Can Praxis EAL is a Canadian registered charity, and we provide mental health recovery programs for Canadian Veterans and First Responders (serving and retired) living with an Operational Stress Injury (OSI), such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Founded in 2013 by a Canadian Military Veteran and a Trauma-focused clinician, Can Praxis is the leading Equine-Assisted Therapy provider for the Veteran and First Responder communities. To date, we have helped more than 750 participants.

We incorporate equine therapy into our programs because horses understand us and can teach us about ourselves. Horses are experts at reading body language and pick up on all the non-verbal cues we bring to an interaction.

There aren't many clinicians in Canada who genuinely understand OSIs, the impact on relationships, and the workplace cultures unique to First Responders and Military Veterans. For these and many other reasons, Can Praxis is uniquely positioned to offer programs that make a difference.

With a 93% efficacy rate (to-date), our programs teach vital skills and strategies to increase self-awareness, reduce negative impacts, and foster positive relationships, thereby reducing the duration, frequency and intensity of crisis and conflict associated with OSIs.

Approximately 50% of inquiries are from spouses, who are instrumental in recovery. We also treat at least one suicidal person on each of our programs, and we are serious about providing the right supports to save lives.

Can Praxis runs three-day programs designed for Veterans and First Responders, serving or retired, who have been diagnosed with PTSD and/or OSI and their Spouses/Partner/Family member. 

Couples who suffer the effects of PTSD /OSI will experience increased crisis and conflict in their lives. All activities at Can Praxis are designed to reduce inter-personal conflict and crisis through improved effective communication skills.

Three-phased programs for Veterans and First Responders (and a family member/partner/spouse).

It is a known fact that PTSD and/or OSI will introduce conflict and crisis into a person’s life.  The most effective means of attending to these concerns effectively is through positive and productive communication.  Can Praxis Three Phase programs focus on teaching the required skills and then provide follow up training and support in order to make these skills part of their daily life.  Each phase is a three-day program.

Can Praxis is the leading program of its kind in all of North America.

Each program covers the cost of transportation, hotels, meals and in hardship situations assistance with Childcare.

Phase one: Participants attend with their Spouse/Partner/Family member as equals.  Half of the program is spent in the classroom learning and understanding how conflict and crisis affect communication and recovery from OSI.  The remaining portion of the program is putting that theory into practice with horses during specialized groundwork exercises in the horse arena.  All exercises are debriefed and newly learned communication skills reinforced.

Phase two: Participants and Spouses/Partners/Family members attend separately from each other. Veterans attend as one group and Spouses as a different group at a different time.  During this phase of the program, they are taught the basics of caring for and riding a horse.  The evenings are spent debriefing around a campfire with the facilitators from phase one.  The purpose of this phase is to review and reinforce the lessons learned in Phase One.  Participants are focused on the positives they have created since attending the earlier phase as well as teaching each other how to communicate through difficult challenges.  This is a peer support environment created to shore up the new skills in communication and provide follow up debrief structures.

Phase three; Participants and Spouse/Partner/Family member attend together, up to a maximum of five “couples”.  This is a three-day horse ride in the mountains with evening debriefs around a campfire with phase one facilitators.  This is a follow up to phase two and phase one.  The environment created through daily activities provides the opportunity for an in-depth and detailed examination of how well new skills are working and through peer support how to best implement them in daily life.  Once again the focus on finding and identifying the positive life experiences through communication. At this point communication skills are at a level where basic conflict and crisis in their lives have been reduced at a measurable level and recovery from OSI is moving forward.