Equine Facilitated Therapy, Life Skills & Personal Development
Equine facilitated therapy is an experiential therapy using the healing power of horses to encourage mental health wellness. All therapy sessions include a team approach that is comprised of a licensed mental health professional, an equine specialist, and horses working collaboratively with the client. Sessions can be on the ground or mounted, this will be determined by your treatment team. Animal-assisted therapy can become a catalyst for conversation between therapist and client. Animals can lower stress hormones and increase health and social inducing hormones such as oxytocin, dopamine and endorphins. Animals can provide opportunities to develop relationship-building skills such as empathy, patience, present-moment focus, trust, touch, respect, responsibility, and boundary-setting. Horses are highly sensitive intuitive animals which make them the perfect partner. Sessions are tailored to the unique needs of each client. Equine assisted therapy may benefit people with many health concerns such as: anxiety, trauma/PTSD, eating disorders, addictions, behavior problems, depression, ADHD & grief.
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WHY HORSES?
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INTELLIGENT PREY
ANIMALS
To evade predators, horses have evolved to be extremely sensitive to their environment. They instinctively analyze and react to our body language and other nonverbal cues providing us with valuable feedback and insights for other areas of our lives.
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LARGE AND POWERFUL
It's hard to ignore a horse with their size and presence. We can't just control a powerful horse. Approaching horses helps us reflect how we approach our relationships and how we can face other big or overwhelming things in our lives.
HERD ANIMALS WITH DISTINCT PERSONALITIES
Horses are social animals with defined roles within a herd. They have distinct personalities, attitudes, and moods. They could be stubborn or they could be playful. In other words, horses are a lot like us.
