Equine Assisted Services - Lets Clear Some Things Up.
Oh, the world of equine assisted therapy can be so confusing. Have you ever looked into it and found yourself totally baffled by all the different terms used and the differences in details provided about their services? I sure have. And, sadly, there is a good reason behind all this confusion.
Absence of an overriding regulatory body for equine assisted services
Firstly, let’s be clear. There is no regulatory body that governs or oversees equine assisted services. A regulatory body would ensure that all equine assisted providers were appropriately trained, that they worked to a set of ethical standards, and that they delivered services within the parameters of a well-defined framework of rules and regulations.
So, what does this mean? Basically, anyone who has a horse, or has access to a horse, can put up a shingle out the front and say that they provide equine assisted therapy or equine assisted learning. Does this set off alarm bells to you – it sure does for me.
Too many times, I have heard stories of people attending equine assisted services (or so they were told) where the person was simply allocated a horse for an hour, or sent to do an activity with the horse for the hour. This is just spending time with horses and does not equate to equine assisted therapy or learning. To highlight this better, let me share a story that was shared with me. The person attended what they believed to be an equine assisted therapy session. For the entire hour, the person stood in the middle of a circle whilst the horse ran around them with the help of the facilitator. When I asked them what they gained or learnt from the session, the response was simply a blank look. This saddens me, as not only was the person placed into a potentially dangerous activity, the running of a horse around like that for an hour is not showing ethical considerations towards the horse, and their experience was missing the core foundations to support personal growth or mental health healing.
Things you can do to ensure you get a quality service
The good news is that there are a few things you can do to protect yourself and to ensure that you get a quality equine assisted service from a provider.
1/ Training and Certifications
One of the first things you can do is to find out about your intended provider’s background. Have they completed any certified training in the equine assisted learning/therapy field? In Australia, this may be with the Equine Psychotherapy Institute (EPI), EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association), and Equine Assisted Therapy Australia (EATA). There are also overseas training courses, most of them American, such as PATH.
2/ Ethical and solid horsemanship skills
Does the provider have good horsemanship skills to keep you and the horses safe? A good service provider knows how to care for their horses’ basic needs and healthcare, has a sound understanding of horse behaviours, has a sound understanding of ethics related to using horses in a therapeutic setting, and knows the traits and personalities of each of their individual horses that they use in therapy.
3/ Know what type of service you are chasing
Next thing is to consider your own goals and what you would like to achieve from attending an equine assisted session. Is your goal to learn social skills or develop self-esteem, or is it more for coping with a mental health condition such as reducing anxiety or coping with a past trauma? This is where it gets really mucky! So let me go through some different terms which will hopefully point you in the right direction. But still be careful, as sometimes the terms are misrepresented.
EAP stands for Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. An EAP provider is a registered mental health provider. This includes psychologists, counsellors, social workers, mental health occupational therapists, mental health nurses, and so forth. EAP providers can provide equine assisted services for therapy, mental health conditions as well as EAL (learning and growth) services.
EAL stands for Equine Assisted Learning. This mode of therapy is provided by non-mental health practitioners, such as horse-riding coaches, teachers, and anyone interested in horses and helping people. EAL practitioners deliver socio-emotional skills, such as leadership, boundary setting, communication skills and so forth. They do not have the qualifications to provide equine assisted therapy. Therapy and mental health work is only provided by EAP’s.
Hippotherapy is a form of horse riding, such as that delivered by the Riding for the Disabled. The primary goals of this type of therapy differs from EAP and EAL in that its focus is on the physical body (i.e. co-ordination, balance and strength) similar to what you would receive from a physiotherapist. This type of therapy is done whilst mounted on a horse. Whereas, most EAP and EAL work is ground based.
Then there are a wide range of other terms also used to represent EAP and EAL, such as Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP), Equine Facilitated Wellness (EFW), Equine Facilitated Counselling (EFC), and Equine Facilitated Mental Health (EFMH).
On a final note
I think you might be getting the picture. There are a lot of different terms and misrepresentations out there. I can only suggest that the best practice would be to check the providers background, qualifications, certifications, and what it is that they offer. Do they hold the appropriate qualifications and certifications for the type of service you are chasing? Just think about it, would you go to a speech pathologist for heart surgery, or a lay person for your dental work? I certainly hope not! It sounds a bit crazy to do so. Well, it’s the same when you are looking for an equine assisted service provider. Go with a provider that is best suited and qualified to assist you with the support or help that you are seeking.
Author: Suzanne Underwood
A special horse-to-human connection at Nature’s Therapy Room®
(n.b. This is not a client)
