Equine Facilitated Learning, Psychotherapy, & Coaching: A Comparison

March 1, 2009 by Kathleen

EQUINE FACILITATED LEARNING, PSYCHOTHERAPY, COACHING: A COMPARISON

The field of Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) has undergone a lot of changes in the recent years. There has been quite a controversy about how to name what we, who co-facilitate with horses in advanced personal development work, actually call ourselves and how we identify what we are doing. The Epona Approach™ and the work I am currently engaged in with Leigh Shambo at Human Equine Alliances for Learning (HEAL) both agree that the horses are our full partners in this endeavor. Their innate knowledge, wisdom, and accurate intuition guide us as human facilitators when we follow their lead and learn from these consummate teachers. Some practitioners/facilitators identify themselves as practicing Equine Experiential Learning (EEL); Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning (EFEL); Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning (FEEL); Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP) Equine Therapeutic Learning (ETL); Equine Assisted Coaching (EAC), however I refer to what I practice as Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL). The following information is presented to shed some light on the various ways of working, and on what I feel are some of the most important principles and guidelines to follow as we continue this important partnership with the horse.

Psychotherapy Coaching

• Therapy is about uncovering & More about Discovering
Recovering

• Based on the Medical Model Not about disease but about
of dis-ease and diagnosis optimum health

• Examining the past Being in the present

• Looking to therapist for solutions Mutual examination
for emotional concerns

• Helping clients move from a state                    Assisting people who are highly
   of dysfunction to one of being                         functional but may not be achieving
   functional                                                        their full personal or professional
                                                                            potential

• More of a doctor/patient relationship Partnering with clients in a creative
process

Equine Facilitated Learning and the lessons we acquire from interactions with the horses is based on mutual understanding and respect. As professionals in this field we do need to be aware of the clients’ projections and transference involving ourselves and the horses, and our own counter-transference issues. Much of the information in the coaching profession as well as experiential learning has come from traditional psychotherapeutic principles and dynamics.

The pioneering work of Adler and Jung is noted by Patrick Williams, a psychologist for 28 years who moved into the coaching profession and in 1990 helped in the formation of the International Coaching Federation, (ICF). Williams says: “Adler and Jung saw individuals as the creators and artists of their lives and frequently involved their clients in goal setting, life planning, and inventing their future —- all tenets in today’s coaching.” He also points to Carl Rogers work with client-centered therapy as a “significant precursor to coaching”. (Williams, “Counseling Today” December, 2008)

Edward Colozzi, a career development expert and author of the book Creating Careers with Confidence says; “Although coaching has its limitations, its practice harkens back to the times in many cultures when spiritual leaders, shamans, mentors or others in the community offered informational guidance. It is, in a way, a back-to-the-future paradigm shift. A life coach is a mentor—a person who joins us on a journey. Many people have performed that role in the past. But in a society such as ours that starts to have rules and regulations—that may be where counseling was born. Now, perhaps, we are seeing a return to something more basic.” (Colozzi, “Counseling Today” December,2008)

Irvin Yalom, MD, considered by many as the “Father of Group Therapy”, says that with the current crisis in psychotherapy, there will not be enough trained individuals to do the work. “Psychiatry is on the verge of abandoning the field of psychotherapy. Young psychiatrists are forced to specialize in psychopharmacology because third party payers now reimburse for psychotherapy only if it is delivered by low fee (in other words, minimally) trained practitioners.” Even though Yalom is concerned about the current state of affairs, he is confident that a “cohort of therapists coming from a variety of educational disciplines will continue to pursue rigorous post graduate training.

Equine Facilitated Learning can fill some of what is missing in the health care system . Individuals seeking change from old dysfunctional patterns of behavior and automatic responses based on unconscious motivations can find help and assistance through the Way of The Horse. Yalom says, “At its very core, the flow of therapy should be spontaneous, forever following unanticipated river beds” Therapy following a managed care protocol does not allow for spontaneity and reflection. The horses, as our teachers, and co-facilitators demand that we “go with the flow” and therefore, keep the interaction dynamic and in the present moment.

Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, an area I studied extensively in post graduate work with one of my mentors, Dr Paul Rosenberg, works with the unconscious forces (the dynamics) of inner conflict by holding a supportive container for clients to experience in the present moment emotions and memories from the past. Much of the material and teaching I developed for educating students of EFL came from the theories behind this approach and the clinical experience of my clients. What I got to see for myself as I engaged more with the horses was that this dynamic was present in many of the sessions I conducted with a client and a horse. The challenge was how to develop a process in experiential learning that held the container present in a psychotherapeutic session. The container suggested in the phrase I call holding the sacred space of possibility was essential in establishing safety for both the client and the horse. Without suspension of judgment and personal desire for an expected outcome, a reflective round pen and any active or passive engagement with the horse becomes more of repeat of old behaviors and attitudes. “I am the expert and thus you and the horse should do this my way.” The facilitator’s understanding of their own unconscious forces or dynamics underlying their thoughts, feelings, actions and behaviors is absolutely necessary for the client and the horse to have a truly creative and innovative equine experience. The Johari Window, the Karpman Trauma/Drama triangle and the thorough study of projection, transference, introjection and countertransference are ways to enhance and support students participating in an EFL training program. If the student is interested, engaged and encouraged to explore these dynamics themselves, they will be far ahead of many who practice equine facilitated learning, equine experiential learning, psychotherapy and/or coaching.

