Horse Health

Three Ways to Improve Relationship Communication Using Equine Therapy

By on • ( 8 Comments )

Horses Can Help Us Speak To Each Other

Equine therapy has certainly been popular for autism, developmental disorders and now veterans with PTSD, but for clinical therapists, the bulk of cases have to do with relationships. The question then becomes, can equine therapy help improve relationships?

The answer, is yes, and here are three ways:

  1. Energy awareness.People are often very unaware of the energy they bring into a relationship and how this energy may affect others. This energy that I am referring to is of course, housed nonverbally, but yet felt and often unintentionally expressed.While people are frequently hesitant to mention to another person just how their energy may be affecting them, horses, on the other hand, simply react to it. By shying away from someone who is very angry, for example, or protecting someone who is very vulnerable, a horses response to a person’s energy can illuminate and clarify the energy a person brings into a relationship.

     
    2. Exploring expectations. When faced with teaching a horse a skill, a person’s expectations of the horse, but in a more general sense, of others, comes to the forefront in a very visual way. As with energy, people are often quite unaware of the expectations they bring into a relationship and just how these may affect others.

    Through experiencing the effect of these expectations on a horse, people can draw similarities between how the horse may be reacting and how their partner may be reacting.

    3. Learning communication style. People communicate in different ways, and as with expectations and energy, knowing just how to communicate, and how it affects others, often escapes us. So when a horse responds in a characteristic way, it can demonstrate for a person just how their approach affects others.

    This can be something as simple as wanting something to happen, but asking for it in a way that is simply too meek for anyone to hear. Of course in this circumstance, the horse will not respond, just as any other person would not, having not heard the message. In a circumstance such as this, the person can then practice altering their communication style to achieve the desired ends, in a way that is much less emotionally charged than with their partner.

While this is only a summary of a few of the ways working with horses can help improve relationships, there are a multitude of unique and useful exercises that many therapists have developed to increase trust, improve empathy and foster increased mutual respect between two people.

Click (HERE) to visit site and to Comment

Categories: Horse Health, Horse News

Tagged as: , , , , ,

8 replies »

  1. Trauma and Resiliency Resources, Inc. is a non profit organization using horses in an integrated program of recovery for PTSD in military personnel, first responders, and their families which includes equine assisted psychotherapy, yoga, narrative story, and EMDR. This year we are focusing on presenting a model called Warriors’ Camp for our warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. For more info, go to http://www.traumandresiliencyresources.org

    Like

    Reply

  3. Excellent post! And don’t forget that donkeys contribute in this category in many ways as well.

    Like

    Reply

  4. It was Energy Awareness! I saw Clever Allemont last Monday in Kentucky. I knew he was blind in his right eye and I believe I’ve been told he’s also deaf. I quietly approach from the right and kept talking to him. When he finally turned to look at me it was like–“Oh there you are!” he didn’t act at all surprised or scared. He let me pet him and never once tried to nip or bite.

    But then I also saw Point Given who was so curious about my walker I had to bring it as close to the stall as I could so he could sniff it. He sniffed it for a good 3/4 mins and lifted his nose to me like it was okay to,pat him. No could do–Three Chimneys has a policy that visitors are NOT to touch the horses. He seemed so taken by my 4 legs!

    So many horses saw it wasn’t easy for me to get around and they were SO incredibly gentle kind and sweet. I came home feeling like I had made many friends. The 4 legged kind!

    If you give a horse a chance you will make a friend for life. Sometimes they might scared of crutches or walkers and need help understanding that they won’t them. Then you quietly approach and just talk to them. It can be about anything. Even a deaf horse will “hear” you. He picks up on the vibes you let off. If your standing there swearing your head off–he picks up the angry vibes. You can tell him who you are and how much you love horses. What the horse is “hearing” are the vibes that say “I AM NOT GOING TO HURT YOU”.

    Sure you have nippy horses, and biters and kickers. Stallions bite. And some are really nippy. You have to use caution. You can still love them but you use some common sense. Kickers–are definitely something to watch out for!

    Even Dynaformer (Mr. Grouchy)who definitely had issues with people–he commanded respect from one and all. But in the breeding shed he was a perfect gentleman.

    Like

    Reply

Care to make a comment?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.