LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It's been over six years since the 1 October tragedy in Las Vegas, where 58 people lost their lives during the Route 91 Music Festival. Two others died later from injuries sustained that night.
One of the people who was at the festival that night was Dean McAuley, a firefighter from Seattle. He said it's a night that still haunts him.
"It’s hard to get back to normal when everyone in my state saw it as a commercial or a news," McAuley said. "They didn’t know it really existed."
Now, he is sharing his journey of healing from the trauma he experienced that night. McAuley recounted the challenges he faced in the wake of the tragedy.
"I’d wake up every morning seeing the same people, the people I let down that night, the people that I failed that did not make it."
He vividly recalled his efforts to help others during the shooting.
"I had my hands on 20, 30, maybe 40 people that night, being on the field and at Sunrise Hospital, and a lot of those people didn’t make it."
Seeking a way to address his trauma, McAuley turned to equine-assisted therapy, an alternative form of therapy that involves interactions between patients and horses.
"I mean, I had doctors wanting to medicate me. I had trauma therapists who were trying to work with me over a year to two years, getting nowhere," McAuley explained. "I came out here and in four days, without medication, I learned to reroute that trauma."
Terri Keener, an EMDR therapist who worked with McAuley at the stable arena, highlighted the unique comfort that horses can provide in therapy.
"They just feel comfort, and not alone, and not judged, and people tend to move through the process smoothly, and with ... You know, it's still difficult. It's a difficult thing and we can't take away the trauma, but it does make it so that people can manage."
McAuley's therapy session was nearly a year ago and he has since experienced significant improvements in his mental health.
"I was thinking a month, it would wear out. It didn't. And then, six months went by and the anniversary came up and I was in a very good healthy space. I don't have triggers anymore," McAuley said. "I will always have sadness from that night but I can hear music again. I can listen to music again."
