exhausting demands and challenges of the symptoms of these diagnoses. But the damage done to these young systems does not have to be permanent. By applying developmentally appropriate therapeutic interventions, a young person’s brain can actually heal itself.
Trauma-Focused EAP incorporates both mounted and groundwork, utilizing every aspect of the horse to address the client’s physiological and psychological responses to trauma. Horses are not used metaphorically, nor simply as a tool for healing. Rather they are actual partners in the healing process as clients connect and build real relationships with them. Many of our therapy horses at Spirit Reins are rescue horses themselves or have experienced some type of trauma in their lives. While they are not all rideable, they all have something to contribute to our program.
Individuals who work with horses understand their power, but the lay person may not. Horses are much like humans in that they are social animals who have defined roles within their herds and feel safety and comfort within that herd. Horses respond to a person’s behavior much in the same way another person will except more honestly. Being a prey animal and an animal that lives in the moment, horses respond genuinely to what is occurring at that moment. Unlike humans, whose responses to other humans are often based on something that may happen in the past or in the future, a horse responds honestly and immediately to what the client is doing in the present.
For a child who has been traumatized, learning to trust themselves, and other people, can be difficult. For most of the children we serve, their trauma occurred in the context of a relationship. At Spirit Reins, we believe that trauma is healed in relationships. For the children who come to the ranch, relationships are hard; that is where they were hurt the most, where they have the most doubt, fear, mistrust and pain. By the time, they get to Spirit Reins, most of them are simply not interested in being in a relationship with another human being. But horses are different. The horses didn’t hurt them. They’ll be honest and live in the present with them. Working with the horses allows the kids (and their families) to see and feel how their actions and behaviors impact relationships. Horses stand in the gap for these kids while they figure out how to do things differently, how to trust and be trustworthy, how to feel safe, how to feel connected and loved. We see horses as a bridge between the relationships that hurt them and the ones that will heal them…between their past and their future.
At Spirit Reins, clients have individual therapeutic goals that determine treatment plans and evaluate treatment effectiveness. By participating in services at Spirit Reins, traumatized children experience measurable improvements in their ability to regulate emotion, control impulsive behavior, engage in goal-directed behavior, and form and maintain healthy social relationships. To monitor effectiveness, Spirit Reins collects data systematically throughout the duration of each client’s therapeutic program. Assessments include standardized psychological instruments, biofeedback tools, observation tools, and other records completed by therapists, teachers and counselors, parents, and the client themselves.
For more information on Spirit Reins
visit https://spiritreins.org/.
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Horses respond to a person’s behavior much in the same way another person will, except more honestly