HEAL workshop host, Red Horse Foundation in Gloucestershire, UK was established to meet the needs of growing numbers of people from all walks of life, who are seeking the deep and far reaching benefits of equine facilitated therapies. Their intention is to foster, assist and develop horse/human relationships for learning, healing and self development.

The Red Horse Foundation offers three programs Equine-Facilitated Learning, Equine-Facilitated Therapy, and  Equine Care.

Equine-Facilitated Learning

Equine Learning provides people with opportunities to heal and know themselves better through interaction with horses and a skilled facilitator. Just the size and proximity of a horse brings about a heightened sense of awareness in a person, and the horse's slower biorhythms can affect a positive change to a person's heart rate, and their psychological and emotional well being. At Red Horse, the Equine Learning facilitators use specifically designed exercises and tools to assist the process of learning and discovery, while also allowing plenty of space for the natural healing and growth that happens between people and horses.

Equine Facilitated Therapy

Equine Therapy at Red Horse is a custom-designed program suited to the needs of a specific client group or individual. It differs from Equine Learning in that it provides possibilities to look into a person's past to better understand their present situation. In this way it is more akin to a counseling session, and facilitated by a minimum of two professionals: a qualified counselor or psychotherapist, and a qualified Equine Therapy practitioner. Many of the exercises and tools are the same as those used in Equine Learning, but the emphasis is somewhat different.

Equine Care

Equine Care at Red Horse is a less structured approach than Equine Learning or Equine Therapy programs. They offer clients the possibility to spend time with the horses and can groom, feed and care for them in a non pressurised environment. If a client has a preferred choice of horse or has begun to make a relationship with a particular horse, they support and encourage this wherever possible. In Equine Care sessions clients are offered the opportunity to take some time just to be with their chosen horse. They are enabled to choose a low-key activity of their choice (not riding), or just simply spend unstructured time with their horse and the other herd members in a safe environment. This relaxed time with the horses enables relationship-building to occur, and the client will quietly absorb the therapeutic benefits of being in close proximity to the horses. Clients may release worries, fears and anxieties during these precious times with the horses.

"Red Horse Foundation offers a sanctuary of peace and rest, a place to be in nature with specially trained horses and facilitators, and a space and time to reconnect with yourself through the Way of Horse." - Lisanne Peters, Red Horse Foundation Director

For more information please visit www.redhorsefoundation.org.

NARHA is now the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.)!

The Board of Trustees and staff are proud to announce that NARHA is now officially the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.). The association tagline is "Ensuring excellence and changing lives through equine-assisted activities and therapies." This name change will open doors to a myriad of inclusive possibilities and matches the growth of the equine-assisted activities and therapies (EAAT) industry. PATH Intl. vows to continue to provide its membership with an ever-evolving and progressive level of quality. The association promises that the service members receive will be positive, knowledgeable and friendly. The educational opportunities offered will continue to challenge and enlighten. 

Click here for more about the name change. 

http://www.pathintl.org/ 

PATH International Offers 'How to Start an EFP/EFL Program'

by David Young

The Polyvagal Theory, is not an easy read but it is certainly stimulating along my lines of interest: Neural regulation of the autonomic nervous system [ANS] and its relationship to somatic manifestations of trauma, including heart rate, heart rate variability [HRV]. HRV is a window into the autonomic [ANS] which has closed loops that include the brain. This book offers profound insight into trauma's impact on the ANS, and the "social engagement system" which is one of our primary biological defenses against harm and trauma.

The day is not far off when you or some of your therapy peers will be using HRV measures during office therapy. Porges's book was a necessary foundation and even now HRV applications are being reported from Germany, UK, Korea, Taiwan, Greece, India, etc.

In the Acknowledgements, he tells how his theory evolved over four decades of research. And that the theory is a work in progress rather than a doctrine. This makes it an excellent reference, with a large list of references, and an exhaustive, practical Index, that gives room for new measures.

The Foreword & Introduction are worth the price of the book. And I found the Vagal Paradox in the Introduction exciting. He certainly captures what makes research intriguing.

I was glad to find he included actual HRV/Vagal Tone measurements from full-term neonates and neonates in Neonatal Intensive Care Units ( pp 70, 71) so that instead of just telling us, he showed us actual instances of traumatic distress and application of his theory.

In Chapter 10, p 264 he challenges sympathetic and parasympathetic "balance" used with biofeedback systems and still referred to in text books, although there has been an intervening century in which neurophysiology has documented a second vagal path way involved in regulating autonomic function. There is something new to use in physiology here.

The relevance of this book to our field of psychotherapy, and in particular Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy, is captured by the comments of Norman Doidge, MD, author, The Brain That Changes Itself. "Porges provides a missing link between mind and the nervous system and helps explain, in fine detail, how our individual nervous systems influence, and are influenced by, our interactions with others. Suddenly we understand things novelists have described for centuries: how it is that a facial expression, a gesture, a certain tone of voice, can trigger a radical mental reorganization, and lead to engagment, and how our mental and nervous system states shift. Porges's theory of the social vagus represents a major advance in human knowledge, and is already improving the practice psychotherapy and mind-body medicine."

Daniel J. Siegel, MD, author of The Mindful Brain and The Mindful Therapist, also weighed in: "Soak in the wisdom of this fabulous book and you'll see the role of the body's response to our social interactions in a whole new light. The Polyvagal Theory is a profoundly important contribution to our understanding of how we connect with others through the regulation of our own basic physiological state... Read on and understand our brains, our minds, and our relationships in a rich and extremely helpful way!"

Happy reading!

David