What is Equine Therapy?
Equine-assisted psychotherapy incorporates horses into the therapeutic process. People engage in activities such as watching horses, grooming, feeding, and leading a horse while being supervised by a mental health professional and an equine specialist.
Goals of this form of therapy including helping develop skills such as:
- Emotional regulation
- Self-confidence
- Responsibility
- Reduction of disruptive symptoms related to various mental health diagnoses
During equine-assisted therapy, the client is with a trained therapist, an equine specialist, and the horse. Riding is not involved with any equine-assisted psychotherapy with Danielle Carlson Counseling and Windfall Equestrian Center. Rather, the focus is on presence, attention, mindfulness, boundaries, social cues, and more.
Equine-assisted psychotherapy is often not the sole form of treatment, but rather a complementary therapeutic service to be used in partnership with more traditional treatment.
Who is this form of therapy for?
Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) can be used with a variety of populations and in a variety of therapeutic settings. In fact, horses can be used in counseling with individuals of all ages, even with families and groups.
Offering a much different experience than traditional talk therapy, EAP brings people outdoors and offers an opportunity to use all senses while learning and processing through emotional challenges.
Benefits
Although a variety of animals can be used in the psychotherapeutic process, horses offer unique traits that have made them a top choice for animal-assisted therapies. According to anxiety expert Dr. Robin Zasio, horses bring the following unique elements to the therapy process:
- Non-judgmental and unbiased
- Feedback and mirroring
- Managing vulnerability
Non-Judgmental and Unbiased
As much as humans, especially therapists, do our best to offer a safe space for clients to explore deep emotional hurts and painful experiences, it can be uncomfortable for clients to openly share their thoughts.
Building therapeutic rapport can take time as participants work toward building trust and practicing vulnerability in session.
Having the horse present may offer a sense of peace, as they will react to the client’s behavior and emotions with no threat of bias or any judgment of their emotional experience.
Feedback and mirroring
Horses are keen observers and are vigilant and sensitive to movement and emotion. They often mirror a client’s behavior or emotions, conveying understanding and connection that allows the client to feel safe.
This also allows for clients to maintain a sense of self-awareness, using the horse’s behavior and interactions for feedback and opportunities to check in and process what is happening in the moment.
Managing Vulnerability
As clients might find themselves vulnerable when trying to open up about emotional challenges, past experiences, or life transitions, the horse can offer a reference point to use for processing.
If something feels too painful to speak of, it can feel a bit easier for clients to process using the horse as an example, or to align their experience with the horse’s experiences in the moment. Externalizing the content in this way can make things easier to approach and process through.
Some other potential benefits of equine therapy include increased:
- Adaptability
- Distress tolerance
- Emotional awareness
- Independence
- Impulse control
- Self-esteem
- Social awareness
- Social relationships
Diagnoses Effectively Treated with EAP
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety-related conditions include, but aren’t limited to:
- Agoraphobia
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- Separation anxiety
- Selective mutism
- Social anxiety disorder
- Specific phobia
More information: www.equineelevated.com