VR Equine Growth & Learning Center

At vR Growth and Learning Center, we are passionate about helping children, adults, families, and businesses find and maintain balance in their lives. We use a whole-body system approach that incorporates nutrition, vitamins, and exercise, the mind, and spirit. We believe it is important to integrate life meaning into sessions. As a psychotherapist and with a background as a fitness trainer, we have found the importance of a healthy body gives a healthy mind.

Our Services

Our Psychotherapy practice is about enabling individuals to recognize and address the obstacles that are keeping them from finding that balance. We work with children (3-10), adolescents, and adults. As former educators, we are able to help children and families navigate their lives in a more positive and healthy way. What makes our practice unique is that we also incorporate Equine Assisted Psychotherapy with clients, which is a discipline of using horses as a means to provide metaphoric experiences to promote emotional growth. This is an experiential modality, which means that clients learn about themselves by participating with horses, and then process behaviors, thoughts, and patterns of daily coping. This type of Equine Therapy is not riding, but involves setting up ground activities involving the horses, which in turn requires the client to apply certain skills. What clients have experienced using horses for their sessions is healing, growing, and learning about themselves. Equine Assisted Psychotherapy Center has been effective with clients who manifest anxiety, depression, attention-deficit disorder, conduct disorders, dissociative disorders, posttraumatic stress, autism, and other disorders and disabilities. This type of horse therapy is also used for growth and learning with marriage and family therapy. By using horses, we have found a special healing, growth, and learning in our clients.

Equine Assisted Corporate Teambuilding Center is an innovative and experiential program offered to corporations and other businesses that wish to improve various skills in their teams. Our program uses team-building exercises with our horses and facilitators to develop leadership, communication, personal growth, corporate culture, and positive team development. We will tackle real-world challenges occurring in your business, or simply focus on giving you and your team a fun and different training experience, all based on the needs of the team. This type of Equine Assisted training is not riding, but involves setting up ground activities involving the horses, which in turn requires the team to apply certain skills. We listen and adjust methods to meet your needs. We utilize a variety of techniques, including; cognitive behavioral, existential, solution focus, and homework assignments as agreed upon. We utilize meditative/mindfulness approaches for awareness and relaxation. Therapy is collaboration, as ultimately the power to change rests within you.

Our Team

Brenda von Rautenkranz M.S. LCPC, NCC has a Master of Science in Professional Counseling from Loyola University and Bachelor of Science in Education from Georgia Southern University. She has over 30 years of professional experience in behavior and education. She is a professional personal trainer and president of Fit For Life, a program of health and wellness. She produces and hosts her own cable show and is a motivational speaker. She is a certified equine specialist for over 40 years. She has provided services to a wide range of individuals, groups, and organizations. She has presented at local, state, and regional workshops and conferences. Her understanding of psychology as well as human and organizational development, along with her life-long passion in horses and their way of relating to humans and their environment, makes her a unique and effective therapist.