the horse. People have discovered the emotional experiences of the horse to be transformative. It is a way to help people understand their emotions in a profound, expressive experience. As clients learn to listen to their bodies and rediscover the natural world people create positive human relationships and discover a meaningful life.
Although technological advances are beneficial, they come with natural consequences. Diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, anxiety disorders, and socialization struggles. Nature can come in many forms, a farm, a pet that lives or dies, the forest, the river, lying in the grass, watching the birds. Nature offers healing for a person living in the past or future. Nature amplifies time in the here and now. Learning about nature and how to be in the present moment with nature is a powerful way to prevent nature deficit disorder. When we lack time in nature a range of issues may arise including reduced attention span, increased anxiety and mood disorders, physical health problems, and difficult connecting to nature, ourselves, and others. Temple Grandin says people were animals too once, and when we turned into humans we gave something up, being close to animals brings some of that back. People and animals are supposed to be together, just like partners.
What if more children could spend more time interacting with animals? Horses can provide values and empower young adults with self-worth and goals necessary to overcome societies obsession with technology and social media.
The relationship building skills of natural horsemanship provide people with morality and ethics. Observation of herd dynamics provide people the ability to form healthy relationships. Teaches them how to safely interact and create relationships. This provides compassion and empathy to use these skills with parents, friends and peers. Horses help us discover hidden parts of ourselves and show us justice, compassion, empathy, and forgiveness. Because each session is so unique, the horse provides a personalized approach in a depersonalized world and reminds us to connect with us and ground us to ourselves.
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