I tried Horse Therapy and it was changing my life. Here is what I learned – Wired PR Lifestyle Story
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Last month, I learned about the healing power of horses in Horse Therapy Miraval Austin Called the Common Ground. My sister and I were about to go on the obstacle course at the resort, but when the rain was forecast, we decided to give it a try. something special and a little more chill. Scanning through opportunities, I was attracted to Ekina’s activities. I had only one experience in my life with horses — almost traumatic, especially with a hard horse — when I read that it would be such an experience. unassembled. The description reads as follows:
Discover the powerful dynamics of non-verbal communication and how this affects your ability to drive yourself and others. In this unmounted activity, you will move around the pen with a horse, attracting communication, collaboration, and creative tools without speaking or touching. The knowledge and skills you know can be applied equally in personal and professional relationships.
I turned to my sister and said, “We can always do another obstacle course, but how many times will we have the opportunity to ride these horses?” They both sold us, but neither of us expected it to be an emotional and nice experience.
We went to the farm opposite the property. There, therapist and guide Paula Terden, Miraval Austin’s Horse Specialist, gathered a group of five people to talk about their previous experience. He explained what our time at the arena would be like: getting 20 minutes to connect with the horse and move in different ways, through non-verbal communication.
Horse therapy is about showing your horse what you want, without saying a word. Horses take on energy and instinct and if you’re not honest or intentional about what you want, they disconnect.
I was nervous. Communicating without talking to an 800-pound horse in an enclosed space made me feel very small, however, horses are more afraid. When I entered the arena, Pepper’s horse immediately fell into the dirt and started spinning around. Paula turned to me with a smile, “Well, this is beautiful. She feels safe with you. Falling to the ground is very weak because a horse requires a lot of effort to get up and escape from danger. She feels safe.”
From there, the emotions overwhelmed me. As my eyes filled with tears, Pepper came looking for a hug. I had never been so close to an unmounted horse, and I told him that Pepper could see that I was in a place of weakness. When I was honest, Pepper approached me and hugged me. When I was sure, he kept his distance.
At one point, Paula asked me what I thought. I said, “I’m thinking with Pepper, how is it? I am a stranger in his space. Is he scared? Is he nervous? What should I do with my body, with my hands? “
Paula said, “You’re the host of a lot of people’s emotions in spaces, aren’t you? Always wondering and worried about how everyone else is doing. “
Actually, he was totally on point. Paula encouraged me to think about how I the moment I felt it – to consider my needs. What did I need? After a moment, I realized that no one had asked me that before; I come from a long lineage of “fixers” versus “askers,” so it was nice to hear.
“I’d like to get in touch with the horse, a hug.”
Paula closed her eyes and told me to think about it. I kept it closed for about 20-30 seconds and when I looked up, Pepper was waiting for a hug from me. I didn’t even hear him approaching, but I felt it.
The time I had with Paula and Pepper was really special. And I realized: almost everyone learns something when they’re on the field. This is the most influential part of your life with this study outside the arena.
If you are interested in trying horse therapy, Paula our guide has shared her experience with the healing power of horses.
How did you get started in Horse Therapy?
After a long career as a work and childbirth nurse, I became aware of what new mothers were struggling to get through. They simply survived by dealing with their physical and emotional health, but had little or no knowledge to deal with their emotional, mental, and spiritual health. When I helped them care for and respond to the needs of these areas, their overall health improved, but more importantly, their ability to grow and live a lot increased a lot. I’ve been a horse fan all my life (read: horse nut) and so I found a career in helping people use a relationship with a horse to help people live better. Then I went through the certification and training process.
Who is the Best Candidate for Equine Therapy?
There are no prerequisites, but I would say that the best candidate is a person with a curiosity to know how to appear in their relationships and with other people. I’ve worked with clients who are impressed with horses, with inexperienced horses and clients who have walked all their lives and somewhere in between.
Equine therapy is for anyone who is willing to change their perspective on how life appears.
