Love and positive connections can be the best safeguards against adversity. For some humans, their relationships with animals often serve as refuge from the tumultuous conditions of our world. The Human Animal Bond Research Institute has researched and assembled scientific evidence that demonstrates how pets improve an array of physical and mental health conditions, along with supporting child health and development and healthy aging.

Meagan Good, founder and counselor of Take Heart Counseling & Equine Assisted Therapy, which empowers individuals and families to heal through therapeutic work with horses and professional counselors, has myriad stories of how loving bonds between animals and humans have transformed lives.

“So often, our trauma and hurt is based on things that went bad in a relationship with a person,” Good explains. “We need to heal from those relationships, and animals become a safe relationship to practice healing. They don’t have a desire to manipulate, be deceitful or controlling.”

Although animals might not talk the same language as humans, they speak volumes through body language, thus helping we humans quiet ourselves down and become aware of what’s going on inside of us so we can communicate effectively. “If I completely ignore the body language from a horse, they will feel unheard, just as if you would ignore something a partner or a family member said,” Good advises. “You have to pay attention to what’s going on around them and the environment.”

Animals, and horses in particular, are sensitive and intuitive, making them ideal therapy animals. Their instincts can teach us to build awareness of ourselves by becoming more in tune with non-verbal cues and communications.

There are many ways humans forge loving relationships with animals, including equine therapy and horseback riding. The latter helps build partnerships, in that humans learn to make requests from horses and read their language.

Good cites an example of a client that had suffered a life[1]time of abuse and neglect. The person began working with a horse at Take Heart, and after being distressed that the horse wasn’t coming over to her, she eventually relaxed and became present. Once she relaxed, the horse, Charley, immediately responded and went over to her. She became emotional and said it was the first time she had felt chosen. For someone that had never experienced that before, it builds the framework for what a real, authentic relationship looks like,” Good notes.

Animals can sense fear, anxiety, stress, excitement, happiness and authenticity in adults and children, which encourages humans to become more positive, genuine versions of themselves. Animals help to teach us to love ourselves and others with no games, egos or gimmicks. “We humans can get hurt through relationships, but we can also heal through relationships,” Good shares.