Equine Assisted Learning & Pyschotherapy

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EAGALA Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) Personal Development Programs

EAL is a hands on experiential process that allows natural interaction between humans and horses. There are endless ways to apply this approach to personal, professional, and human development.

People treat horses the way they treat people, and the same communication patterns used to gain cooperation with people are also used with horses. The difference is that the horses always act the way they really feel and people often hide their true feelings. Horses have the innate ability to sense people’s true feelings and react to that energy. It is impossible to hide the human soul from the senses of the horse.

EAL helps individuals better understand themselves and others, through participating in activities with the horses and then discussing feelings behaviours and patterns. The debriefing process seeks to bridge the horse activities from the arena back to “real life”, inviting people to reflect, analyse and apply new insights. It is ideal for those seeking to develop the tools and strategies needed to make better choices. A great way to experience the benefits of our program for those not requiring therapy.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

  • Participants gain a better understanding of themselves
  • Participants gain control over interpersonal skills
  • Increased self-esteem and body awareness
  • Enhanced self-worth
  • Increased emotional and social awareness
  • Increased attention / focus
  • Recovery from Trauma or loss
  • Improved communication and coping skills
  • Build Resilience
  • Become a team player
  • Change in basic orientation from problem-focused to possibility focused
  • Improved leadership abilities
  • Team building and role definition for families, groups, teams and community
  • Healthier relationships
  • Clarified or enhanced sense of identity, shared values & culture
  • Climate of continual learning & inquiry
  • Group energy, hope, motivation and commitment

Personal Wellness and Development

With the use of EAL skills and techniques, our horses help participants improve mental/emotional health and wellness.

  • Develop personal confidence, finding solutions, and communication skills
  • Create a more efficient, flexible and understanding individual
  • Become masters at thinking “out of the box”
  • In groups, discover how each participant plays a role

PARTICIPANTS WILL enhance these personal areas:

Personal Awareness and Leadership
  • Motivation-Empowerment
  • Building trust
  • Exploring possibilities
  • Co-constructing “better” ways
  • Creative thinking
  • Decision making
  • Assertiveness

Communication Skills

  • The communication process
  • Listening
  • Non-verbal and verbal

Team Building

  • Team member roles and responsibilities
  • Identify and attain personal goals
  • Team member effectiveness
  • Working with different personalities

Goal Setting

  • Identify and attain personal goals
  • In groups, how personal and group goals mesh

Confidence Building

  • Overcome fears and embrace challenges
  • Foster new ideas
  • Accept change

Gaining Personal Insight

  • Recognise the personality traits of others
  • Recognise your own personality traits

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Stronger sense of identity

  • Feel safe, secure and supported
  • Emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency
  • Develop knowledgeable and confident identity

Connection with and contribution to their world

  • Developing senses of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation
  • Respond to diversity with respect
  • Become aware of fairness
  • Become socially responsible and show respect for their environment

Stronger sense of wellbeing

  • Become stronger in their social and emotional wellbeing
  • Take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing

Increased confidence and involved learner

  • Developing disposition for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination, and reflexivity

Effective communicator

  • Interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes
  • Express ideas and increased meaning making
  • Developing understanding of how symbols and pattern systems work
  • Use information and communication to investigate their ideas and represent their thinking

SERVICES AVAILABLE

  • Individual sessions
  • Couples/Family sessions
  • Group sessions
  • Residential Child and Youth Programs
  • School Programs
  • Juvenile Justice Programs
  • Parenting/Carer Programs: parent/carer skill building/training
  • Family Reunification sessions


EAGALA Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP)

Research shows horses add a compelling dimension to the clinical experience. They serve as powerful living metaphors and stand-ins for the challenges and opportunities clients face in their lives. A client who has trouble managing anger, for example, can only learn so much by talking about it out of context in a therapist’s office. Progress can be slow and results hard to sustain. But when the client has the opportunity to practice new coping skills with 500kg herd animals whose survival depends on their ability to read and react to the inner turmoil of those around them, experience leads to change because the process is real, practical and sustainable. In the right professional hands, using a proven promotional products model, horses as the guides have the power to help clients practice new ways of engaging with the world without judgement or shame.


SESSION OBJECTIVES

Individuals gain awareness and insight into better ways of living through the way in which the horse reflects information back to them. Working with horses supports and encourages the identification and expression of feelings and thoughts. Interventions or activities are planned around the concept of the horse’s reflective behaviour, and are tailored to each individual and their assessed needs. The use of horses in the treatment of a multitude of psychological issues relieves emotional and psychological distress and changes destructive patterns of behaviour.


Other Benefits

Education and practical application of critical skill sets, including:

  • Communication
  • Emotional Regulation
  • Management of Anger
  • Exploring possibilities
  • Increased curiosity and sense of vitality.
  • Increase in co-operative practises and decrease in competition
  • Co-constructing “better” ways
  • Improved working relations/conflict resolution
  • Mindfulness

The non-traditional environment creates possibility for new interaction: “It doesn’t feel like counselling”


Equine Assisted Psychotherapy Facts

  • Clients find EAP more interesting than talk therapy
  • EAP keeps clients on task and engaged
  • Environment is less threatening for clients to experience the benefits of working with a therapist
  • Clients are more willing to attend sessions and interact in the process
  • The horses provide immediate feedback on which behaviours work and which don’t
  • The sessions create metaphors that illuminate situations encountered in life to help make changes in attitude as well as behaviour
  • The horses provide emotional support and bonds that are helpful in the therapy process
  • The sessions help both clients and therapists identify issues much more quickly
  • The sessions provide clients the ability to express and communicate in ways that traditional therapies don’t

SESSION OUTLINE

  • A collaborative effort between a mental health professional and a horse specialist working with clients and horses to explore identified objectives
  • A solution-focussed model of change
  • Use of therapeutic metaphor to look at perceived limitations
  • Facilitate cognitive restructuring through experiential learning
  • Encourage behavioural practice
  • Provide opportunities for participant/s to learn about themselves and others by participating in activities with the horses, and then processing (or discussing) feelings, behaviours, and patterns
  • 1 hour sessions. 10 sessions are recommended then review.

SESSION OUTCOMES

  • Decrease of Intrapersonal Distress
  • Decrease of Somatic Distress
  • Cooperative Interpersonal Demeanour
  • Absence of Critical Items
  • Decrease in Social Problematic Behaviours
  • Decrease in Maladaptive Behaviour and Coping Strategies
  • Increased awareness of emotional states
  • Increased self-esteem and body awareness
  • Increased awareness of thought processes
  • Increased Resilience
  • Increased understanding of the process of rupture and repair in relationships

SERVICES AVAILABLE

  • Individual Counselling
  • Family Counselling
  • Couples Counselling
  • Group Counselling

EAP assists individuals with co-constructing alternative ways of living to address:

  • Anger
  • Anxiety
  • Asperger’s Disorders
  • Attachment Disorders
  • Social and Behavioural Disorders (ODD ADHD)
  • Behavioural Issues
  • Bullying
  • Child Abuse / Neglect
  • Communication Issues
  • Depression
  • Divorce / Absent Parents
  • Domestic Violence
  • Eating Disorders
  • Grief
  • Issues Related to Truancy
  • Lack of Direction
  • Learning Difficulties
  • Low Self-esteem
  • Poor Social Skills
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Relationship Issues
  • Self Harm – Self Injury
  • Substance Abuse
  • Suicide Ideation
  • Trauma

At NAZET.ORG we use the EAGALA Model of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Personal Development