Being willing to study what we don’t feel and how it affects our relationships requires a lot of courage. Horses help us find that courage in a way that is less threatening than many other therapies. Horses have no judgment, so it’s a safe place to feel vulnerable. Working with horses involves a relationship and emotions are created in the relationship. What we do with these emotions is based on patterns that we have usually learned to survive, based on patterns that prevent us from being emotionally or physically hurt. Unfortunately, these patterns that kept us originally safe often become obstacles to creating the close relationships we want in our adult lives.
Horses help us ensure that the stories we tell ourselves do not have to define our lives.
What is a Horse Therapy Session? How often do people usually do this?
Equestrian therapy can be a one-off experience or a series of ongoing sessions, depending on the client’s intention and the work they are trying to do. It can be done with a 1: 1 dynamizer and a horse or it can be done in a group, and each has its own benefit. A single session can open up a space that customers have held closed for years or simply acknowledge that what they think is saved is the world in which they actually live. Group sessions can be helpful in how you see others challenging you to find out what they really think and feel in a relationship and allow us all to be human.
Working with a therapist / facilitator who has been trained in a variety of sessions — usually several times a week — allows clients to delve deeper into their inner world. Horse therapy can be a great complement to those working in traditional therapy. Often a session or two with a horse can be like regular conversation therapy, where the horses help us feel the exit, rather than thinking our way.
How does Horse Therapy help?
Horse therapy is just one way to become self-aware. Emotions and cognitions, unspecified and unexplored, drive all the decisions you make. When you grow up, you learn to understand yourself better or you double down on behaviors that you don’t feel. When you do this — if you don’t feel better — you cause more pain and suffering not only to yourself but also to those around you.
Working with a horse will help you see how looking at your answer gives you more agency throughout your life, which leads to better mental health.
We call it self-regulation, the ability to manage emotions when they arise rather than control themselves. Responding to life instead of the brain to survive life shows us that we make healthier choices and function better in relationships. Any addiction, depression, anxiety, inability to create healthy boundaries can be challenging to connect with family, friends and colleagues. The hard parts of our lives don’t necessarily turn into the landscape we live in. We can raise the darkness of our lives (we all have them) as agents to become the heroes of our story.
Are there specific conditions that respond particularly well to horse therapy?
Horse therapy can be used in a variety of mental therapy situations. There are programs that specifically address drug and alcohol addiction, eating disorders, PTSD, anxiety, and depression. When I say mental health I don’t just mean those who have a specific diagnosis. It seems that anyone who is dealing with symptoms that they cannot deal with can be helped by working with horses.
Covide has shown us that it is a part of everything that needs attention, something that we can see with our eyes or that goes beyond being measured with blood pressure wrists. We need a connection, I think we’re hungry for that, even before we hide. We find the meaning and purpose of the connection. Why? Because these mental health challenges can be found in terms of what we are feeling and thinking about, and because we humans have earned a doctorate. not knowing what we are feeling and thinking.
How about team building?
Horse work is tremendous in team building and leadership, in the context of our working lives. I believe that in order to achieve leadership and function well in the best team, it takes effort in the end to grow … and we need to be willing to work with what comes up in that search.
Leadership needs real immersion in the chaos of our lives. This work goes beyond what you do and often goes to who you are, and that’s valuable when you’re leading a group or part of it.
How Much Does Horse Therapy Cost?
Outside of Miraval, horse therapy costs $ 150 to $ 200 per session (which can be higher). Cost has been a challenge in the past, but that challenge is diminishing as it is now an accepted form of treatment recognized by insurance. In some places, customers can now receive one or two or more sessions. Some centers may have ways to fund grants or sessions to make them more accessible to groups who can’t afford them. When I work in treatment centers, it goes into treatment. Also, nonprofit centers for people who need mental health treatment but can’t afford it add horse therapy to the treatment modalities.
Common Basics: Effective communication for self-government horse therapy sessions costs $ 105 and is available in three Miraval station locations.
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