Therapists and horse trainers learn benefits of horses in therapy
Okotoks Western Wheel
June 9, 2003
It took them close to half an hour, but six horse professionals were finally able to get "Mr. T" over a jump.
At a unique Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) training session last month, horse professionals and therapists from across North America gathered to learn why doing a simple task like this with the added challenge of not touching, bribing or talking to the horse can do wonders for human therapy sessions.
As EAP co-founder Greg Kersten explained, the training gave the participants the ability to think beyond the traditional therapy setting.
"The main goal is that they have the confidence to think outside the box and be creative," he said. "The ultimate goal is to have them be more effective therapists and treatment teams."
EAP is an alternative form of therapy that is slowly gaining recognition across North America. Conducted by an EAP team consisting of a certified psychotherapist and horse trainer, EAP use horses to aid clients with a variety of challenges, from depression or anxiety to those prone to violence or criminal behavior.
During an EAP session, clients are asked to get a horse to perform various tasks, with the psychotherapist standing on the sidelines and verbally helping the client through the process with questions, comments and observations. By working with horses in this way, clients are able to improve skills in communication, team building, problem solving, self-confidence, conflict resolution and relation-ships.
The three-day training session was hosted by local EAP team Winning Strides and was held May 22-24 at Sapergia Training Stables, east of Aldersyde. Participants received Level 1 certification in EAP.
Sessions were held outside in the corral, led by Equine-Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) co-founders Greg Kersten and Lynn Thomas.
Participating therapists and horse trainers learned what various exercises and activities can be useful for therapy clients, an aspect that participant and local therapist Laurie Ann Thorhaug found quite helpful.
"That's the best way to train," she said. "You're getting an idea of what your clients are going to do, which I think is really important in therapy."
Thorhaug and her husband, Shawn Dallyn, plan on establishing their own EAP practice once they are fully qualified. As Dallyn explained, taking the Level 1 certification has taught him a lot about horses than what he already knew as a horse professional.
"You always think you're teaching a horse something, but then you realize what they can teach you," he said. "You build a better relationship with them."
As Laurie Messner of Winning Strides explained, the training was well received by all the participants.
"They're looking for new ways to work with clients, and this is so fun," she said. "People want to go to therapy when there's horses there."
One of the main concepts of the three-day training session was the importance of using the honesty of the animals to one's advantage.
As participant Melissa Ranstrom of Billings, Montana explained, EAP does just that.
"I think that it's very helpful," she said. "They're very natural animals and they can tell us a lot about ourselves."
Thorhaug said removing the therapy session from the traditional office setting can be helpful as well. Getting outside and being in touch with nature, she said, can be less threatening for clients.
It is the simplicity of this concept, said Kersten, that makes EAP so effective.
"It's stuff that we've been doing for years that we've almost forgotten about," he said, noting that the therapeutic effectiveness of animals seems to be more and more overlooked by technology and additional schooling. "Some of the old (therapy techniques) work just as well if you can just get back to the basics."
By working with horses, he said, clients have the advantage of seeing themselves and their own actions through the horses' behavior.
"Horses have this ability to respond and react to situations very similar to humans," said Kersten, "(Clients) can identify with them."
Nevertheless, Kersten realizes that not all people believe in the power of horse-assisted therapy. It is precisely for this reason, he said, that EAP should be more widely available.
"We try to get everybody in some way to experience it themselves," he said. "We want them to be skeptical and investigate it more. That's how confident we are that it's effective."
