Individual/Family Sessions
We offer individual and family EFP sessions. Clients typically come once a week or every other week for a 50 minute session. Clients work with their therapist, equine specialist, and a horse (or miniature donkey!) toward their individualized treatment goals.
Where Does a Session Take Place?
EFP sessions generally take place in our outdoor arena, and sometimes in our large covered arena. At times sessions may also take place around our property trails, pond, fire pit, or meadow. Working in the outdoors helps to ease physical and emotional pain, reduce stress, improve thinking, and improve work and academic performance. Sessions typically take place on the ground with the horses, and may involve many different tasks, such as learning to ask the horse to come with you or learning to set appropriate relationship boundaries. Skills learned in the arena are transferable back to human relationships and situations that arise in daily life. We also have an indoor clinic space available.
What Does a Session Look Like?
Our highly trained staff of psychologists, therapists, qualified mental health associates, and equine professionals provide a variety of treatment types. EFP utilizes a team approach, with each session being facilitated by a licensed mental health provider and a certified equine specialist. Due to the specialized nature of this type of therapy, the team approach creates an environment of safety and collaboration, allowing the therapist to be client-focused, utilizing science-based treatment methods, and the equine specialist to be horse-focused, bringing attention to interactions and behavior from the horses that the client can reflect upon. Often clients are able to create metaphors for their own lives through their interactions with the horses, allowing them to recognize and change patterns of negative thinking and behaviors. Our program emphasizes strengths-based, client-centered treatment.
Who Can Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy Help?
The answer to this question is everyone! Animal-assisted and nature-based therapies have positive effects for many mental health conditions and working with horses can bring about powerful experiences that remain with you for a lifetime. Horses can teach humans to tap into how experiences and emotions feel in our bodies, and how to be present in the moment, a skill sometimes lost in a time when technology is so prevalent. At the barn, you have the opportunity to disconnect from the world and connect with the beautiful equines, nature, and most importantly, yourself.