7 September 2023
DERBY, Kan. (KSNW) – Finding the ability to trust again can be a tough process for survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse. Over the last 12 years, hundreds of women have gone to Walking Free’s ranch in Derby to rebuild that.
“This is where you come to hear from God,” Rachel Stephenson said.
On the ranch, restoration begins.
“I had come out of domestic violence. So a lot of trauma, and there were a lot of things I needed to heal from,” Stephenson said.
Eight years ago, she turned to Walking Free Equine and Art Ministry Center.
“Just struggling severely with depression anxiety, alcohol addiction, nicotine addiction,” she recalled.
There, she met Go-Boy, one of the nonprofit’s therapy horses.
“He felt my fear, and he stopped, and he wouldn’t go no matter what I did.”
With patience and prayer from the volunteers, they jumped over hurdles.
“I felt peace and comfort, and out of nowhere, Go-Boy just walked right over the obstacle, that fear.”
Walking Free mixes faith with hands-on therapies to help women and their children heal. The nonprofit offers equine therapy, sozo art painting, pottery, and even gardening.
“We can take these exercises and through the actual movement of doing that, release chemicals into the brain, dump the brain, bypass those areas, and begin to cognate in ways that are healthy and new and free,” Cat Smith, founder of Walking Free Ministry, said.
No matter their past, volunteers welcome women and their kids.
“We’re able to walk them through very simple, profound exercises that take half steps, little at a time, into what a healthy relationship looks like,” Smith said.
Years later, Stephenson says her life has completely changed.
“Everything that I went through wasn’t for nothing, and God said, ‘I’m gonna use this so that you can go back in the fire and pull other people out, and this is how.'”
She volunteers on the ranch now and uses her journey to help others walk toward faith.
People can sign up for sessions by themselves or with a group.