 Equine-Facilitated
Psychotherapy & Learning EFP/L |
December 2009
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New Workshops
for 2010
The Horse-Human Connection:
Focus on PLAY & SEEKING
Chehalis, WA
March 19-21
Finding Freedom:
HEAL Personal Growth Intensive
Chehalis, WA
April 10-11
HEAL Facilitator Training Program 2010
Now accepting applications
Space is limited
Leigh Shambo, LMHC & David Young:
Offerings in Bishop, CA
November 2009 thru mid-February 2010
Private Sessions Available
Contact HEAL for more information
HEAL Schedule on our
Website
check it out for the latest events
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Greetings from HEAL!
The winter solstice is upon us... and friends near and far find themselves busy - perhaps even anxious? - with holiday preparations and rituals. It seems humans are the only species to turn celebration into obligation and play into work. The human brain is prone to some unique fictions!
It's a good time to explore this issue's article, video links & book review on SEEKING and PLAY - essential neural circuits that make life for people (and animals!) more meaningful and joyful. Also this month, a graduate of the 2009 HEAL Facilitator Training Program offers her insight into how horses and EFL enhance her healing practice.It is good to remember that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to celebrate the season. Enjoy this month's articles and contributions. Remember too that we love to hear from you and welcome your comments, suggestions and stories to share with all of our readers. Please send them to us at news@humanequinealliance.org.
As we give wings to the December HEAL Newsletter it is our wish for your season to be filled with love, joy and hope.
Thanks to each of you for your Spirit and Grace!
Leigh
Leigh Shambo, MSW, LMHC
Human-Equine Alliances for Learning (HEAL)
360.266.0778
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SEEKING & PLAY in the Eastern High Sierra
by Leigh Shambo
As many of you know, David Young and I journeyed to Bishop, California this winter. The exquisite recreational environment of the Sierra Mountains offers the perfect setting for us to PLAY and SEEK with our two young Arabian horses, Beau and Dixsi.
As you read that sentence, did you intuitively know that PLAY and SEEKING are an important part of positive mental functioning? This is true for both humans and animals. Perhaps you also felt confused or curious. Why are PLAY and SEEKING written in capitals? You may have already noticed that our new introductory workshop The Horse-Human Connection will have a special emphasis on PLAY and SEEKING (March 19th-21st). What's up with all of this? What, specifically, do PLAY and SEEKING have to do with Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy & Learning (EFP/L)?
 First, let me clarify the CAPS. When you see PLAY and SEEKING written in CAPS, you are observing an oblique reference to the work of Jaak Panksepp, author of the definitive reference Affective Neuroscience: The Basis of Human and Animal Emotions. What Panksepp helps us understand is that playfulness and exploration are not just activities that both humans and animals happen to engage in from time to time. They actually are the expression, or behavioral outcome, that begins with the activation of specific neural pathways in specific regions of the brain. The part of the brain where emotions first take hold - the limbic region - is also dubbed "the mammalian brain". Panksepp has identified seven primary neural circuits: FEAR, PANIC, RAGE, LUST, CARE, PLAY and SEEKING, which are common to all mammals. When a circuit is electrically stimulated, all animals will behaviorally express, or "act out", that particular flavor of emotion.
Interestingly, the specific neural circuitry for primary emotional flavors, also called "affects", are strikingly similar across virtually all animal species, especially mammals. For every scientist following these recent advances in neuroscience, this definitively settles the debate about whether animals experience emotion. It is this commonality of emotional functioning that gives animal assisted therapies such enormous healing potential.
So why is understanding this neural circuitry of emotion important to our quality of life and our relationships? Once an emotional circuit has been activated, it directs and shapes our perception (what we notice and interpret) and cognitions (our rational thinking process) in accordance with our mood state. To put it in laymen's terms, when your brain is activated in a certain mood state, you tend to stay in that state to the exclusion of others. Although I am oversimplifying a very complex matter, I feel sure most of us can agree that when we are afraid, it's hard to play.
