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The Equine Two Step
Val Hampson, MA
Advanced equine activities skills facilitation may be easier than the
Texas Two Step- or not. You still have to be on your toes (read: “fully
present and engaged”) at all times as you move with your equine and
client partners. Sometimes there’s a lot of movement and sometimes
seemingly little overt action, but it is always a fast free flowing
dance of emotion, thought, behavior, energy and spirit on everyone’s
part.
….
EAP/EEL (Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Equine
Experiential Learning) can appear deceptively simple. Whether your
experience is weighted more towards horse work or therapy/education, EAP/EEL
requires skillful finesse with both at the same time. The sheer
amount of sensory input from client and horse requires a leader to
process and parse vast amounts of information each moment and be ready
to make quick decisions on guidance and comments. This is one reason why
it is advisable to have a therapist/educator and horse specialist team.
It takes a lot of practice and skill to be effective. The Texas
two step may be quite a bit easier!
At a recent Advanced Equine Activities Facilitation workshop with
Leigh Shambo, MSW and the HEAL herd in Chehalis, WA,
professionals from various states gathered to hone and gain skills.
We discussed theoretical constructs, various approaches and styles of
EAP work, such as the epona method and the EAGALA model and more.
Throughout the weekend we explored equine assisted applications of group
work, individual psychotherapy and educational approaches with various
populations.
And we practiced and practiced more… on each other with the help of the
truly magical, talented and experienced HEAL herd and the expert
guidance of Leigh.
This workshop was different that most workshops. Rather than a personal
growth, therapy, healing or client oriented educational workshop, this
was a professional skills educational workshop. So, there we gathered -
professionals from various disciplines with more or less horse related
experience and more or less EAP/EEL experience. We all had our
professional hats on, even if in a very casual way. We talked from the
intellect for awhile and got ready to role play client and
therapist/educator/horse specialist with the horses under Leigh’s
excellent tutelage. The underlying performance anxiety was most evident
in some reluctance to ’go first’ and the occasional nervous laughter.
Leigh gave us wide choices as to client populations and we used
structured and ‘at liberty’ reflective and active groundwork scenarios.
Horses being creatures of congruence and not fond of mixed messages and
incongruent emotions (putting on a ‘happy face’ or a falsely stoic one
or operating out of denial), I was intensely curious to see what would
happen with them as we role played sometimes wildly ‘false’ roles while
harboring any performance anxiety and an internal background of our own
personal lives and moods.
Well, the HEAL herd is far too experienced, savvy and generous to be
seriously thrown off by role playing. This is, after all, their work and
they have each freely chosen it and usually seem fine with it.
So, while they gamely participated, I noticed there was some extra
interest in wandering off to graze and some, well, interesting
expressions on their faces that appeared a little quizzical.
I know these horses well. In a role play, when I was pretending to be a
depressed client choosing a horse to meet and thinking up interesting
dialogue, Gem, the little Cobb/Morgan-looking mix mare, kept grazing her
way quickly in the other direction, as if to say ‘I know you. Why are
you acting like this? Come back when you can be yourself’.
We were learning important information as we role played and processed,
but its usefulness and interest soared when I shared an authentic desire
with Gem. I was tired; I wanted to rest, to snooze with Gem. Leigh and
the ‘therapist’ encouraged me to drape my arms around Gem. When I rested
my arm across her and leaned in, she stayed still, relaxed in my
embrace. And, I am told, I had a big, authentic grin on my face. That
was a pivotal moment in the otherwise contrived ‘session’. It was a time
when I connected with Gem and she with me, with the role playing
“therapist”, with Leigh and the other participants. It was a distinctive
opening moment, very ‘in the present’ and where we were all connected
energetically. Had this been a ‘real’ therapeutic session, that point
would have been the moment of greatest therapeutic impact. And it did
have a genuine salutary effect on all of us as individuals and a group.
Through the weekend, we began to get comfortable together as a group; we
developed some trust. We saw we got more ‘results’ with the horses and
each other- and it was easier- to be genuine and authentic. We began to
be our real selves in our role plays, sharing authentic information,
emotions and styles. And we learned a lot about facilitation, able to
stop, replay, retry and process moments in our role played sessions with
the horses.
The horses became more engaged in the process, too, participating fully.
At one point in an active groundwork round pen session, Gem, at the far
end of the pen from me, turned and bucked a couple of times. When asked
how I felt about this, being authentic, it brought forward an old
childhood memory of being bucked off which tied into- surprise,
surprise- current issues occurring I my life.
The greatest learnings in this workshop, the most attentive full
participation from the horses, the ease and flow of the role plays, and
the most satisfaction came when we felt safe enough with other to speak
from our authentic professional selves and open our authentic personal
hearts with each other. The knowledge gained is deeper and more
integrated. And if you’ve ever been to a dry and tiring professional
workshop, this is a whole lot more fun.
Val Hampson, MA,
is an energy worker, qi gong practitioner and Reiki Master specializing
in equines and other animals. EAGALA certified, Val is an experienced psychotherapist
with a master's degree in counseling psychology. She is an author and
the editor of Equus Spirit. Contact her at
valh@equusspirit.com
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