In August, ECC had the pleasure of presenting on Equine Assisted Counseling in the treatment of trauma and PTSD at Millwood Hospital in Arlington as part of their Continuing Education series. We believe that knowledge is an important part of healing whether you are a counselor or a client. We hope that providing you with an overview of the information from our presentation will help increase your understanding of trauma, PTSD, and how equine assisted counseling can help with the healing process.

What is trauma?

Trauma can be defined in a few different ways and is not experienced just by military veterans. The dictionary defines it as “a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.” Other experts describe it as an “emotional response to a terrible event.” The DSM-5, the manual that describes different mental health diagnoses, says that trauma is directly experiencing, witnessing first-hand, repeated exposure to, or learning that a friend or family member has experienced “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.” A few examples of potentially traumatic experiences include sexual assault, childhood abuse, natural disasters, invasive medical treatments, and military combat experiences. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will experience long-term psychological effects, and no two people will react to the same event in the same way. However, there are some common reactions to trauma that many people experience. These include:

• Trouble concentrating or making decisions
• Feeling jumpy
• Disturbing dreams, intrusive memories or “flashbacks” of the event
• Feeling helpless or fearful
• Feeling numb
• Feeling irritable or having angry outbursts
  
  

Again, this is by no means all of the ways someone might react to trauma and someone with trauma may not experience all of these.

What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

PTSD is a mental health diagnosis described in the DSM. In order to receive the diagnosis, a client must have experienced symptoms for more than one month after the traumatic experience. It is characterized by four symptom clusters: intrusion (such as recurrent distressing memories, dreams, or flashbacks), avoidance (trying to stay away from things that remind the person of the trauma), negative alterations in mood and thoughts (such as negative beliefs about oneself, blaming oneself for the event, or being unable to feel happiness or love), and alterations in arousal and reactivity (feeling constantly on-guard, jumpy, or reckless).

Common Therapies for PTSD

Some of the most common treatments for PTSD are cognitive processing therapy (CPT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), exposure therapy, and medication. Despite the success of these methods, many people may feel that they do not help as much as they hoped. Other people may feel uncomfortable or suspicious about going to these therapies. Fortunately, there are many alternative therapies that are now being offered to help clients with PTSD. Equine assisted counseling is one of these non-traditional methods that has had great success.

Why do we work with horses to treat PTSD?

You can read more about why equine assisted counseling is helpful on this page. For trauma and PTSD, there are a few unique benefits to partnering with horses. Many trauma survivors can relate to the “fight or flight” mentality that horses have as prey animals. However, once a threat is removed, horses return to a calm state very quickly, something that clients with PTSD often have difficulty with. Working with such a large animal can help clients, particularly victims of abuse and assault, feel empowered. Research also suggests that being around animals such as horses decreased production of stress hormones and increased production of wellness hormones. This can help clients who feel ready to process trauma by helping them feel more comfortable while talking about upsetting experiences or to calm down more quickly if they are triggered.

Some of the other benefits that clients with trauma report include:

• Feeling of peace and relaxation
• Decreases in anger
• Formation of a trusting relationship with horse and others
• Increased desire to connect with others
• Decreased feelings of depression and anxiety
• Increased ability to self-regulate and learning to relax
• Identification of the horse as a model to manage symptoms
  
  

Recovering from trauma is not a quick or easy process. We understand that reaching out can be difficult and hope that we can be a safe place for healing. Equine assisted counseling offers many benefits that clients may not always experience in traditional counseling or that will enhance other trauma therapies. If you are interested in learning more about how equine assisted counseling might help you or someone you know, please do not hesitate to contact us.

One of the most common concerns that parents and caregivers bring up to a counselor is how to manage a child’s misbehavior. Some children act out more than others, but it is always stressful for both the adult and the child when they do. It is important to address the child’s behavior in a way that he or she can understand. Children’s brains are different from adult brains, so we need to be able to communicate limits and consequences in a child-appropriate manner. Our favorite way to do this both in therapy and in the home is with the A-C-T model. It was developed by Dr. Garry Landreth, a leading figure in play therapy. It involves three simple, adaptable steps: Acknowledge the feeling, Communicate the limit, and Target acceptable alternatives.

Acknowledge the feeling. Letting a child know that you know how they are feeling helps them to feel heard and understood. Acknowledging emotions also helps an upset child address their feelings and can help them calm down faster.