My own personal opinion around the discussion and controversy of whether to use the designation of equine facilitated learning, equine facilitated psychotherapy or equine assisted coaching when describing your practice is simply this, “Know thyself”. I believe if you know your personal style, understand your thought processes and emotions, and are actively and enthusiastically engaged in a relationship with any sentient being, the likelihood of a mutual and successful partnership is possible. The excellent facilitator is a mentor, a truth seeker, a challenger, and most of all someone who guides each person towards personal accountability, integrity, ease, and fulfillment.

Our teachers, mentors, friends and co-facilitators, the horses say “Thanks for listening”.

Horse Wisdom: photo by Larney Otis

Kathleen Barry Ingram, MA
Excerpt from “Unexpected Grace: How Horses Changed my Life”
Copyright, 2009

Filed under: Articles, Equine Facilitated Learning
Tagged: equine assisted coaching, equine experiential learning, Equine Facilitated Learning, equine psychotherapy, equine therapy

Unexpected Grace: How Horses Changed My Life

December 13, 2008 by Kathleen

The working title for a memoir I am writing is, “Unexpected Grace: How Horses Changed My Life” so this is the beginning of the story. I believe it is in those spaces in-between what I call “holding the sacred space of possibility” that grace and guidance happens. I follow what Robert Johnson calls, “the slender threads” in his book, “Balancing Heaven and Earth” and at this stage of my life look back on people, circumstances, and experiences that have guided me, I know the nudges I followed were many times where the most significant changes occurred. As a child and young adult I remember riding horses across fallow corn fields in Indiana with my cousins and feeling the wind in my hair and the pure joy of being in sync with these magnificent beings. When I was older and had children every family vacation included at least one horse ride. My youngest daughter, Meghan, tried many times to covince her Father and me to get her a horse but eventually had to settle for riding her friends’ horses or the horses at my sister’s ranch in Colorado. I loved it all and have to admit I took much of it in stride until grace entered in and changed my life.

My grandmother, Frances Shea Klein, probably wasn’t doing anything extraordinary on the day this picture was taken. This image of my grandmother, placed on my mantel with other family pictures, was one of many in an old photo album I found of hers. Grace is why I believe this particular image was the one I decided to take and reprint for my sisters, children and Aunt. My grandmother, gone many years, was such an important part of my early childhood and I love to think about her in this innocent, beautiful scene with the black and white working horses. What was she thinking about? Her whole life was ahead of her and I imagine she was out on a morning stroll and stopped to commune with the horses and maybe have a long chat. Equine Facilitated Learning is a name for a new field of working with horses in human development but somehow I believe my grandmother already knew this. Barbara Rector came to see me for some consulting and noticed this picture and asked “Are you a horse person, Kathleen?”. Little did I know then where that question and her observation would eventually lead me.

Frances Shea Klein Wisconsin 1908

My first introduction to working with horses in this way was through Sierra Tucson in the1990′s. At the time I was director of marketing and intake at the center for the treatment of addictions and co-dependency. In a recent newsletter sent out by Sierrra Tucson honoring their 25 years of service , co-founder Bill O’Donnell is quoted saying, “In the beginning, we had more horses than patients.” I wonder what the horses knew then that had not been revealed to us? By the late 80′s we had 185 beds for adults with chemical dependency and other addictive disorders, and had acquired dual lincensure as a psychiatric hospital; a 72 bed eating disorder unit; and were in the process of building an adolescent treatment center. Reed Smith was in charge of creating the new center for adolescents and he wanted to bring the horses in to work with the children. I called Reed a few weeks ago to ask him what made him decide to do this work.

Here is a portion of the interview I had with Reed:

“When I was eight years old my father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and became bedridden. I had been with horses at my grandfather’s ranch and so turned to them for companionship during this time. I had heard how the horses had helped my great Uncle when he was suffering from depression. At that time there were not many “cures” for depression or what they called “melancholy”, however, I remember stories of how the horses “healed” my Uncle in the late 1800′s. I grew up with this story so when I was struggling with the crisis of my Father’s illness I began to think about how this might be just what would help me. I applied for my first wrangler’s job at 8 years old. Well, I didn’t get the job but I started volunteering and working with the horses. I learned to halter train them as foals and started them bareback. When I was 11 years old I became a camp counselor for kids and worked with the camp in the summers until I was 18 years old. The horses saved my life in many ways. Horses as healers goes back thousands of years in Arabian families and we all know the stories of the horses in the Old West. All of the years that I worked at the Bar L Ranch in Guthrie Center, Iowa we never had an accident with the horses and the kids. I attribute this to [1] Safety[2] the relationship with the horse and human being the most important, the horses were not passed around or deadened [3] the horses were pasture bred and raised. When the idea to work with the horses at Sierra Tucson, which was on the property of an old dude ranch where the horses could be ridden by the patients, I knew I wanted to create something like the Bar L. I had heard of a woman, Barbara Rector, who was one of the founders of TROT in Tucson where the horses helped them work with handicapped children. As soon as I met her, I knew she had the understanding and the vision to help me create this innovative program to work with the adolescents. She was very safety minded, well trained and had a natural way of working with the horses which was full of respect and not technique. Thus began the collaboration with Barbara a year before the center was ready to open.”

