The sensitive and intuitive spirit of the horse makes them a perfect partner for a wide range of healing modalities in therapeutic, mental health, self awareness, learning and trauma recovery settings. BCTRA supports these growing fields and encourages practitioners to seek accreditation and practice safety and professionalism in their endeavours. Potential clients should ask questions of their practitioners to ensue a safe, trusting and respectful experience.
Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies (EAAT) bring horses and human together in healing and learning environments. Although healing with horses goes by many names EAAT or Equine Facilitated Wellness (EFW) has two main scopes of practice:
- Equine Assisted Learning (EAL)
- Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP)
EAAT and EFW incorporate a range of counselling, education and personal development approaches, strategies and techniques designed to work towards therapeutic healing, self-exploration and personal growth. Practitioners develop planned interactions with horses selected to match the needs of the client. EFW practitioners observe the interactions with horses as their client experience sharing space with horse, explore their core feelings and then safely express what they have learned.
Equine Assisted Learning (EAL)
Learning to think in a different way by exploring how horses and humans communicate is at the core of Equine Assisted Learning. EAL’s goal is to open up a natural way to explore areas of trust, respect, honesty and communication. Clients uncover how non-verbal cues may be developing barriers to understanding. Working with horses results in a heightened sense of self awareness revealing patterns of behaviour that might need to change.
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP)
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy is a type of animal assisted therapy that partners licensed mental health professionals with an experienced equine practitioner. Together they work with horses as co-therapists who in sessions that are structured around the clinical needs of their clients. The powerful presence of the horse mirrors what the client’s body is telling them providing lessons and metaphors on how to facilitate change.
Equine Facilitated Wellness Links
Equine Facilitated Wellness – Canada (EFW-Can)
Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, Inc. (EAGALA)