Healing Trauma on the Farm

It’s a crisp morning, and a breeze brings barnyard smells while a volunteer reads Llama Llama Mad at Mama to a group of delighted preschoolers. While Jacopo the llama looks on from the nearby pasture, wonder and giggles abound as another volunteer passes amongst the group and allows the children to caress Popcorn the bunny.

So begins another busy day at Simple Sparrow Care Farm, a haven for trauma-affected children and adults in Williamson County, Texas. Trauma affects people from almost every age group, race, and socioeconomic class, and its ill effects ripple out to relationships among individuals, families, and communities. But at Simple Sparrow, people who are hurting can find healing and purpose by learning the joys of caring for land, gardens, and animals.

How It All Began

Simple Sparrow began as a place of hope and healing for its founder, Jamie Tanner (MACL 2019). Growing up with the trauma of an incarcerated parent, Jamie remembers her only respite: spending time on her grandparents’ Colorado farm. Her grandmother taught her to care for sheep, chickens, and bunnies and to grow vegetables such as carrots, radishes, and corn. After college and service as an army combat nurse, Jamie married and gave birth to four children. But as they grew, she longed to share her farm experience with them. So, ten years ago, Jamie and her husband bought a small two-acre farm, which quickly became a gathering place for family, friends, and even some of the ministries at their church. Soon, the farm’s benefit became evident. By caring for animals and gardens, many visitors became better able to care for themselves and others.

Feeling a call to ministry, Jamie enrolled at DTS. One of the courses she took required her to develop and evaluate a ministry. Jamie envisioned a farm ministry in which victims of trauma, made in God’s image and designed to care for God’s creation (Gen 1:26–31), could learn farming practices. Through this, they might experience the flourishing of shalom.

With her professor’s encouragement, Jamie researched how others worldwide used the nature of a farm for therapy. She discovered the popular European concept of “care farming.” A care farm uses farming-related activities, such as animal husbandry and garden tending, as part of a supervised, structured rehabilitative program for vulnerable groups and individuals.

Jamie set about working on her proposal. When a licensed therapist friend began bringing traumatized clients to the farm for sessions, the friend soon reported seeing better results than in the office. Community groups began partnering for programs that brought animals to local schools, foster care agencies, and nursing homes, with positive results. Individuals volunteered for animal care and outreach, and within a few months, Simple Sparrow became a fully functioning nonprofit organization.

While self-described as Bible-based, the farm’s many programs welcome people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, regardless of their beliefs. In addition to onsite mental health care services through licensed counselors, the farm offers Christian counseling and weekly Bible study for anyone interested. Simple Sparrow also trains professionals, church members, and students in trauma-informed care and basic homestead farming techniques.

Lives Transformed

Numerous individuals have experienced changed lives after becoming part of the loving community of people and animals at the farm.

A young woman named Destiny came to Simple Sparrow after a horrific experience with sex trafficking. Kidnapped from her school at age fourteen and forced into prostitution, she suffered from depression and struggled to stay employed because job stress triggered her trauma. Destiny started volunteering at Simple Sparrow and later accepted a paying job there. She cared for animals, assisted with tours, and participated in community outreach programs. Taking care of the goats and bunnies made her feel better. Her safe relationships with animals and people at the farm helped her learn how to offer compassion and care to others. Destiny stayed for two years and even got baptized after receiving Christian counseling at the farm. She later found a steady job at a car manufacturer and continues to do well. Destiny says her farm experience made her happier and helped her realize that her life could have purpose and meaning.

As a high school junior, Catherine also experienced life change at the farm. She suffered from anxiety, depression, and self-harm and almost died in a traumatic four-wheeler accident. She tried to end her life twice, resulting in repeated admittance to inpatient hospitals. After connecting through a partnering organization, she accepted a summer internship at the farm, which proved a turning point in her recovery. She learned animal care and participated in farm outreach programs. She especially loved the Book & Bunny program, where she read to preschoolers weekly and used bunnies to teach them kindness and empathy. She later completed high school and found a job working with dogs at a local kennel. Today, Catherine exudes confidence and has learned to manage her depression by caring for animals and people.

Multiplying Compassion

As word traveled about the farm, Jamie became overwhelmed with requests from organizations looking for mental health alternatives for trauma, depression, suicidal ideation, and dementia. Everyone wanted to know how they could start their own care farm programs. After contacting several professors at Dallas Theological Seminary for advice, Jamie entered a doctoral program at DTS in 2021, focusing on creating an easily reproducible, Bible-based care farm model that will work in various settings. She excitedly looks to the future and the potential for multiplication in the number of changed lives.

In 2023, Simple Sparrow partnered with twenty-five organizations, connecting with more than 5,000 individuals through farm and community outreach programs and more than 900 individuals through onsite therapy and volunteer services. Over 300 community members donated their time to support the farm and its programs.

As the sun sets on another day at the farm, and the staff returns all the therapy bunnies to their cages, one thing becomes apparent: Simple Sparrow offers more than just farming. It’s a place where compassion and healing intersect, and it testifies to the possibilities when healing results from learning to steward God’s creation with care. At Simple Sparrow, the flourishing of shalom becomes a reality in people’s everyday lives.