Emphasizing the Healing Power of a Connected, Attuned, and Mutually Respectful Relationship
Discover the Healing Power of Horses
Experience the healing power of horses well beyond the therapeutic benefits of simply being with animals.
Engaging with a team of a mental health professional, equine professional, and one or more horses provides an experience that often leads to positive transformations more rapidly than traditional talk therapy.
Fostering the horse and human connection helps us to improve our relationship with ourselves, others, and the natural world. Psychotherapy with horses can help us to heal from trauma, increase emotional regulation, improve communication, strengthen relationships, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and build self-confidence.
Trauma-Focused Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy (TF-EAP)
Grounded in Science
TF-EAP is grounded in neurobiology and attachment theory, which emphasizes the healing power of a connected, attuned, and mutually respectful relationship.
A horse’s brain works similarly to a person who has experienced trauma, with the lower, survival-focused brain regions dominating functioning. This leads to a “muscled-up” lower brain with limited cross-brain connections to upper brain regions where thinking, emotional regulation, and connection happen. When we exist in survival mode it is difficult for us to learn, build relationships, and grow.
The great news is that the brain has the ability to change, adapt, reorganize, and make new connections – also known as neuroplasticity. This is done through first regulating the lower brain regions and then engaging the upper brain regions, thereby forming new pathways and helping all parts of the brain to integrate with each other for healthy functioning.
Rooted in Experience
TF-EAP is an experiential approach, meaning learning through an experience, that helps clients build a meaningful relationship with the horse, guided by principles that prioritize connection, emotional regulation, and the well-being of both the horse and the human.
Horses and humans are both born with the innate desire to connect and form safe bonds founded on trust and mutual understanding. Attachment Theory shows that it is the establishment of these safe connections that foster a healthy and regulated nervous system. TF-EAP facilitates the client gradually building a healthy, connected relationship with the horse by learning to make requests of the horse, recognize the horse’s signals, and respond appropriately.
Through TF-EAP the client learns to increase their self-awareness and self-regulation, building new neural pathways in their brain that calm lower brain regions. As lower brain regions are regulated higher brain regions can be engaged in relationship and skill building activities.
Transformative Results
Horses provide a safe, connected environment for building and practicing skills that can be transferred to clients’ relationships with themselves, others, and the natural world. TF-EAP helps clients heal from trauma, increase emotional regulation, improve communication, strengthen relationships, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and build self-confidence.
Horses naturally sense our internal state, picking up on how we really feel, and provide immediate non-judgmental and honest feedback. This provides a unique opportunity for the horse and human to co-regulate, helping each other’s nervous systems become calm, integrated, and regulated. This builds a relationship that is beneficial for both parties.
A Team Approach
Compared with typical therapy, which is conducted online or in an office setting, TF-EAP is a team approach involving a licensed mental health professional, an equine professional, and equine (horse or donkey) partner(s). TF-EAP can take place in the pasture, round pen, or barn.
TF-EAP sessions can be groundwork (no riding) or riding-based (Rhythmic Riding), depending on the client’s treatment plan and goals. Together, the mental health professional, equine professional, and equine partners help the client to form new neural pathways that foster healing and growth.
Rhythmic Riding
Involves the client sitting on the horse while it stands still or walks. The equine professional leads the horse while the mental health professional sidewalks, engaging with the client based on their treatment goals.
Rhythmic, patterned, and repetitive sensory input and movement have been found to regulate and soothe the nervous system. The horse’s four-beat walk is able to provide rhythmical movement that rocks the client (like a caregiver rocking their baby in the arms). This soothing rhythm helps the client regulate, access the upper regions of their brain, and process trauma.
Our Model
We follow the Natural Lifemanship model and are currently Level 2 trained. Natural Lifemanship is based on the structure and function of the brain, combining neurobiology with sound relationship principles from attachment theory. Clients learn these principles in the context of their relationship with the horse and can then transfeer them to other relationships in their lives.
Who We Serve
Individuals experiencing opioid and substance use challenges with themselves or loved ones.
Individuals in recovery from opioid use and substance use disorders.
First Responders – Fire, Law Enforcement, EMS, and Coroner.
Individuals who have experienced traumatic events, such as violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and adverse childhood experiences.