“I know that you are angry and want to hit me…”

Communicate the limit. It is alright for a child to have feelings, but it is not appropriate for them to behave destructively or inappropriately. After validating their emotions, let them know that what they are doing is not OK. Be sure to word the limit so that you are saying “no” to the behavior and not to the child themselves. For example, instead of saying, “You can’t throw that,” you can say…

“…but I am not for hitting.”

This puts the focus on the child’s action rather than their feeling or person. Behaviors are easier for a child to change than feelings are, which is why the third step is to offer choices of other ways to behave.

Target acceptable alternatives. Simply telling a child “no” can lead them to feeling frustrated. They are trying to deal with their emotions and need to learn how to handle them safely. Offer other ways they can express themselves that are acceptable to you. It is also important that the child feels they have the ability to make their own choice, which helps them learn responsibility and problem solving. Offer one choice for younger children and 2-3 choices for older children and teens.

“You can choose to hit the pillow.”

It is important that you do not offer a choice that you do not want the child to choose. For example, you wouldn’t suggest that they hit the dog instead of you.

The A-C-T method can also be used with teens. We often want to treat teens as adults, but their brains are not fully developed yet and they need clear communication of concrete limits like children do. Tweak the language slightly so that the teen does not feel talked down to, but can still understand what you are saying. For example, “I know you are upset about not being able to go out with your friends tonight, but school nights are for doing homework and chores. You can choose to see your friends on Friday night or invite them to come over on Saturday.”

If the child persists in the inappropriate behavior, stay firm and consistent with the limit. This type of limit setting can take some getting used to. Practice the three parts and soon it will become natural to respond to your child with the A-C-T method. For more about limit setting and choice giving, we recommend Dr. Landreth’s "Choices, Cookies, and Kids" DVD. ECC has the DVD available for parents and caregivers to watch during their child’s session. It can also be purchased on Dr. Landreth’s website.

Please contact us with any questions you have about the A-C-T method or leave a comment below.

  

It can be intimidating to attend your first (or even fifth or tenth) counseling session. Therapy is a mysterious process and clients may not know what to expect from the counselor, the horses, or the process in general. This series will explain more about the counseling process at Equine Connection Counseling. Keep in mind that everyone’s experience in counseling is different and these are just a few common elements that most of our clients will come across in their sessions.

In Part 1 we are discussing what happens as clients begin counseling at ECC:

Paperwork. The most boring part of the counseling process is filling out paperwork! Many counseling practices these days make their intake packet available by downloading from their website or e-mailing you an electronic copy. Others ask that you arrive early for your first appointment to complete various forms. At Equine Connection Counseling, the counselor provides the client with a password to download the forms from our website. It may be a hassle to complete them, but it is important for the counselor to know certain information about their new client and for the client to know about their rights in the counseling process. The counselor will discuss some of the forms with the client and may have additional consent documents for them to sign.

Meeting the horses. Once the paperwork is out of the way, it’s time for the best part: going out into the pasture to meet the horses! Older children, teens, and adults will work with our full-sized horses in large pastures. We encourage clients to meet and interact with as many of the horses as they would like. Younger children will usually be in play therapy with our two miniature horses. Some people feel comfortable enough to pet the horses right away; others prefer to get the lay of the land and take some time to approach the horses. We know that everyone works at their own pace and will follow the client’s lead.

Building a relationship. We believe that the relationship between a client, the horse, and the counselor is the foundation for growth and healing. After they have met all of the horses they wish to, we will ask the client to choose one horse that they will work with in all of their sessions. There are many different ways to interact with the horse and we will let the client choose what feels most comfortable. As the client gets to know the horse, they will also be getting to know the counselor and equine specialist and they will be getting to know the client. However, we don’t like to pressure clients to talk. Studies suggest that just being around the horse can help people feel happier and more relaxed. We might make observations about what the client and horse are doing, but we let people talk as much or as little as they want to. Some people choose to talk the entire session and others talk much less. Having a relationship with the horse can be helpful for people who don’t feel comfortable talking to their human therapist about their challenges; many clients enjoy sharing about their day or their struggles with their horse before they talk to their counselor about it.

Setting goals. Within the first few sessions, the counselor will ask about the client’s goals for therapy. These are the things the client hopes will change as a result of coming to counseling (for example, feeling less anxious). After identifying those goals, the counselor will help identify things the client can do with the horse in counseling that will help the client achieve their goals. Having goals can help clients be committed to themselves and the healing process; they also give the client an idea of how they’ll know that they have been making changes through counseling.

Remember that counseling is a participation activity: you get out of therapy what you put into it! We encourage you to contact us or comment below with any questions you have about the counseling process.