The Healing Power of Horses
Exploring the impressive, immersing world of
Integrative Equine Therapy™
By Rachel Sokol
When you think of “therapy,” chances are you envision a formal-looking, licensed therapist sitting across from you in a stuffy room, listening to your problems while nodding their head. And...you’re not wrong. However, it’s crucial to note that therapy is quite nuanced. It’s more than just talking and listening in a room.
One extraordinary type of therapy that’s gaining momentum is Integrative Equine Therapy. ™ (IET) Held outdoors, these sessions involve a horse-centered approach to therapy for both adults and kids. Horses are gentle giants, and the positive impact they have on those healing from trauma is truly remarkable.
In fact, there’s a chain of centers called Beachwood—with four locations throughout the United States—that caters specifically to Integrative Equine Therapy. ™
“Horses can be amazingly present animals,” explains Lynne Bryan Phipps, MDiv, IET; Beachwood’s Executive Director. “Sessions with horses help people to build a bridge from the place where their trauma is stored; when coping mechanisms were formed, to the present.”
Let’s say, for example, you’re off to
pre-school at age 3 or 4, and everyone’s so excited for you. “And you're thinking: “What?! You're going to drop me off someplace, and I'm not going to see you all day?!” You store that memory separately in your brain,” says Phipps. “What happens is that neuron ‘fires’ anytime that kind of experience happens to you again. And the coping strategies that you can access are only as old as you were when it first happened.”
Suddenly, you’re in middle school struggling socially, academically….and there it is again; that panic. Through IET, Phipps explains: “We help build that bridge to the conscious part of your brain. In doing so, you can access all of you and various coping strategies.” In IET, she adds, you don't just talk about things repeatedly. “Oftentimes, we see clients who have pre-verbal, or non-verbal trauma. And we can help them because our horses show us what's going on inside of the human; outwards.”
“Anybody struggling with anything can benefit from what we do.”
Through IET, horses serve as mirrors, reflecting a person’s internal state. Which, in turn, results in the recovery of the patient’s memories while reaching deeper parts of them.
“Anybody struggling with anything can benefit from what we do,” says Phipps, who stresses that clients do NOT ride the horses during any sessions. While that type of human-horse therapy is out there, that’s not what Beachwood does. Also, none of the Beachwood horses are tied up or required to just stay in one place.“Our horses know they can take as much space or as little space as they want--we're working with them. What we do sync a horse and a human,” says Phipps. “By doing this, we can see what's going on in the human by reading the horse. This horse-centered approach guides our questions, and we only work with horses that love to do this type of work.”
Through IET, horses serve as mirrors, reflecting a person’s internal state. Which, in turn, results in the recovery of the patient’s memories while reaching deeper parts of them.
“Anybody struggling with anything can benefit from what we do,” says Phipps, who stresses that clients do NOT ride the horses during any sessions. While that type of human-horse therapy is out there, that’s not what Beachwood does. Also, none of the Beachwood horses are tied up or required to just stay in one place.“Our horses know they can take as much space or as little space as they want--we're working with them. What we do sync a horse and a human,” says Phipps. “By doing this, we can see what's going on in the human by reading the horse. This horse-centered approach guides our questions, and we only work with horses that love to do this type of work.”
Most Beachwood clients, explains Phipps, are interacting with the world from a place of fear, “which means that your limbic system is functioning. A lot of our culture teaches us to just ‘figure it out’ with our heads. But the truth is, your body, your gut, your heart…your whole system is relevant. When you come to us, that whole system connects because horses read congruence; it's how you appear to them, including your body language and energy.” Basically, if you're someone who's trying to look differently than how you feel, “you’ll read as two people. So, the horses are like, ‘who are you? Are you safe, or are you not?
If a horse is reading a person, and gives them a lot of space, there's a reason they're giving the patient space. They're literally showing us.”
Phipps shared a story about a client recovering from a heart attack; who was anxious about another medical setback. “By syncing this patient with a horse, we got her heart rate, which was high--around 148 beats per minute--down to 80 beats per minute after a few sessions. That’s within normal range.”
IET has won over skeptics. “Every client who comes to us has an experience that changes their lives,” says Phipps. “In turn, it makes my life, and all our Integrative Equine Therapist’s lives, just wonderful. It’s why we come to work every day.”
To learn more about Beachwood, which has locations in Palm Beach, FL, Newport, RI, Philadelphia, PA and Davis, CA, visit: www.beachwoodri.com.