Warrant Officer (ret’d) Steve Critchley spent 28 years as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces as a Basic Training Instructor, as well as an Advanced Leadership Instructor, and was deployed to Egypt, Cyprus and Bosnia.  

During the Bosnian war, he witnessed human conflict at its worst. 

His role included negotiating with armed belligerents and establishing small local areas of trust and cooperation. He was also included in a select group from the Canadian military to undergo mediation training. Through experience and training, often in volatile environments, Steve developed the belief that people can work together to achieve realistic and positive results. 

Years of experience creating areas of trust in battlefields and, later, in boardrooms have informed Can Praxis, the Alberta-based equine therapy program for Veterans, first responders and their loved ones thathe founded in 2013.  

Horses are central to the Can Praxis model. As hypervigilant prey animals, they provide instant, unbiased feedback on participants’ emotions and behaviours. Their body language — from the flick of an ear to the tension in their muscles — offers participants and psychologists alike a clear reflection of inner states. Horses respond only to how a participant shows up in the moment, not to rank, history, or past experiences. 

Can Praxis gained almost immediate interest from clinicians, academics, government and funders and most importantly, made a tangible, trackable, lasting difference in the lives of Veterans and their spouses.  

In 2022, Can Praxis launched a family program and in 2023 started the Three Sisters Women Veterans Camp program.  

Through the Captain Nichola Goddard Fund, True Patriot Love is investing in the Three Sisters program, covering the costs of facilitation, participant travel, meals, accommodations, and equine program costsfor 10 women Veterans dealing with operational stress injuries as a result of their service. 

True Patriot Love spoke to Steve and to Can Praxis’ Board Chair, Lieutenant Colonel (ret’d) Rick Bowes, about the roots of the program, the challenges they face, and why equine therapy is so much more thanhanging out with horses. 

TRUE PATRIOT LOVE: Let’s start with the fundamentals: what is at the heart of Can Praxis programs? 

STEVE: If you’ve been diagnosed with an operational stress injury, conflict and crisis will become part of your everyday life. We need to help our Veterans and their families learn how to understand and have proper conversations and not allow their lives to be derailed by conflict and crisis. 

Can Praxis is available for any Veteran who’s encountered an operational stress injury and for their spouse, partner, family member or their best friend – the person they turn to when in crisis.  

We’ll cover costs of transportation, accommodations, the program, whatever is required, even helping folks with childcare if they’re in financial difficulty. The idea is that we remove all the barriers. 

The purpose is to help people relearn how to have at least one effective conversation a day with the person most important to them, like their spouse. Because if you can have one effective conversation, you can have two, and if you can have two, you’re set up for success. 

How did Can Praxis start? 

STEVE: The roots of Can Praxis come from my mediation background. One of the last secondary duties I had while still in uniform was conflict resolution. I would go around Western Canada interacting with commanding officers, corporals and such, reviewing harassment cases, talking about performance reviews and conflict between uniform and non-uniform people.  

As the outcomes of Afghanistan were becoming clearer, and PTSD and operational stress injuries were becoming more apparent, and we began to understand it more, we realized that an operational stress injury brings conflict and crisis into everyone’s life.  

In 2013 we were able to provide the first program. We brought six couples together and went through the three-day program to test the concept. The concept was sound, and we’ve been running pretty much the same program since 2013. Its success has been incredibly humbling. 

RICK: Steve and I served together in the military. I left the military in 2003 but I knew that the whole issue of OSIs was coming home to roost. When Steve called me out of the blue about three years ago that was a moment of clarity for me. I thought, “I’ve got to do something now. I’ve got to help out.” My role at Can Praxis is to reach out to other organizations for fundraising and to raise awareness. Steve’s hard to say no to! 

STEVE: Can Praxis is two words: Can stands for the Canadian can-do attitude. Praxis means to take theory and put it into practice. So essentially the name Can Praxis means “Walk the talk.”   

What makes horses such effective supports to therapy? 

STEVE: It’s interesting because we have people who are extremely skeptical and they really don’t want to be on the program. They’re only there because their spouse forced them, as it were. But after three days, we have to physically stop them from trying to take a horse home in the trunk of their car. Their whole life has changed. 

Horses have a unique ability to connect with people. The horses work on the same thing in a relationship that people do, which is trust and respect. Working with a horse provides you the opportunity to understand what you’re bringing to a conversation: are you coming on too strong? Are you not strong enough? 

Using horses, using qualified, registered psychologists who understand the Veteran community, and understanding how to help people move through conflict and crisis all come together.  

True Patriot Love is funding the Three Sisters Camp. How is Three Sisters different? 

STEVE: Three Sisters Camp is a specialized program for women Veterans encountering operational stress injuries from their time in uniform. Many participants are navigating complex challenges in family life, transition to civilian careers, and rebuilding trust in themselves and others. By providing a safe, women-only environment, the program addresses needs that are often overlooked in Veteran services designed primarily for men. 

The camp is facilitated by a woman psychologist who has a good understanding of the culture and community of Veterans. It is also facilitated by another woman Veteran who spent 30-plus years in uniform.The Three Sisters Camp is Canada’s only psychologist-led equine-assisted therapy program created exclusively for women Veterans, delivered by an all-female team of clinicians and Veteran facilitators. 

True Patriot Love’s support is going to help us run an additional camp this year and we’ll be able to give priority to the women Veterans on our waiting list. 

Are there areas in which you’re seeing potential challenges? 

RICK: It’s always a challenge to find funds and supporters. The other challenge is there are a lot of copycats out there when it comes to equine therapy. Don’t get me wrong: they may be well-meaning but essentially what they’re offering is a trail ride that’ll be a positive experience. But from our perspective, it’s actually dangerous if you’ve got somebody who is suffering from an OSI and you’re advertising yourself as an equine therapy provider, but you aren’t doing it in a clinically valid way. 

STEVE: Therapeutic riding is nowhere similar to the program we’re providing. Therapeutic riding is a completely different modality with different expectations. Our program is therapy for the Veteran and their family member, spouse or partner provided by a qualified, registered therapist. We focus on using both the therapy and the horses to improve communication between the individuals. 

What do you wish that more Canadians knew about Veterans and military families? 

RICK: I didn’t appreciate this when I was serving, to be honest, but the family serves too. When we were getting ready to go to Bosnia in 1994, I think I was home maybe six weeks that whole year. And when I came home, my eldest daughter, who was two, had no idea who I was. The family deals with the absence and they deal with danger. Whether you’re in an airplane or at sea or on the on the ground, even if you’re training, you’re doing dangerous things.

But our families are also dealing with things when dad or mom are not around and the normal stresses of life are going on. Your partner is the single parent at that point. And that’s what people need to understand: service is just not the individual wearing the uniform.  

Any final thoughts? 

STEVE: Can I give you a quick philosophy of what we want people to walk away with at the end of the program?  

Please. 

STEVE: It’s this: our people, our Veterans, are not broken.  

If a leaf falls off a plant, you can’t go to Canadian Tire, buy a new leaf, staple it on and fix the plant. But in the right environment with the right nutrients on that plant, a leaf will grow back. It won’t be the same leaf; it’ll be a different leaf. But that plant can be healthier and stronger than it was.  

It’s the same for our Veterans. They’re not broken. They’re injured, they’re wounded, and in the right environment with the right nutrients they too can overcome the injury. And that right environment is their conversations and those nutrients are their words.  

They won’t be the same person. But they have the opportunity to be a stronger, healthier person than they were.  

You can help True Patriot Love invest in more innovative, evidence-backed programs for Veterans, serving members and their families. Click here to donate. Thank you!