My next meeting was with Barbara to find out about her recollection. Barbara had been the first person to ask me to work with her and her partner Ann Alden in Barbara’s program, “Adventures in Awareness”. We recalled the other day that this was around 1994-95. I began working with Barbara individually and then participated in several workshops before I started to teach what she called” taking therapy to the barn”. I would work with them at workshops and did a lecture on the benefits of working with horses as co-facilitators. We didn’t even have a name then but knew it “worked”. As a practicing psychotherapist, I really saw the changes in the clients and referred many of my clients to Barbara and Ann. I wanted to ask Barbara what she recalled of the “early” days in the field of equine facilitated learning and her time at Sierra Tucson in 1990-1993.

Barbara said,

“Reed hired me and we began our collaboration to put together the program at adolescent. We called it STIRRP, Sierra Tucson Integrated Riding Resource Program. Adolescent opened the the fall of 1991 and the program was a huge success with the adolescents and their families. We began to see how much the horses impacted the children and the family system. In 1993 I presented a paper and a training video on the STIRRP program, then referred to as equine facilitated psychotherapy, to the International Riding for the Disabled Conference in Aukland, New Zealand.” Barbara can be contacted at www.adventuresinawareness.net

The curriculm and program developed intially by Barbara and Reed has undergone changes and the equine program at the center continues today and is fully integrated in the primary group process. www.SierraTucson.com

My next stop was a visit with Ann Alden down at her ranch in Sonoita where she lives with her 16 horses and her partner, Haus When I asked Ann, “Why Horses?” she replied.

“Working with the horses has validated what I knew as a child and couldn’t express in words. I remember reading a book called “Kinship with all Life” by J. Allen Boone when I was 16. I would go out and sit in the grass and commune with the animals. My relationship with animals as a child has continued into my life today and prompted me to take what I knew then and work with the horses in this area of human development.”

By the time the center at Sierra Tucson had opened, Wyatt Webb was the executive director and began his journey through the way of the horse. Wyatt works today at Miraval and is the innovator of their successful Equine Experience program as well as the author of two books about his work with horses. Wyatt and I worked together on the management team at Sierra Tucson in the late 80′s early 90′s. I certainly wouldn’t have predicted that either one of us would be doing the work we are today. You can contact Wyatt and find out more about the equine program at www.miravalresort.com

Through my work with Barbara and Ann I met Linda Kohanov and thus we began our collaboration in 1998 and we worked together until late 2007. You can read more about my work with Linda under the Equine Facilitated Learning section of this website and can contact her directly at www.taoofequus.com

I think about my grandmother, Frances, often and would love to have a conversation with her about her early life, what she was doing with the horses, whether she loved them as much as I do, but most of all to thank her for the way she guided me to this work. I really know that when we are open, we receive these gifts of grace in many unexpected ways.

Cisco at Yvonne Monahan's in Ireland

Filed under: Articles
Tagged: Equine Facilitated Learning, equine therapy, horses as healers, Unexpected Grace

Memorian for Charlie McGuire & Nicole Christine

December 8, 2008 by Kathleen

Once in awhile you met an extraordinary person who changes your life. I have had the honor to call Charlie McGuire and Nicole Christine my friends, my mentors, my colleagues and my sisters of the heart. Both of these women have left this earthly plane this year, Charlie in May and Nicole in October, however their influence and presence is so profound that I sometimes hear their voices of support, encouragement and feel a personal challenge to be authentic and accountable. Charlie was a graduate of the first apprenticeship class from Epona Equestrian Services and both Linda Kohanov and I count her as one of our guiding lights and mentors. Charlie started the Holistic Nurses Association, and with her life partner, Robbie Nelson, founded Buffalo Woman Ranch www.buffalowomanranch.com where Robbie and her colleagues continue to teach, educate and support many in the field of equine facilitated learning and personal development.

Charlie embracing life

Nicole, recommended to Linda and myself by Charlie and Robbie, was the administrative assistant to the growing Epona program from 2002 through 2007. Her dedication, honesty, integrity, and genuine positive regard for all gave us the solid foundation needed in this growing field of Equine Facilitated Learning. Nicole was an avatar with deep spiritual beliefs and connections to the Magdalene energies. You can find out more about Nicole at www.magdalenemysteries.com

: Nicole at Summit 2007

My Dear Sisters,

Thank you for your love, guidance and for paving the way for all of us seeking a new way of living.

Blessings, love, and gratitude,

Kathleen

Filed under: Articles
Tagged: Buffalo Woman Ranch, Charlie McGuire, equine facilited learning, Holistic Nurses' Association, Magdalene Mysteries, Mary Magdalene, Memoriam, Nicole Christine

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