 Panksepp's groundbreaking book is a worthy, but complex read. A related, and more digestible read for animal lovers, is Temple Grandin's latest book: Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals. This book about animal welfare is based on Panksepp's work. Grandin says that recognition of emotion in animals is central to the very concept of animal well-being. Keeping animals both healthy and happy requires more than food, water and attention to their physical well-being. From pets to livestock species to zoo animals, Grandin argues that excellence in animal welfare relies on a simple formula: avoid activating the brain circuits for FEAR, PANIC and RAGE; and do provide environments that stimulate the brain circuits for PLAY and SEEKING.
 Back to Beau and Dixsi and David and I. David and I have long believed that the limbic connection, the essence of the healing power of the horse human bond, is maximized by collaborative and mutual opportunities for play and exploration with horses. Here in Bishop we have a unique playground. At Hidden Creeks Ranch where Beau and Dixsi live, there is literally a horse playground with a variety of jumps, mazes, bridges and other puzzles which might intrigue the horse mind. And there are miles and miles of mountain and high desert trails, full of variety, challenge and opportunities for relying on each other and improving our communication and healthy interdependency. On a recent ride, we paused atop a high ridge overlooking a scenic valley which the sinking sun had cast in pink light and lengthening shadows. Four beings, two human and two horse, seemed to be joined in a sense of wonder and a desire to explore (which had to wait until another day). Was it just our imagination? Or was it an activation of a neurological affect potential, which we could sense in each other through our limbic resonance? EFP/L provides many such moments to explore the territory of the psyche and soul. Come SEEK with us!!
For more information about our upcoming workshop, The Horse-Human Connection: Focus on PLAY & SEEKING (exploring), click here.
Here are links to three videos that demonstrate the concepts of PLAY and SEEKING:
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Nickers from Judith Kay
An Update from 2008 HEAL Facilitator Training Program Graduate
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Background: Judith Kay, a 2008 graduate of the HEAL Facilitator Training Program, is a reading tutor specializing in emotionally and academically compromised students. She discovered a number of years ago that the children who came to her for tutoring could benefit emotionally and academically from interacting with horses. Last year she brought two miniature horses, Sprout and Peanut, onto her property to work with her in her tutoring practice. It turned out that local ordinances did not permit her to keep horses on her property. So Judith began the process of trying to get a variance to allow them to stay with her on the property, first from her local City Planning Commission, and when that failed, from her City Council. This was last spring.
Here is Judith's recent update:
I did not get the variance to keep the minis. The City Council vote ended in a tie.
 As you can imagine, though, much good has come from the entire experience. Quite a few colleagues had written letters of support, and many of my students and their parents spoke eloquently at the City Council hearing of the amazing work the horses do. A journalist had also published two articles about my plight in the local paper.
 After reading these articles, a woman named Gretchen Moran contacted me and joined us at the City Council Hearing. Before Sprout and Peanut joined me, they were owned by a local stadium where Gretchen worked. She had been with these minis from the time they were babies and had led all the children's programs using Sprout and Peanut at the stadium. When a rodeo outfit bought the stadium they let Gretchen go, evicted her horse which she boarded there, and refused to let her buy Peanut and Sprout. Gretchen went back to visit the minis when she could bear it and found that they were completely neglected. One day when she went to visit, they were gone. No one would tell her what had happened to Sprout and Peanut. Then she saw the articles about my challenges with keeping them and was overjoyed to know they were still together and well cared for.
 Gretchen now boards her own horse at a first-rate facility nearby. The barn manager there offered to board Peanut and Sprout at the facility as long as I needed. Thanks to the help of friends and the barn manager, Dorothy, Sprout and Peanut have a brand new shed and a huge pen. I get out to the barn for a visit and some play in the round pen four or five times a week now. Not the same as having them with me all the time, but a good solution for now.
