Equine Therapy for Emotional Healing

In Equine Assisted therapy, horses are used as tools for our clients to gain self-understanding and emotional growth.  It recognizes the bond between animals and humans and the potential for emotional healing that can occur when a relationship is formed between the two species. The horses are not ridden, and usually are not tethered in the arena, but allowed to roam free.  Exercises can be as simple as giving the client a halter, and letting them figure out how to approach the horse and put it on.  

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Confidence:
The learning and mastery of a new (horsemanship) skill-enhances clients confidence in their ability to tackle new projects, such as recovery, and leads to improved self-esteem. 

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Self-Efficacy:
Learning to communicate and achieve harmony with a large animal promotes renewed feelings of efficacy. A motivated "I can do it!" replaces feelings of helplessness, de-motivation, by empowering the person to take on new challenges in other areas of recovery. 

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Self-Awareness:
Being in the presence of horses promotes a self awareness in movement and energy. This is especially important in clients with interpersonal aggression problems. 

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Communication:
Horses' sensitivity to non-verbal communication assists our clients in developing greater awareness of their emotions, the non-verbal cues that they may be communicating, and the important role of non-verbal communication in relationships.

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Trust:
Learning to trust an animal such as a horse also aides in the development, or restoration, of trust for those whose ability to trust has been violated by difficult life experiences such as physical or sexual abuse, abandonment, neglect, or marital infidelity.

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Perspective:
Through grooming activities and other types of care for a specific horse, patients are able to put aside the absorbing focus of their mental illness, such as depressive ruminations, and instead to direct their attention and interests outwardly toward safe and caring interactions.

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Anxiety Reduction:
Many studies of human-animal interaction indicate that contact with animals significantly reduces physiological anxiety levels. Some clients are initially afraid of horses. But horses' genuineness and affection allay these fears, helping clients to embrace exposure therapy for their anxiety issues.

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Decreasing Isolation:
For many individuals with mental illness, there is a long-term or recent history of feeling rejected by, and different from, other people. Mental illnesses are intrinsically isolating experiences. The horse's unconditional acceptance invites clients back into the fellowship of life.

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Self-Acceptance:
Many clients are initially concerned that they will do something embarrassing while learning about the horses. Yet clients quickly learn that the other participants are engaged in their own equine experiences, and they observe the comfort of the horses in their own skin. Fears of embarrassment in public are thereby often reduced and self-acceptance increased.

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Impulse Modulation:
Particularly for those whose mental illness involves the experience of lost control over impulses, the need to communicate with a horse calmly and non-reactively promotes the skills of emotional awareness, emotion regulation, self-control, and impulse modulation. Research clearly indicates that animal-assisted therapy reduces clients agitation and aggressiveness and increases cooperativeness and behavioral control.

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Social Skills:
Many individuals with mental illness are socially isolated or withdrawn. A positive relationship with a horse is often a first, safe step toward practicing the social skills needed to initiate closer relationships with people.

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Assertiveness:
Communicating effectively with a horse requires the rider to demonstrate assertiveness, direction, and initiative; important skills that enable the patient to express their needs and rights more effectively in other relationships. 

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Boundaries:
Many clients have experienced prior relationships as controlling or abusive. Healing takes place as clients discover that the horse works  within the context of a respectful relationship between a client and a horse, and that, although physically powerful, each horse typically operates within the boundaries of this mutually respectful relationship. 

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Creative Freedom:
Many persons with mental illness have been emotionally inhibited or over-controlled, and have lost some measure of spontaneity. The playful aspects of client and team equine activities can help restore spontaneity and ability for healthy recreation and play.