Horses help us in an amazing array of ways; we tell them our problems and they act as our confidantes, they provide us with stress relief & a safe haven from external pressures, their presence requires our focus & calls on us to be responsible for their care…

Current research has shown that horses also fill a role in helping us to cope with & solve problems, improve our communication skills & improve our sense of self-worth.

They help improve our physical fitness, our emotional states & the behavioural patterns we form.

Although the use of animals in therapy is not new, the use of horses in psychotherapy is developing rapidly. One of the major benefits of this approach is that horses, through the various challenges they present, force us to recognise our negative emotional & behavioural states & act as effective “change agents”, assisting in the change process.

Working with horses can be fun & extremely rewarding. It can also be difficult, frustrating physically exhausting & dangerous. Working with horses brings to the fore anxiety issues, problems with focus & concentration, lack of self-control & perceptions of self-worth.

Horses provide us with a unique “mirror” in which our emotions & behaviours are presented back to us. In this way we are able to see the self-limiting thought patterns or behaviours we have adopted and work towards changing them into more positive and constructive ones.

Behaviour is generally a reflection of an individual’s thought patterns … and recognition of that cognitive / behavioural link is the first step towards change.

Horses have the most marvellous ability to reflect our emotions, they also react to our anxiety, anger & frustration. In this way, they help us to recognise the limitations in our communication, assertiveness, problem-solving & negotiation and, through this process of reflecting and reacting, help us to change and strengthen our thoughts and behaviours in those areas.

Individual sessions commence with learning basic horsemanship skills to ensure the client has the skills and knowledge to ensure their safety. After some discussion and reflection on how the horse and client are interacting, specific exercises are then given to help the client further examine their self-limiting thoughts or behaviours through their work with the horse.

Workshops may also be designed for corporate or family groups emphasising teamwork, communication, problem-solving, negotiation etc…

Although the use of animals in therapeutic situations is not new, horses offer a totally different experience to that associated with cats & dogs as they are very large and sometimes unpredictable animals, therefore they have the potential to be extremely dangerous.

Working with horses is therefore very challenging and the individual must confront their negative or self-limiting thoughts and behaviours in order to create a functional relationship between themselves and the horse.

Probably one of the biggest differences between working with EFT & the more traditional psychology, counselling, psychotherapy approaches is that the situations & external factors encountered are always changing in EFT, whereas they tend to be more ‘stationary’ in the other approaches.

This ever-changing environment provides a series of different challenges which the client must constantly consider, confront & adapt to … in the process, considering, confronting & adapting their own thoughts and behaviours.

EFT is also seen as very interactive & physical – it is by it’s very nature, an experiential therapy…this means that the client learns by their own experiences.

It is absolutely vital that a mental health professional be involved & consulted during the EFT process. Obviously an experienced, professional horse-handler is also a necessity. Intensive, on-going consultation between these two parties is of the utmost importance during the course of the EFT.

Although she is ably qualified, Vanessa also works closely with a registered psychologist to ensure that all aspects of therapy are considered.

With programmes tailored specifically for each client, Equine-Facilitated Therapy provides opportunities to work with issues such as anxiety & eating disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, self-harming behaviours, Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD/ADHD), addictions & relapse.

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