 Once we moved Sprout and Peanut to their new home, all of my tutoring families came for a reunion. Normally in my tutoring practice, I work with individuals, so this was my first time working with the horses with a group of people. It was a peak experience for all of us. Unfortunately Sprout and Peanut's new home is too far for many of my tutoring students to travel regularly. While a couple of them will continue with me less frequently, the rest I'll see only on occasional reunions.
When Gretchen first contacted me, she told me that, before the new owners took over the stadium, she had wanted to take the minis to visit assisted living and hospice facilities, children's hospitals, etc. She asked if I might be interested in doing that with her. Of course I was. We both plan to take the course for Pet Partners certification at the end of January offered by Denver Pet Partners, an organization providing information and education on animal-assisted activities/therapy. To see how things might go, we started out by taking them for a stroll around PetSmart! They were good as gold and brought much joy to all.
 Since the PetSmart trip went so well, we took the minis to visit Sunrise, an assisted living facility. We were inside with them for over an hour. And they even rode an elevator without anxiety! Sprout and Peanut were so loving and so good. No accidents either! Some of the staff told us they had never been so near horses. Of course the residents were overjoyed to have them there. The day of our visit, there were many children and babies visiting, as well. Gretchen even put some of the children on Sprout (one at a time). One little girl started out hiding behind a pillow on the couch because she was afraid. But by the end of our visit, she was sitting on top of Sprout, grinning from ear to ear. All of the photos here are from our visit to Sunrise.
 On related topic, I have been tutoring a young man at center that assists people with disabilities. My work has been so effective that the volunteer tutors there are using my materials to work with other clients. I see an opportunity to package and market my materials to similar centers across the country. A client's mother, who works for an organization specializing in math learning programs, has even expressed an interest in helping me with that project. This new opportunity may be the way to bring in the funds I need to buy a property where I can again have Sprout and Peanut living with me. I do miss having the minis right here and working with them as partners. I experience a swirl of thoughts and emotions around this, yet know things will work out as they are supposed to. The old saying seems to hold true. When one door closes (at least) one door opens.
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What Do Horses Add to the Alternative Healing Equation? By Charmaine Lane
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There are many different alternative healing modalities out there, but what is it about the horses that makes healing with them so different and often profoundly successful? Horses bring so much to humans, when you consider we have been intertwined with them for centuries, they have helped humans in so many different ways from battle fields, to farming, to leisure and fun, and now we are becoming conscious of how they are helping us to heal.  There are many different aspects to healing. Horses are talented co-facilitators in guiding someone towards reconnection with themselves, helping them remember who they really are, to truly love themselves and then guide them towards the possibilities of connection with all other beings and the rest of the world. This journey begins by learning about our bodies, becoming aware of our feelings and what messages are behind them. Becoming conscious of how we are living, and moving from surviving to thriving.
Horses have their own unique magic that they bring to healing. They are able to feel what is going on in a person, and give instant non-judgmental feedback. By learning to interact with them in a conscious way they help us learn to become aware of ourselves and the parts we play in the relationships in our lives. They show us things about ourselves that we can't see on our own. The horse gives the opportunity for us to immediately 'try out' new behaviours, feelings and ways of doing things. We don't have to wait for a situation to arise in our life to see if things turn out differently, or if we feel differently. The horses give us the opportunity to experience different outcomes to 'old' situations straight away.  The physical body of a horse holds part of their healing qualities. Horses have huge hearts and guts, which makes them perfect for teaching us about how to use these 'brains' within us. We have 3 'brains,' one in our head, one in our heart, and one in our gut. Often we humans operate solely from the brain in our head; we unknowingly disconnect ourselves from the rest of our body as a survival strategy. To be successful in an interaction with a horse you have to start using your heart and gut 'brains' as well as the brain in your head. Learning about this is all part of beginning the re-connection with your whole body. Becoming aware and starting to feel these other brain centres in your body is a fundamental part of healing. To be able to tune into all these brains and listen to the subtle messages they are offering you gives you huge amounts of information to help you live your life in harmony. As with learning anything, it is always good to learn from the best, so it makes sense for humans to learn from a species that is a master of listening to their hearts and guts, the horses.
