Occupational Therapy

What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational therapy promotes health, well-being, and participation. Occupational therapists focus on the things a client wants and needs to do in their daily life. Occupational therapy intervention uses everyday life activities (occupations) to promote health, well-being, and a client’s ability to participate in the important activities in their life. This includes any meaningful activity that a person wants to accomplish, including getting dressed, eating a meal, playing with friends, going to school, among many others.

Occupational therapy services include: An individualized evaluation that lets us know your child’s history, strengths, and interests. We call this an occupational profile, and it tells us what values and activities are important to your child and family during this conversation. An intervention plan that is unique to your child to improve their ability to perform daily activities and reach their goals. (AOTA, 2023)

What is Hippotherapy?

Hippotherapy, according to the American Hippotherapy Association (AHA, Inc.), “refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology professionals use evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning in the purposeful manipulation of equine movements to engage sensory, neuromotor, and cognitive systems to achieve functional outcomes. In conjunction with the affordances of the equine movement and other treatment strategies, hippotherapy is part of a patient’s integrated plan of care.”

Why a horse?

A horse’s movement promotes active responses in the client which are intended to impact function. The horse provides multi-modal sensorimotor experiences that are precise, rhythmic, and repetitive, all of which are necessary for most human behavior.

The horse lends an organized nervous system which allows a client to experience organized multidimensional movement and multisensory input. The horse’s movement provides a repetitive, predictable, and symmetrical dynamic surface on which the patient can develop and practice functional postural control and balance. The horse provides multi-dimensional movement through space, which provides opportunities to experience visual flow and vestibular input within a functional context.

For most clients, the experience of the horse’s movement is a novel one, allowing for development of movement strategies outside of the habitual patterns. The natural variability of the equine environment is functional and promotes problem solving.

Medical Precautions:

Hippotherapy inherently involves movement and establishes a human-animal interaction. Therefore, hippotherapy may not be an appropriate treatment strategy for all clients. Please consult with your therapist and physician.

Participant Application

Who Can Benefit?

Hippotherapy is a treatment strategy that is meaningful and can be functionally relevant, specifically addressing impairments in tone, range of motion, timing, attention, arousal, coordination, balance, and postural control. Individuals with a wide variety of disabilities and diagnoses can benefit from the integration of hippotherapy into their current plan of care, along with other therapy tools and/or strategies.

The horse and the equine environment is motivational and encourages the development of relationships while enhancing mobility (AHA Inc).

Cost of Services

To complete an initial evaluation prior to beginning treatment services, there is a one-time assessment fee of $225 for a therapy evaluation/re-evaluation. Heartland's Therapy Services appointments cost $37.50 per unit (15 minutes). Most appointments are scheduled for 60 minutes, therefore, would cost $150. Forty-five minute appointments for $112.50 and 30 minute appointments for $75 are available if deemed appropriate by the therapist. At this time, all services are private pay and insurance payments are not currently accepted.

Dr. Mary Nestor-Adams, OTD, OTR/L

Mary earned her Doctorate of OT from Belmont University. She has experience in multiple pediatric settings including outpatient intervention, schools, and early intervention. Mary is specially trained in providing occupational therapy services utilizing hippotherapy from the American Hippotherapy Association and has been providing animal assisted occupational therapy services since 2017. Mary believes in using a child-centered, play-based approach to help kids be kids and reach their goals. Mary loves including caregivers in her treatment sessions and working with families to help them feel empowered in helping their child reach their full potential. Mary also has specialized in the evaluation and treatment of children with Sensory Processing Disorders with training from the STAR Institute in Denver, Colorado and in using the DIR/Floortime model in treatment. She has additional specialized training in feeding therapy using the SOS Approach to feeding. Mary loves watching kids light up and work towards their goals in our unique treatment setting with a horse as her favorite therapy partner. In her free time, Mary enjoys spending time outside gardening, hiking, or being on the water, reading a good book, and spending time with family, friends and pets.

Jennifer Johnson, OTR/L

Jen earned a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing/Advertising at the University of Kansas, and began a career in selling medical and pharmaceutical products in healthcare settings. It was during that time that Jen developed an interest in occupational therapy, and saw it as the perfect opportunity to combine her passion for helping people improve their lives with working in a clinical setting. She then returned to school at the University of Kansas Medical Center where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy. Jen worked primarily in the inpatient rehabilitation setting, until raising her family became her full time job. Working with, caring for, and riding horses has been a passion all of Jen's life, which led to her becoming a volunteer at Heartland where she has been able to not only spend time with the horses, but also provide therapeutic assistance for a wide variety of riders. In 2023, Jen was given an opportunity to obtain special training in the use of hippotherapy techniques through the American Hippotherapy Association, and she has started working again as an Occupational Therapist, using these techniques with her pediatric occupational therapy clients at Heartland Therapy Services. Jen enjoys sharing her love of horses and their healing power with the kids and their families, and feels privileged to be able to practice in this unique environment. When she is not at the barn, Jen loves to travel, cook, attend yoga classes and spend time with family and friends.