Healing on the hoof: Horses as therapists

By Katherine Dedyna

Published 2007 06 21, Page C1
Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

Sometimes, talking things out with an understanding therapist just
doesn't do it. So how about a session with a silent but insightful horse?

Horses are slowly cantering into the counselling world thanks to
practitioners claiming to harness their ancient wisdom to tackle modern
malaises.

Seekers don't have to saddle up for a full-speed gallop; they just
spend quiet time "in the moment" with these majestic and sensitive
creatures.

Registered clinical counsellor Deborah Marshall is an Island
trailblazer in what she calls "equine-facilitated psychotherapy." The lifelong
horsewoman, in private practice for 20 years, spends nearly half her time
with clients seeking healing with one her 11 horses at Generations
Farm.

"Horses have a magical way of really understanding what goes on with
people," she says.



Horses might just walk away from someone who is distracted and
negative, or lick and love up someone who shows their vulnerability.
Her role in all this? "Learning to stay out of the way and let the
horse create the teachable moment."

Whoa.

Where did all this horse sensitivity come from?

Horses are huge, but because they spent eons as prey, "they can assess
instantly our inner state," Marshall says. "People may fool others, and
they may fool themselves, but you can't fool a horse."

Marshall describes one client who fought despair due to childhood
sexual abuse but wasn't getting anywhere until a visit to her farm.

With no prompting, one of the least social horses came from the back of
the field and leaned his enormous head against the man's heart. "And
stayed there for five minutes." The man wrapped his arms around the
horse and despite his skepticism, found it gave him hope.

Along with healing trauma, being "present" with horses can improve
people's moods, fight depression and anxiety and expand their confidence
and passion, she asserts. For a price -- slightly higher than regular
therapy.

The first session costs $150 and lasts up to two hours; subsequent
sessions cost $115.

Victoria registered clinical counsellor Susan Duffy has treated only
one client with equine therapy -- she had to borrow the horse -- but
plans to go deeper into it. She finds horses "very sensitive" to human
emotional energy.

"It can help women, in particular, with setting boundaries," she
believes. "It gives people who might not respond so well to talk therapy a
different approach -- I see it being more body-centred."

It all sounds like "a gimmick" to Simon Fraser University psychology
professor Barry Beyerstein, who thinks it's "overblown to call it a
therapy."

How about horses' ability to instantly assess the human mindset? "I
think that's a pretty long stretch," says Beyerstein, a contributing
editor of the journal, the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine.

Seeking healing with horses isn't going to do any harm, he says. It
would probably even relax people, and if they buy into the whole picture,
could steer them toward conventional therapies.

But he's "very dubious" about any major psychological problems being
solved with horse sense, and he has concerns about people paying for
treatments not proven be effective in medical literature.

About five of 1,600 members of the B.C. Association of Clinical
Counsellors practise equine therapy.

"We're completely supportive of it," says association executive
director Jim Browne.

After 10 sessions with Marshall's horses, Kate, a mid-life woman
suffering physical damage from overwork and hyperstress, needs no more
convincing about finding personal truths through equine therapy.

"It calls me to deeper and deeper authenticity in my life, which does
keep the stress down and slows me down and keeps me in the moment."

Sandra Wallin of Maple Ridge praises the insights of her mare, Grace.

"Grace will move into that person's space and push or pull her
boundaries," says Wallin, who recently gave a workshop called The Equine
Apothecary at the University of Victoria Body Heals Conference and did a
year-long apprenticeship in Tucson, Ariz., with Barbara Rector, co-founder
of the Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association.

"These are the most beautiful creatures and the most wise. They can
tell when people are pretending to be kind when they are really angry or
brave when they're not."

If someone needs to learn humility, Grace might just ignore them.

Being near a horse can lead to unexpected reactions. "People just
approach a horse and start to cry," she says.