adventures in Colorado (equine assisted psychotherapy)

Recently, I have participated in two workshops involving EAP (equine assisted psychotherapy). EAP focuses on having the rider/client concentrate on some kind of conflict in their life, whether it be work related stress or the loss of someone close to them, and then do certain activities involving the horses to help cope or problem solve. 

In the first workshop/demo I did, we focused on one conflict and were then told to use paint on the horses to try and illustrate the conflict. We could write a word or paint a symbol or do anything we wanted to paint. The conflict I chose to illustrate was indecision and direction.

While we were painting the horses, we were encouraged to think and talk about what things we were painting, what they symbolized, what the horses' reactions might symbolize, etc. The horse I had chosen to paint, Jacky, was very restless and distracted at first. Horses are incredibly sensitive to emotions portrayed through body language as well as more subtle things like a person's heart rate. She must have sensed my confusion and restlessness while I was thinking and painting her. I have been feeling lost and without direction for a while now, doubting myself and unsure of my future. I was thinking about these things as I painted her, and I'm sure she was picking up on it. I tried calming her down by rubbing her and moving slowly, talking to her in a low voice, and stopped painting her. It worked, and I was able to finish painting her.

Her restlessness and nervous behavior was her reflecting my own emotions. By slowing down and comforting her, I was simulating what I needed to do for myself to make my doubts and fears go away. I realized that I need to just slow down and take pleasure in what's going on in my life now and not worry about the future. I'm usually pretty optimistic and not much of a planner, so me having stress over my future and what I'm doing has been very stressful and hard on me. 

By the end of the session, Jacky was all painted with symbols like arrows and dotted lines to represent different directions I feel pulled in and she was also partly asleep. I also felt much calmer and more at peace after thinking through everything and working with Jacky. I most definitely am going to try this out with other people!