Easterseals Joins Forces with InStride Therapy to Serve Those with Disabilities in Southwest Florida

January 5, 2021 – Sarasota

After partnering for more than a year, Easterseals Happiness House and InStride Therapy formally merged all business operations last month. The unification will expand Easterseals’ already-diverse inventory of therapies and strengthen offerings in the south county region for individuals with disabilities and their families.

Easterseals began managing business operations at InStride in 2019. The merger completely marries business details of the two enterprises.

“We are proud of the work that our organizations have accomplished and look forward to celebrating even stronger success as the two become one,” President and CEO Tom Waters said. “This will allow us to deliver an exceptional full range of services for our clients and their families, now with the powerful tools only the horses can provide.”

The merger expands traditional Easterseals’ therapies – that include occupational, physical, speech and behavioral – to now fully include hippotherapy, which aids physical needs, and equine-assisted therapy, which assists clients with mental health, emotional and behavioral needs including those associated with autism.

InStride Therapy will maintain its brand identity and website, now anchored under the 74-year-old Easterseals umbrella of services, as well as its 25-year legacy of offering exceptional equine therapy at one of the premier equestrian facilities in the southeastern United States.

Easterseals Happiness House provides exceptional therapies and services for individuals with disabilities and their families by empowering them to live their lives to the fullest. The agency began serving the Southwest Florida region in 1946.