Healing Grief: Maui Wildfire Survivors Find Solace with Horses at the Spirit Horse Ranch
KANAIO, Hawaii — Concern. Worry. Frustration. Melancholy. Overburdened.
Janice Dapitan initiated her second counseling session by listing those emotions on a whiteboard, reflecting her current state. The day a fire decimated her hometown of Lahaina — and the challenges that have ensued for almost a year — still lingered in her mind.
The fire claimed the life of her uncle. It destroyed the residences of seven relatives. Her daughter narrowly avoided the flames with her two children, but lost her home and relocated to Las Vegas. Dapitan’s house with her husband, Kalani, survived, but now it overlooks the charred area. The sight serves as a painful, continual reminder that their previous life is no more.
“There are so many triggers,” she expressed on a windy July day. Her lengthy black braids hung over a tank top with the term “Lahaina” inscribed in gold. “We can be fine today, and tomorrow it could be different. Everything is uncertain. Every day presents a new challenge. We aim to remain cheerful, but it’s a gradual process.”
One year after the Maui fires, numerous residents experience Dapitan’s ordeal. They mourn the loss of loved ones and ancestral homes. They are haunted by their traumatic escapes and even by the guilt of survival. They’ve endured months of instability — switching accommodations, schools, and employment. Approximately 1,500 families have departed Maui, compelled to begin anew thousands of miles away.
However, recently, Dapitan has found some solace, thanks to an equine-assisted therapy program at the Spirit Horse Ranch in Maui’s rural upcountry, an hour’s drive from Lahaina.
“The bond with the horses differs from connecting with machines or humans,” Dapitan remarked. “It’s nearly like immediate recovery.”
Following large-scale disasters, revitalizing a community’s mental well-being is as crucial as reconstructing infrastructure, according to experts. And just as constructing an entire town can require years, so can the healing process for its residents.
“We can be so engrossed in the physical reconstruction — since that’s challenging enough as it is — that we neglect to make room for that healing,” stated Jolie Wills, a cognitive scientist who oversaw the mental health response for the Red Cross after the 2010 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand.
While some survivors necessitate professional assistance to overcome their trauma, a significant portion of recovery can transpire beyond the confines of a clinic. Maui residents have relied on programs that aid them in reconnecting — to themselves, their community, land, and culture.
After jotting down her emotions, Dapitan perched on a foldable chair inside a horse corral. Several feet away, Maverick, a 22-year-old Tennessee Walker, rolled in the dirt.
The founder of the program, Paige DePonte, positioned herself in front of Dapitan and initiated a technique known as brainspotting. She maneuvered a small wand before Dapitan’s eyes to elicit specific eye movements believed to aid the brain in processing trauma. Subsequently, Dapitan approached Maverick. She combed his dark mane. After guiding him around the corral once, she halted, laid her arms on his back, and began to weep.
“He just allows you to rely on him,” she articulated. “I sense that I am healing because someone is at least permitting me to lean on them.”
For her husband Kalani, the ranch’s serene seclusion, nestled on a hillside overlooking Maui’s south coast, affords him the space to process the events. “Before we even encountered the horses, I was in tears,” he disclosed. “The tranquility really breaks down your barriers.”
Participants in equine-assisted therapy typically do not ride horses, but the animals’ mere presence can comfort individuals as they confront their trauma. They may groom, walk, and even converse with the animals, or the horses might be nearby as facilitators guide them through other counseling or psychotherapeutic methods.
“Horses are incredible healers,” stated DePonte, who launched the program on her family’s cattle ranch in 2021 after witnessing the transformative impact the animals had on her own trauma recovery. “They are in a state of harmony at all times, not preoccupied with tomorrow, not dwelling on yesterday.”
The program, now backed by grants from the Hawaii Community Foundation, Maui United Way, and other private contributors, has facilitated over 1,300 sessions for affected residents.
Dapitan had already commenced therapy prior to the fire to recover from a previous trauma, but she noted that her time at the ranch feels distinct. “I believe I gained the most from the horses in two days compared to the year of regular counseling sessions I’ve had.”
Holistic programs like these have helped address the overwhelming demand for support services following the Aug. 8, 2023 fire that claimed a minimum of 102 lives and displaced 12,000.
In addition to the traumatic experiences of losing homes and loved ones, survivors are anxious and tired from the unpredictability of daily life — relocating between hotel rooms, changing schools, and losing income.
“The impact on people’s mental health has been quite significant,” stated Tia Hartsock, director of Hawaii’s office of wellness and resilience. “Navigating bureaucratic systems while in a state of trauma has been exceedingly challenging.”
In a Hawaii Department of Health survey of affected families two months after the fire, almost three-quarters of respondents indicated that at least one person in their household had experienced nervousness, anxiety, or depression in the preceding two weeks. At the six-month mark, over half of survivors and one-third of all Maui residents surveyed by the University of Hawaii reported experiencing depressive symptoms.
This is to be expected following a disaster of such magnitude, noted Wills, deeming it “very normal reactions to a very abnormal situation.”
Providers, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, and the government collaborated to eliminate barriers to mental health treatment, such as covering individuals’ therapy sessions and staffing shelters and FEMA events with mental health practitioners.
However, they recognized that residents also required other alternatives. “Clinical support wasn’t necessarily going to be suitable for everyone,” stated Justina Acevedo-Cross, senior program manager at the Hawaii Community Foundation.
Numerous public and private donors are backing programs that reintegrate residents with the land and people, a practice Hartsock deems “extremely beneficial in the healing process.”
Several of these initiatives are grounded in Native Hawaiian healing customs. Cultural practitioners affiliated with the organization Hui Ho’omalu offer lomilomi, or Hawaiian massage. These sessions often segue into kukakuka, or deep dialogue, with Native Hawaiians trained in mental health support.
Affected families also tend to taro patches, rejuvenate native flora, and partake in cultural lessons on conserved land overseen by the organization Ka’ehu. Aviva Libitsky and her son Nakana, 7, volunteer there at least once a week, removing invasive snails from kalo pools and tidying up the shoreline.
Libitsky experienced anxiety for months after fleeing the Lahaina fire and losing the home she’d resided in since 2010. Working on the land soothes her. “It helps you channel that frenetic energy and put it toward something useful.”
She and Nakana recently acquired the skill of weaving bracelets from the leaves of hala trees at one of Ka’ehu’s cultural workshops. They’ve also visited Spirit Horse Ranch. “We just concentrate on new opportunities, creating new memories.”
As Maui embarks on its second year of recovery, providers are preparing for a new influx of individuals seeking assistance.
The final families are transitioning from hotels to the temporary housing designed to sustain them until Lahaina is rebuilt. This sudden tranquility can elicit heightened emotions, stated Acevedo-Cross. “They’re able to feel a bit more.”
Many who were not directly impacted by the fires are now enduring the repercussions, as rental prices soar, tourism jobs vanish, and acquaintances and family members relocate.
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