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Play therapy is recognized as an evidence-based, developmentally appropriate approach to counseling children (Dugan, Snow & Crowe, 2010). It is especially optimal for children between the ages of two and eight, who are not at a cognitive level of development to adequately participate in traditional talk therapies. Young children simply do not have the language to talk through their experiences. At this stage of development, they naturally use play as a form of expression and communication rather than words (Bratton, Ray, Edwards & Landreth, 2009). This idea is supported by Norton and Norton (1997), who assert children approach their world experientially rather than cognitively. They use play to make sense of the world around them. Play therapy in particular allows children to have an outlet to play out scenarios they have experienced and explore feelings they may be enduring.

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Resilience is sometimes looked at as a characteristic, a process, or an outcome, and many researchers look at this construct as a dynamic process among many factors that may mediate between an individual and his or her environment. Empirical evidence indicates that resilience is dynamic, developmental in nature, and interactive with one’s environment. For example, research looks at how well adolescents manage adversity and how competent are they when under stress. (Unger, 2008). Resilient adolescents show competence dealing with threats to their well-being as well as positive functioning during recovery from trauma. “Evidently, whether one understands resilience as a developmental outcome, set of competencies, or coping strategies, there is much overlap between these conceptualizations. What these definitions share in common is that they all argue that resilience occurs in the presence of adversity.” (Unger, 2008, p. 171).

At Animal Assisted Therapy of the Mountain Communities, building resilience is often an important part of our focus with clients of all ages. Some of our animals at the clinic have overcome adversity. Many of our clients can identify with their previous hardships. We use bibliotherapy to incorporate the stories of our animals’ struggles in to the counseling process. When a client can relate to the journey of a therapy animal, it builds empathy and helps form a healing, therapeutic connection to another living being. Also, seeing how the animals are now thriving can instill hope in our clients that they, too, can develop healthy coping skills in a supportive environment. We believe strongly that building a connection to animals while working with a trained therapist can improve resiliency and overall emotional well being. We are passionate about building resilience in through animal therapy for teenagers right here in Evergreen, Colorado.

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I considered not going but then I knew the “right thing” was to take her the food. So, I loaded her food and my 2 Golden Retrievers into my car and away we drove very carefully in the fog and on icy roads.

As I had feared, the fog was so thick; there was not a horse in sight. And, her herd is on 300 acres and the terrain is hilly and sometimes the herd can’t even be seen on a sunny Summer day because they are behind a ridge or in a valley in their large pastures. So, I figured I would just head to the middle of the pasture and call her name. Within five minutes, she appeared out of the fog and when she saw me, she whinnied. Now this was a wondrous gift on all levels. Harmony came to me when she could not see me and just followed my voice and there she was.

This got me to thinking a bit about how this little story had some key principles to live by.

1. Always do the right thing. Usually the right thing is not the easy thing to do. It would have been easier to talk myself into not going and then I would have missed this lovely experience with my horse and dogs too. I believe that if we would all strive to do the “right thing”, we could begin to create peace on earth. Often we talk about doing  what is the easiest, those around us, also suggest that the “right thing” is most likely not necessary; at least in this case. I think that in the vast majority of cases, we humans have lapsed into  doing “easy thing” and thus it is becomes a pattern to not even think about the “right thing”. However, striving to do the “right thing” at least 80 % of the time will make THE Difference in our world.
2. When you don’t know exactly where to go, take just one step. When you take that step, you will then be better prepared to take the next step. Truly, all we ever need do is simply take the next step. Sometimes, the next step may involve taking time to think or do more research, but if we listen to our Inner Knowing, we will always know just what the next step is.
3. Use your voice in the right and appropriate times and way. When I first got there, I had no idea where the herd was. It would have been a waste of my voice to start calling Harmony right away. I knew that when I got to the center of the pasture, I could call Harmony and she would hear me no matter where she was. And, I used a nice voice tone as well. Terry Real, internationally famous relationship theorist and clinician tells us that in all relationships, “TONE TRUMPS FORM”. That is, how you say something is typically more important than the content. Thus, if I wanted Harmony to come to me, I needed to let her know I was going to be a happy person on the other end of her lead rope.
4. Celebrate the victories!!

When Harmony whinnied at me, I whinnied back! Literally! I was so happy that she came to me that I stood there and petted her for a long while before we made our way back through the fog and over the rough, snowy and hilly terrain.

This step is just about pausing and appreciating these sweet little moments. It is truly the little things in life that make all the difference.

5. Accept coaching or influence from those around you.

As the four of us, Harmony, me and my wonderful pups were making our way back to the car, the dogs took off in the “wrong direction”. They were going away from the car, so I thought. So, I called them back to me and being the well trained dogs that they are, they came right back. Harmony also tried to steering me in the “wrong direction”, the same “wrong direction”, the dogs had tried to lead me in. Harmony, also being the well trained horse that she is, dutifully followed me. So we are all heading in the “right direction”, and low and behold, guess who had been right about the direction? : Jessie, Sunny and Harmony. The human mother was wrong. If I had taken cues from my three  4-legged “children”, we would have made it to the car 10 minutes sooner.

This last point has to do with being willing to accept influence from those around us.  John Gottman, another internationally famous relationship theorist and clinician suggests that to the degree that we will accept influence from others and therefore be open to compromise and negotiation, to that degree, we will have harmonious relationships.

