Equine Assisted Counselling

Horses are prey animals which means they are very attuned to their environment to be able to sense any signs of danger, as in the wild that would mean they will get eaten. Horses are able to sense human body responses such as an increase in heart rate or a slight sweat in your palms. 

We don’t use any horse equipment such as bridles, as we rely on the horses’ natural responses and the dynamics of the herd structure to inform the therapeutic process. Horses are very similar to humans in the sense that they have social structure with defined roles in the herd. They also have unique personalities and moods, displaying behaviour similar to that of people. This provides ample opportunity for the client to use what they are observing as a metaphor for what is happening in their own life. 

Horses are large animals and difficult to ignore …

Building a relationship with a horse requires physical, emotional and mental work as well as healthy relationship skills. You cannot “lie” to a horse, they will sense how you are really feeling and they will bring out your default responses which creates an opportunity to discuss whether these responses are helpful or not, and move towards changing those behaviours with the qualified counselor.

Equine Assisted Counseling is always done with a team which consists of the horses, an Equine Specialist and the Counselor. Juanee Pretorius is trained in the EAGALA model which enables her to use horses in her counseling processes. She is also trained in trauma debriefing, play therapy and polyvagal work. 

She prefers to use horses in her counseling work as it is so much more effective than office-based counseling. “The horses just always bring ‘stuff’ up. Clients might come for one reason but end up working on another facet of their lives as the horses will bring up what is on your foreground and most pressing for you to resolve.” - Juanee

The EAGALA model uses various psychological theories and approaches including humanistic theory, narrative theory, solution focused approach, collaborative approach as well as clean language and symbolic modeling therapy.

Counseling

All sessions are ground based. When arriving, we will check in with you regarding your goals for the session. 

Sessions usually start with observing the environment and we provide an opportunity for you to start to create your storyboard and to create metaphors or parallels between the horses and your own life. We will usually send you out to the horses (either for observation or with a task), allow you time to engage or observe the horses, and then check in with you to discuss what is happening. 

We then build on the sessions from there and we stay focused on whatever is coming up for you. 

We recommend at least 3 sessions to start with to get comfortable with this therapeutic model and to allow enough time for assessment and goal setting. 

Teams

We will check in with the team to ensure everyone’s expectations are managed and to clarify the reason for the session. 

Activities are designed to meet the goals of the sessions. For example if they want to work on team building and communication skills, we will start off with non-directive activities and ask the team to observe the communication that is happening in the herd. Once metaphors have been established (who is the leader, who is the follower, who do each person in the team relate to) we will create activities based on the clients’ needs. For example, move all the horses into the same space. There will be ample opportunities for team dynamics to unfold- who takes in the role of the leader, how do they lead- is it forceful, is it effective. How do the other team members experience the approach. This could relate to working teams or family dynamics.