In both trauma and addiction, interpersonal relationships are a stumbling block.  In trauma the fear of intimacy, loss in relationships, and broken trust is so profound that many traumatized people isolate to the point of alienation from human-human contact.

In addiction there is often an initial fear of social or interpersonal relationships that feeds the addiction and then the addiction becomes priority over any human relationship.  Both groups of people have to start from the beginning with relational experience and they are often stunted and years behind in their emotional/relational growth process.

Horses are both empathic and intuitive creatures. They are also without judgment, betrayal, or dishonesty that can be found in personal relationships.  They work as a bridge between human-human bonding and teach people who have experienced emotional pain to come back to affection and intimacy in a healthy way.

A session of therapy using horses can look a number of different ways particularly depending on whether it is an individual, couple, family, or group therapy session.  Individual and group sessions can be about relationship building, learning cues, finding empathy, and understanding how to communicate in addition to other topics.  Couple, family, and group sessions can include team building, trust building, and natural horsemanship exercises which teach relational skills with horses in a group context.

I use an approach that combines breath work, self-soothing skills, relaxation, and basic yoga to give people a “toolbox” of anti-anxiety remedies. They then have these at their disposal to use in times of distress or anger, first when working with their horse and then out in the world with other humans.

Creative arts, particularly, horse painting exercises, can be used to cement the intimacy of the bond between human-horse using ancient Native American rituals of painting one’s story on their horse; this I use usually at the end of a group series or at a poignant moment of bonding in the therapeutic process.  In utilization with veterans I called the process “Warrior Painting” as warriors in Native American tribes would paint their story on their horse as a warrior ritual. 

What kinds of patients benefit from doing the Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy?

On my soapbox I would excitedly advocate for the application of EFP for any population that would also benefit from any kind of psychotherapy.  I believe this stands true.  What happens in the stables is a living, active metaphor for what happens in the world.  That’s why I use the phrase “out of the stables and into the world”.

This is also a play on the yoga phrase “off the mat and into the world” which states the same, what we act out on the yoga mat represents what we are acting out in our lives.  These physicalizations and activities push the client to really be living, breathing, and acting out their “selves.”  What they work on with their horses really brings to the surface (astonishingly, faster than in traditional psychotherapy), what is discussed in psychotherapy. They are also able to explore the parallels in their human-human relationships and what needs to change in the mix.

I have found it to be especially profound for addicts, trauma survivors, and persons with eating disorders as these persons are often so “stuck” in how they relate to others. The horses prompt them to see how this “stuckness” impacts their relationships and how shifting that way of being with the horses can change how the horse responds.  Horses have no artifice, take no “b.s,” and can read through anything we affect or “put on;” as prey animals they have to be empathetic and aware of what is genuine vs. what is false in order to stay alive.

What special training do the horses need?

If you have the privilege of doing this work in the context of a Therapeutic Riding Center, which I did, you have access to horses who have been selected and trained in a way to be soft, sensitive, and easy going with children and adults with developmental delays.  There can also be something profound about the experience of a person with a stubborn horse, or an abused horse, as there are mirrors in every kind of relationship.  Ultimately, you want to make sure the horse you are working with has enough training to be safe when using with novices.

Each horse has a story, their own inner landscape, and time and again I have seen a particular person gravitate to a particular horse. What happens is a profound relationship experience beyond anything that could have been constructed by a therapist. The horse someone chooses—whether it mirrors how they feel, is symbolic of something they want but feel they don’t have, or has a particular temperament that forces a person to grow, is always just what they need!  Horses, without training or pretense, always seem to be able to meet the client where they are and do things beyond what a therapist and client alone could accomplish.  I am always amazed by what I see happen in sessions.

More about Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy and Teresa’s work coming soon in Part Three.

Teresa Bennett Pasquale, LCSW, RYT graduated from New York University’s School of Social work with a Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work. In 2009 she was awarded the NYU Silver School of Social Work’s “Outstanding Recent Alumna Award” for innovative and creative treatment with trauma survivors. Teresa has worked with international survivors of torture, survivors of domestic violence, sexual trauma, and sufferers of addiction and eating disorders. She spent 3 years at the Department of Veterans Affairs as a trauma therapist for combat veterans with PTSD and survivors of Military Sexual Trauma and has specialized expertise in the treatment of military personnel and veteran populations. She has also worked in residential addiction treatment and speaks on a variety of Mind/Body and Trauma topics.

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    Last reviewed: 29 Jul 2010