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Equine Assisted Therapy
Horses have been used to help people heal for thousands of years. Therapies with animals, and in particular horses, are growing in popularity as a powerful form of social-emotional experiential learning.
Horses and humans have a unique bond, their ability to read human emotion and their total honesty means they act as mirrors and reflect how WE are.
What is Equine Assisted Therapy?
The beautiful bond between humans and horses has been used in psychological therapies to create positive change.
People stroke, groom, feed, or work with a horse in an environment designed to promote emotional growth and learning.
Often there is very little talking needed, and some sessions can be totally non-verbal.
What Happens in an Equine Assisted Therapy Session?
What happens in a session is highly varied, and depends on what the adult or child wants to achieve. The first appointment will be a consultation to agree goals and a plan.
Sessions can include petting or grooming the horse, using mindfulness to seek comfort and calm from their accepting, reassuring presence.
Sessions can involve working with a horse who struggles with trust, to learn how to manage your own emotional energy. This is very useful for children or adults who struggle with emotional regulation and become easily dysregulated.
Sessions can involve setting up exercises to help you think and act creatively to foster problem solving. Normally the exercises will ask you to achieve a task with a horse; without any prior knowledge of how to do the task – assessing and building on ability to generate ideas and solutions.
Sessions can also involve training a horse in groundwork, under guidance, helping you learn communication skills, boundaries, assertiveness and self esteem.
After each session, there may be a debrief to your experience. Discussing how the exercise made you feel and why you think you were successful or unsuccessful can lead you to learn more about yourself and your behaviour.
Who Can Benefit from Equine Assisted Therapy?
Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) is helpful for people of all ages who struggle with:
- Anxiety and low mood
- Trauma
- Coping and Problem Solving
- Resilience
- Loss
- Confidence and self esteem
- Communication skills
- Assertiveness
EAT is also very helpful for Neuro-divergent children and adults.
Equine Assisted Therapy and Neuro-Divergence
There is a clear scientific consensus that EAT is effective in helping people with autism across a variety of areas, with many studies reporting positive effects in terms of social skills, communication & language, stress and behaviour.
Many individuals on the autism spectrum find horse therapy useful for developing their social skills as the animals respond to non-verbal communication, creating a safe space for children and young adults to practice empathy and communication skills in ways that make sense to them.
Several experts have expressed the view that there is a natural affinity and understanding between horses and people with ASCs, as they share characteristics in sensory perception, tactile sensitivity, non-verbal communication attention to detail, visual thinking styles and awareness of micro-signals.
Where are we?
Book a session
Book a free discovery call to find out how Equine Assisted Therapy could help.
Services & Pricing
Equine Assisted Therapy Session
£95
Block of 6 sessions
£495
Payment Terms
We request payment upfront, to avoid any time spent during the session on payment issues. If you cancel with more than 24 hours notice, we will re-book or refund in full. If you cancel on the day, or after 6pm the day before (eg 9pm for a 10am appt), 50% of the fee will be credited to a future appointment or refunded. If you do not cancel but don’t attend, the fee will be retained to compensate for the time allocated to the missed appointment.
If you wish to block book 6 sessions, these must be paid for in advance and used within 12 months.