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What is Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy?

Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP), also referred to as Equine Assisted Psychotherapy or Equine Assisted Counselling, is personal counselling done in the home of the horse—the paddock, the round pen, the open field, or simply over the fence—instead of in the office of the therapist.

The horse is invited to work with the client and is a willing partner throughout. In EFP the horse is regarded as a sentient being whose wishes are respected and whose opinions are allowed to be expressed.

In EFP the client is brought into congruence and emotional regulation through the presence of the horse. EFP happens by way of the intrinsic qualities of the horse in relation to the client, together with the expertise of the mental health professional.

The stage is set for greater awareness, understanding and insight of the client into the self, the basis from which change can be made.

Why horses?

Horses are ancient in our psyche—drawings of horses on the walls of European caves are 17,000 years old. Throughout history, horses seem to have chosen to serve humans, and have uncomplainingly acquiesced to domination by man for centuries.

However in these present times, as human consciousness shifts, the moment seems to have arrived for horses to begin to come forward as catalysts of change for human beings; the veil hitherto concealing the horse's gifts to humankind is starting to lift. It is as though throughout history horses have been patiently waiting for this time to come, and are telling us, "Finally!"

How do horses help us?

At the mercy of predators in the wild, over thousands of years horses have honed the ability to swiftly and accurately read the intentions and the inner emotional, mental, and physical climates of their predators—which includes humans—for their very survival.

Horses are honest and congruent, fully present in every moment. They are able to self-regulate their inner experience and are at all times finely tuned in not only to their own internal states but also those of humans present. Horse and client are held in an unspoken, invisibly interwoven dance of two psycho-neurophysiological energy systems—the client's and the horse's.

We can't hide around horses. They don't take long to cause us to drop our pretences and false selves. They are also quick to show us our strengths and gifts. Horses mirror what is going on within us—our emotions, our feelings, our thoughts, our beliefs, our body language and our energy field, and we can draw on their way of being in our presence to learn about and understand ourselves—a gateway to change, personal growth, and empowerment.

What happens during an EFP session?

The therapist will first meet with the client to assess what is going on in the client's life. There will then follow some time with the horse, where the horse is invited to facilitate the session with the client, with the therapist also present but only in a supportive role. Finally, the therapist and client speak alone together to help the client process the time spent with the horse. All work with the horse is done on the ground—there is no riding. Many clients have had no previous experience with horses at all.

As horses are sensory animals, highly in tune with their own internal climates, the therapist will bring the client into full somatic awareness of his or her own body throughout the entire session, for a fuller understanding of the communications of the horse.

The duration of a session is an hour, with the first session an hour and a half.

What can the horse help the human with?

In EFP the horse can facilitate work on:

No philosophers so thoroughly comprehend us as dogs and horses. —Herman Melville, 1849