 I asked a couple of my clients about their experience of what horses have given them that no other healing has. Client 'A' has a lot of horse experience, having been around them most of her life. It was only when she started Equine Facilitated Learning sessions that she became aware of how much of a mirroring quality horses have. During one session she was thinking a lot about work, but at the same time really wanting to get a lot out of the session. While she was up in her head and not in the present moment, the horse ignored her invitation to walk together. After a moment of questioning herself, "Why doesn't the horse want to be with me?" she realised she was trying too hard, thinking too much and wasn't truly there in her body. As soon as she acknowledged this, the energy in her body changed, her intention became clearer and the horse felt it. Then he was only too happy to be with her walking around the field and enjoying a loving connection with her. In this example the feedback from the horse was instant, non-judgmental and very clear. This is one of the gifts they bring to a healing session: the horses have no agenda of their own. As soon as the client was in tune with herself, in the moment and conscious of how she was feeling, the horse wanted to be with her. Horses are very perceptive of our unacknowledged thoughts and feelings and they show this by moving away from us or not wanting to be around us until we acknowledge what is going on inside.
 Another client, Client 'B', had no previous horse experience prior to her Equine Facilitated Learning sessions. She found that through the horses she has started to regain confidence in her own abilities. They have helped her become aware of how to minimize stress in her life by teaching her important boundary skills. During these sessions the horses demonstrated another quality they have: they always seem to know what is right for each person in each moment and present situations that bring to light issues that the client may have been unaware of previously. The horses have an inner knowing of what each person's soul is ready to understand. By learning how to keep the horse at a safe distance, this client learned what it felt like to hold her own space and maintain a connection with another being. The horses offer learning and healing opportunities through unconditional love, and honest connections. To have the opportunities to feel these qualities from another being is what horses really bring to the alternative healing equation.
Charmaine Lane is a 2009 graduate of the HEAL Facilitator Training Program. A lifelong horsewoman, she has recently added Equine-Facilitated Learning to her offerings through her company, Amazing-Mind based in Somerset, United Kingdom.
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A Book Review by Leigh Shambo
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Relationships based on PLAY and SEEKING = Liberation!
 Gallop to Freedom is a marvelous book that goes way beyond the horse-human relationship without really intending to. For this reason it is sure to delight anyone who is interested in the underlying principles of positive relationships. Delgado and Pignon, the equestrian geniuses behind the extravagant Cavalia production (www.Cavalia.net), offer their insights in ways that are precise, well-articulated and at the same time humble and accessible. Plus, the book is full of amazing photos of the pair with their magnificent Spanish horses! The photos by themselves are enough to shift our perception of what the human-horse relationship can be.
At HEAL, our mission is "helping people heal through the creative and non-violent experience of the horse-human bond." The work of Delgado and Pignon, demonstrated live through their Cavalia performances and now explored in words and principles in this book, helps us understand that work with horses can offer a liberation that infuses all of our relationships.
In their conclusion the authors state: "Our lives are devoted to improving the balance between people and horses by learning to treat the horse with the same respect with which one person should treat another person... Indeed a growing understanding of communication with horses can hardly fail to improve our observation and awareness of the feelings of the human beings with whom we have contact. It is to be hoped that this will make us more compassionate and understanding rather than cynical and unforgiving."
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GoodSearch.com supports HEAL - and it's Working!
We have something new and exciting we'd like to share with you! It's the new HEAL toolbar - once added to your Internet Explorer or Firefox, each time you shop at more than 1,300 stores (from Amazon to Zazzle!) a percentage of your purchase will automatically be donated to HEAL - at no cost to you (and you may even save money as the toolbar provides coupons and deals as well!). The toolbar also has a search box and each time you search the Internet, about a penny is donated to HEAL.
Click here to check it out.
And please pass this along to all of your friends. The two minutes it takes to add this toolbar to your browser can make a lifetime of difference, especially during the busy holiday shopping season!
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All content is (c) 2009 Leigh Shambo unless otherwise noted. Thank you
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