Young people from Fundação Casa use animal therapy to heal trauma

A group of new children from foster families arrived at the farm where the Natureza Conecta project, founded by Daniela Gurgel, was carried out, when one particular boy caught their attention.

Daniela introduces him to this space alone, starting with his life story: He lives in the shelter because his parents were arrested. His father killed his brother with extreme physical violence, and the boy is also a frequent victim. He arrived at the shelter with marks of whipping on his back and holes in his scalp. His father poured battery water on his head.

One day, the boy ran away from home and asked for help from his neighbors, who immediately called the Guardianship Board. He began living in one of the partner shelters of the NGO Natureza Conecta, which provides animal therapy for vulnerable children and teenagers.

When Daniela went to show him the space, he seemed unfriendly. He looked at one of the horses, took the apple from the trainer’s hand and threw it at the horse. He looked firmly into the eyes of the animal who continued to graze, ignoring its attitude. The boy was shocked. He turned his gaze to Daniela in surprise: it was the first time he had seen a violent act that did not provoke an equally violent response.

This is one of the events that has had the greatest impact on the founder of the NGO since its creation in 2020. Daniela is a veterinarian who realized from an early age that love for animals could help the healing process. To create Natureza Conecta, she hired a multidisciplinary team that included psychologists, educators and so-called co-therapists: farm animals.

The idea was inspired by the Green Chimney Project in the United States, which has been doing similar work since 1947. Daniela owns a family property in Itu, inland from São Paulo, and after living in the United States for a while, she decided to implement the method here.

Today, Natureza Conecta is a member of the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO), a group of institutions dedicated to animal-assisted therapy practices, and collaborates with partner agencies. In addition to the shelter, the NGO also treats young people detained at Fundação Casa.

Therapy with young people from foster families usually lasts from six months to a year and covers groups of up to ten people. The age range is from 6 to 18 years old and at each end of the cycle a new group begins. The sessions with the animals take place once a week, last two hours and take place at Daniela’s farm: in the first hour the participants receive interactive therapy with the animals, in the last hour they carry out didactic and manual activities aimed at working through the trauma.

Every six months, individual and group development outcomes were assessed using questionnaires and activity records from both programs. Data included:

However, meetings for young people at Fundação Casa cannot be conducted in the same way. Groups are smaller, with a maximum of six participants, and they cannot leave the foundation. Therefore, the NGO transports animals to the space every week and keeps them in the prison yard so that it can carry out its work.

“They go to the farm every six months, but there is a lot of bureaucracy. Judicial authorization is needed. But they really like it”, Daniela said in an interview with Planeta.

The relationship started very early.

Daniela realized early on the power that caring for animals can have on people, an awareness she had from an experience she herself doesn’t even remember. She was just one year old when her mother became pregnant again. However, at six months pregnant, she miscarried at home, with just the two of them and the dog. As her mother bled and had very strong contractions, Daniela was a baby, supported by her pet.

“It was the first time I ever received support from an animal, and since then, it has been animals that have supported me through difficult times. Animals have the gift of caring without judging. It creates a safe environment of unconditional love, which makes a difference in every process we go through.”

—Daniela Gurgel, Founder, Natureza Conecta

The NGO’s income mainly comes from donations, supporting companies and parliamentary amendments. Daniela has also invested her own resources into the project and said the NGO is moving towards becoming a self-reliant and sustainable organization.

“We are running an NGO acceleration programme with the goal of scaling up. So we want to increase the number of people we serve by 50% in the second half of the year so that we can increase it by another 50% next year”, Daniela explains.

Today, Natureza Conecta works with nearly 40 different species of animals: cows, horses, goats, pigs, dogs and quails, taking on the role of co-therapists. The technical part of the treatment is signed by the human team, psychologists and educational psychologists, and is acted in partnership with the Town Hall. Its mission, Daniela explains, is to eliminate the social exclusion of children and adolescents who are victims of abuse, trauma and domestic violence, through animal-assisted therapy.

“Our goal is to reach more and more young people and children because there is no point in offering school if there is no socio-emotional foundation; they cannot cope. There is a lot of trauma, violence and abuse to digest. Today, one of the participants of Fundação Casa asked to continue the project in the next cycle and told his story: he started taking drugs at the age of six. As humans, we make mistakes. There needs to be a foundation, otherwise there is no point,” he concluded.