Tracy Keene, M.A. Licensed Professional Counselor.   Photo: Urban News

Helping Individuals Through Life’s Challenges

Staff reports
Tracy Keene graduated from the School Clinical Psychology of New College of California in in 1996. She has worked in the mental health field and criminal justice system for 17 years, providing therapy and assessment to incarcerated individuals suffering from mental illness and in need of family reunification.

In 1999, Tracy started a girl’s rehabilitation program in California that provided individual and group therapy to high-risk youth who had a history of gang violence, substance abuse, and prostitution. While working with these young people, Tracy realized that they needed to learn to process their feelings in order to deal with the trauma. As a result, she began a garden project to aid in their growth process and move through some of their painful experiences.

She also offered animal rescue therapy, where she witnessed disengaged youth grow in maturity and process their own issues while working with animals that were abandoned, traumatized, or otherwise in need of rescue. It was at this moment Ms. Keene realized the importance of working with animals as a therapy guide to help mirror one’s human experience. (A similar program, of learning and teaching canine obedience, has been introduced in some N. C. state prisons to teach inmates useful employment skills as well as empathy and compassion. – Ed.)
As an equestrian since the age of 14, Tracy knows the importance of working with horses, especially ways in which these amazing animals exhibit an awareness of someone’s issues that might prevent a handler or rider from being their best. She presently uses her own horse as a therapeutic aid in breaking down the barriers of communication, pain, and unidentified trauma among those individuals she works with.

As to how the horse therapy works so well, Tracy stated: “The outside of a horse is good for what ails the inside of man.”

For more information about the services provided by Tracy Keene please call (828) 318-3991