Trauma Focused Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
Why Horses? Horses are prey animals and their brains have evolved to ensure their survival by keeping them primarily in the fight or flight part of the brain. The information they received from their environment is primarily evaluated for safety and survival. This is similar to the adaptations that happen when traumatic experience is not resolved in a short time for humans and thus the horse provide a mirror for the client, allowing them to help the horse resolve some of the same problems they are experiencing in turn reorganizing their own responses to stressors. The principles understood from a trauma informed perspective allow work with dysregulation regardless of the source.