Choose Equine Therapy First, Don’t Make it a Last Resort!
“Your greatest fears are created by your imagination. Don’t give in to them.”
Winston Churchill
Why Therapy?
Sometimes it is necessary for humans to seek therapy. Therapy being defined as “the treatment of mental or psychological disorders by psychological means”.
Our licensed mental health professionals (LPC, LMSW, PhD) partner with trained, experienced and certified equine professionals, to provide services to clients who are dealing with the symptoms of past traumas that often include anxiety, depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress, attachment disorders, situational stress, loss of a loved one, divorce or anything that causes a disruption in the ability to sleep, concentrate or in general thrive mentally, physically, socially, vocationally and spiritually. Meet our team, click here!
Our services include cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR and many other methods recognized throughout the world for their efficacy in the treatment of psychological disorders. We are all trauma-informed, and have experience with mindfulness and somatic experiencing. Click here for a free consultation.
This is “real” therapy that is experiential, meaning that our clients actually experience safety in a natural setting that provides the opportunity for the creation of new nuero-pathways in human brains. It is not a band-aid, a role-play or a quick fix. Activities taking place during therapy sessions are specifically targeted to therapeutic goals which are set during intake sessions and are re-evaluated throughout the process. Often therapy teams work in tandem with Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Results are long-term and happen quickly. Meet our team.
The horses add the experiential, or experienced, part of the therapy process, given their ability to clearly respond to requests from clients with their body language and actual reaction to proximity and pressure the client is putting on the horse in order to communicate intention. Given that the horses are working at liberty (they do not have on a halter or rope) they have all of their choices available and can choose to walk away and ignore clients, roll, sleep, eat, resist or cooperate. They are not trained for this work, we rely on their natural instincts and do not want compliance from our partners. Meet our horses.
When these powerful and gentle prey animals are given choices, their reactions are authentic and not forced. Horses are hard-wired for healthy relationship. They are able to engage in connected relationships based on trust, and not fear, and they can clearly demonstrate, without manipulation of any kind, whether the human is actually living in the present moment or their minds are wandering into worrying about the future or dwelling on the past, (often described as swirling thoughts, difficulty in focusing or concentrating, sadness, helplessness or a heightened sense of anxiety). Click here for a free consultation.
Experiencing what it actually feels like inside our bodies to be present, teaches the brain that this is a better and safer place to be. Our clients learn to recognize when they have stopped being present when they are away from the horses, and purposely re-engage with what is going on around them in their lives. The pure joy of working with a horse in the moment and having them authentically and willingly agree to walk with us without a rope, engage in activities and obviously feel safe and present provides the opportunity to “practice” and sustain safe attachment.
Click here to go to the contact page to make an appointment or speak to someone about our services.
“The True Self is not our creation, but God’s. It is the self we are in our depths. It is our capacity for divinity and transcendence.”
– Sue Monk Kidd
Trauma
Now, what does it mean when trauma is introduced into this topic? Essentially when “bad” things (car accident, hospitalization, unexpected death, divorce, war, abuse) happen our brains and nervous systems react – fight, flight or freeze. Cortisol and adrenaline flow to provide stamina to survive the stressful situation, enable us to run away or go into a state of disassociation. We actually need our brains to do this in order to keep us alive and safe. However, there are times when the human brain has to adapt to repeated perceived or real threats to our lives and/or well-being and in order to keep us “safe”, we develop maladaptive, or unhealthy, coping mechanisms. These include disassociation (checking out), quietly meeting everyone’s needs (staying under the radar), aggression (anger, rage), or inappropriate overreaction (fear/flight) and can damage relationships.
In addition, repeated threats and traumas cause a loss in the ability to appropriately react to certain stimulus, (sounds, smells, people, situations, emotions) and “triggers” develop that set into motion actions and out of control emotions. These triggers cause inappropriate and uncontrolled reactions to perceived and real threats and damage relationships, affect the ability to work and affect quality of life. These include dysregulation in terms of emotional outbursts and an inability to control emotions and thoughts, disassociation, nightmares/flashbacks and repeated unhealthy behaviors that numb us to experiencing sadness, loss, anger, fear and helplessness (drinking, drugs, self-harm, promiscuity etc.).
At the time we are experiencing trauma or stress, these reactions may be appropriate, but over time without intervention, they can inhibit and even ambush our ability to create sustained healthy connected relationships and keep our nervous systems in a constant fight/flight/freeze hyper-vigilant state. These old and well-used coping mechanisms, often from past relationships or events, become default mechanisms and without even realizing what is happening, the subconscious mind takes over and moves the mind and body into a space that changes the ability to openly and honestly interact with others. This can cause us to struggle with creating and sustaining relationships with our peers, partners, children and even strangers and hold down a job or sleep. Often depression and a feeling of isolation, helplessness, hopelessness and being “stuck” develop and seem insurmountable. In situations where abuse continues, clients tend to notice panic attacks, loss of memory, increased heart rate and blood pressure, insomnia, stomach pain and headaches.
Healing
“Vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.” – Brene’ Brown
The good news is that the brain is incredibly malleable. It can heal and learn better coping mechanisms and learn appropriate responses to stimulus. With help from a qualified licensed therapist, the brain of the client can create new nuero-pathways that lead to healthier and more appropriate responses to stimulus in our environment, aid in creating and sustaining healthy relationships, re-connect to intuition and creativity and even develop the ability to allow our nervous systems to rest and relax. This re-connection to self has been described as a light coming on and a sense of weight being lifted. The symptoms of anxiety and depression gradually lessen and eventually can disappear altogether.
The ability to live in the moment, recognize when triggers are causing a physical sensation and emotional reaction, then learning regulation, is vital to creating those new pathways. The horses are necessary for this process because they instantly react to humans living in the moment, being authentic and recognizing current emotion. Emotions do not cause them to fear or reject us. It is when emotions are ignored or pushed aside, while pretending to be okay, that we do not feel safe to them and they will ignore or resist our requests to interact (similar to a wolf in sheep’s clothing).
Emotions and feelings are part of the makeup of the human nervous system, and so learning how to recognize what these sensations are communicating, is a skill that humans must have in order to learn the ability to self-regulate and appropriately respond to the stimulus. Slowing down and recognizing what is happening is the first step, responding if needed, and then going back to a state of calm is the goal. Without achieving this state of calm it is almost impossible to relationally connect to other humans, think clearly and make decisions.
Mindfulness Relating to Healing
Mindfulness is defined as actively seeking an awareness of the present moment and acknowledging physical sensations, current feelings and emotions, as opposed to swirling thoughts. By bringing this real-time awareness into healing models, our facilitators and teams actively teach practices that can help clients achieve this state outside the ranch and therapy office. This in turn teaches what we call regulation, or the ability to recognize when the state of mind is out of control thoughts, based on information that may or may not be true versus living in the moment and trusting our intuition and real time nervous system reaction to events or people. Click here to schedule a free consultation.
Humans were designed to recognize and take into consideration what instincts/intuition/gut is communicating, and not disregard and actively push those reactions aside and ignore them. It is in the ability to make decisions based both on our initial instinctual reaction plus our years of education and life wisdom, that goals are accomplished and relationships are grown and cultivated. Both must occur for ultimate life satisfaction, a sense of purpose and moments of joy. We refer to that as full brain integration.
The work that is done with the horses promotes healing because it is quiet and safe. This is crucial to teach clients how to live in the present moment and treat the root of the symptoms that brought them to us. Only when the brain perceives safety can it process through trauma.
Go to our contact page to request additional information on our program.