Equine Inclusive Therapy
Our Equine Inclusive Therapy (EIT) program is designed to bring horses into the therapeutic process to facilitate change. Horses are highly attuned with their environment and are experts at nonverbal communication; this makes them great teachers for all participants. Equine Inclusive Therapy is an experiential therapy offered to individuals, families and groups within our program to enhance the effectiveness of the process.
Adolescents are at a life stage where doing, not just talking about doing, expedites the change process considerably. This is especially true if they have experienced trauma and talking directly about painful memories is too distressing. The interactions with the horses provide metaphors to understanding and interpreting the behaviors of people in the youth’s life as well as their own reactions to stimulus. The lessons learned in Equine Inclusive Therapy are easily applied to aspects of a youth’s life outside of the equine relationships.
Our program is unique in the way we engage our equine participants. We teach the clients how to understand the horses’ nonverbal language in order to create a relationship dialogue where everyone has a voice and a choice. We offer a range of activities during our equine sessions. The initial activities are conducted through at-liberty work. This is where the horse is at-liberty to go where he/she wishes while the participant/s tries to accomplish a task without a lead rope, halter, etc. being attached to the horse. From at-liberty we can flow through to more advanced options like rhythmic riding, depending on the level of connectedness within the equine-student relationship.
The activities are not the most important aspect of the sessions, it is the dialogue throughout that is critical to the therapeutic work. When youth receive in the moment feedback through the lens of a horse, it helps them understand the consequences of their behavior, something that is often harder to perceive and accept within human relationships.
When talking about horses, participants often refer to their experience as being truly seen.
“This horse can see into my soul!” -Hannah
Horses perceive what is truly going on with the person in front of them and react accordingly. Participants are unable to disguise their emotions or their intentions because horses attune to non-verbal messages. The horses’ feedback to those unspoken signals helps the therapist and equine facilitator prompt the practice of a skill, at the time it is needed, which greatly accelerates the learning and integration of new skills.
Benefits of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy:
- Provides insight as to how their own behaviors can affect others around them
- Provides direct feedback
- Addresses every learning style
- Offers real-time opportunities to practice and master skills
- Develops non-coercive connections with the horses
- Develops self-advocacy, self-reliance, and self-awareness
- Teaches problem solving skills and responsibility
- Teaches Emotion Regulation/Distress tolerance
- Cultivates healthy relationships, develops empathy and an understanding of their own emotions
- Develops Risk Assessment skills
- Offers an opportunity to practice and incorporate Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and other coping skills
- Helps students Master Mindfulness
- Reduce the negative impacts of early childhood trauma
In addition to our Equine Inclusive Therapy (EIT) the Academy at Sisters developed our Holistic Horsemanship Program (HHP) to provide the students more opportunities to engage with our horses. Feel free to reach out to Sandy Vaughn, our Equine Facilitator to address any questions you may have through our contact form. We look forward to seeing you in the arena!