Equine Assisted Psychotherapy

I just finished a three-day EAGALA training program held in Phoenix, Arizona on January 11-13. Attendees learned how to conduct an equine assisted psychotherapy session by participating in a variety of hands-on activities involving horses.

The therapy team is made up of three members: a horse, an equine specialist, and a mental health professional. The team assists a client or clients in addressing their emotional and behavioral issues by designing an activity that requires the clients to interact with one or more horses. The main job of the licensed therapist and the equine specialist is to carefully observe what happens during the session. The horse plays a pivitol role as a member of the therapy team by simply being a horse allowed to interact freely with the clients. Whatever surfaces during the session can be attributed to the physical presence of the horses as part of the group. The horse is the guide.

The photo shows the result of a role-playing activity called Extended Appendages. The participants, playing the roles of dysfunctional family members, attempt to harness one of two horses loose in a round pen. One of the fictional clients, a mother having difficulty communicating with her two teenage daughters, was chosen to be the "brain" who instructed the "two arms" (her estranged daughters) what to do.

Following the session, the clients "check in" with the therapists to process what went on, noting the ways in which the horses reacted to them. Using non-directive questioning techniques, the therapists state what they saw the horses doing and create metaphorical connections to the dynamic occuring within the family. In this way, the clients are confronted with their "issues" and challenged to discover their own solutions to the problems they are experiencing at home. As you might imagine, lots of personal "stuff" comes out during the session.

I will be blogging more about the shamanic connections to this type of work in subsequent posts.