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But back to the article about Animal Assisted Therapy( AAT); there are many reasons I think AAT is one of the most effective therapies but here are three reasons:

NO DIAGNOSIS REQUIRED

In this day and age, in order for a therapist to use someone’s insurance for payment, the therapist must come up with a diagnosis. This means the therapist must come up with a diagnostic code from the latest version of the DSM that spells out exactly what the client’s problem is. And, this diagnosis may stay with one their entire life. Even if a person has only ever tried an anti-depressant for a very short time, say following a job loss or divorce, the person’s records may reflect that the person has a history of depression. I am not kidding about this. And this diagnosis is often just a guess based on what the therapist sees and another therapist or MD or Psychiatrist may seen something different. And, often the diagnosis of depression, for example is really masquerading as sadness.

So, the first reason I love AAT is that I don’t have to put a label on my client. The animal certainly does not and actually, I don’t do this in my regular practice as well; this is the main reason I do not take insurance.

NO THEORY REQUIRED

However, when a therapist is truly trained in the art and the science of AAT, the therapist does not need a diagnosis to facilitate AAT. True AAT is about the relationship between the Animal and the client. Now I have seen many, many therapists act as if they are sitting in their therapist’s chair during AAT and giving the person advice even while the animal is present. This is NOT AAT.

The Second reason I love Animal Assisted Therapy is the therapy is not dependent on my theories or areas of expertise. The therapy is dependent on my willingness to be fully and I mean fully present in mind, body, emotions and spirit to what is going on for the client and the animal. It is only with this commitment that one can facilitate a true AAT-session. Thus an AAT session will always look different for any two people and it will always look different on any given day because the person and the animal are not static beings but are always reflecting their own current state of mind, body and emotions.

As a certified Equine Assisted Psychotherapist (EAP) with EAGALA.org, I have learned the nuts and bolts of EAP mainly from EAGALA. They suggest that the therapist and Horse Specialist must always be willing to get their “stuff” out of the session. If the team of people facilitating the EAP session is not emotionally and mentally present (meaning not projecting their own issues onto the client and the horse), the EAP session becomes about the therapist’s or horse specialist’s issues.

For example, my horse has a severe addiction. She does what the horse world calls, “Wind-sucking”. When she was 9 years old, she was preparing to give birth to her 3rd baby and her baby died at birth. Her owner was very grief stricken and gave her away and thus she lost her owner and her baby. Plus, she was put in a stall for the first time in her entire life. Though, some may not agree, I would say that her losses caused severe distress or grief. Wind-sucking is one of many “stall vices” that horses pick up to console their boredom and loneliness when they have to live in a stall. (Think if you had to live in a bathroom ;( ………..).

Wind-sucking happens when a horse anchors it’s teeth on a horizontal piece of wood and then they do a deep inhalation. The result is that proverbial “runner’s high”, or the stimulation of endorphins. Harmony gets a “high” when she does this. Though my hope is that she will be able to heal from this, she does help a lot of people who are dealing with addictions.

So, I have clients come out and work with her who have addictions, or I have parents come out to work with her if their children have addictions. The beautiful part of the work is that I must keep my own thoughts and feelings out of the therapy arena because what I think about someone’s addiction in the AAT session is really none of my business. They are coming to work with Harmony who is mirroring their addictive self.

One time, I had a client (names and details changed), who, in a session with Harmony, said he just wanted to walk away from her as he watched her doing her thing. My “office-therapist-brain”, thought, well, you can’t just abandon yourself, but my AAT-brain, knew to just be present and so I asked him where in the large pasture we were in did he want to walk. We began walking in that direction and my “office-therapist-brain”, was saying, well we will have to go get her in a minute. But my AAT-brain was being present to the client as we walked and within 30 seconds, Harmony was walking beside my client. I was shocked, and the client was delighted for he got instant feedback that not always focusing on her addictive self but rather focusing on moving forward was her next step on her recovery journey.

Thus, AAT is a therapy that one gets better and better at by being willing to deal with their own issues. This type of therapy invites the practitioners to do their own work.

TRUE ONENESS

The third reason I love AAT so much is that there is an Art and a Science to AAT. Certainly, one can go trainings and learn ways to set sessions up. One can read very good books on understanding AAT, and one can learn by doing. This is the science of AAT. The Art of AAT is to truly be willing to be fully present to the client, the animal and the whole environment and in this willingness to be present (another form of mindfulness), the therapist can hold the session in a sacred space. The relationship between the client and the animal has the possibility of revealing for the client their next step on their own healing journey if the therapist can be present but not directive. Thus, AAT sessions can be filled with miracles, mystery and true oneness.

This is why I do Animal Assisted therapy.

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Mary survived her childhood by becoming an over-achiever, always seeking new ways to heal the “hole in her soul” ( her words), that the abuse created.  These outer achievements, though they made her look good from the outside, did nothing to heal the real issues that had plagued her for as long as she could remember. Mary used a strategy that many individuals use to survive abusive  environments: she “made up” in her young mind that the abuse occurred because there was something wrong with her.  As a child, she learned  to disconnect from her own thoughts and feelings. She excelled in school. Later in life, she continued to use this strategy of over-achieving and   believed that if she could just get the right degree or certification or find the right person to marry,  then she would be o.k. After three abusive marriages and a job loss, she had fallen into a place of hopelessness that she did not believe she would ever overcome.

This choice to perceive that the abuse occurs because there is something wrong with the child makes sense. It gives the child an illusory sense of control. The thinking goes like this:   “IF THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME, THEN I HAVE CONTROL OVER ME. I CAN FIX ME AND THE ABUSE WILL STOP”. Of course, this thinking is false, but it enables the child to at least “survive” their childhood.

TALK THERAPY WASN’T ENOUGH

Mary had been to many therapists, mostly the “talking kind”. As a result, she had great insight into her abusive childhood. However, the talking therapies often cannot take one deep enough into their experience to truly heal. Mary tried EAP. What made EAP so special for Mary is the horse’s  sensitivity and willingness to interact with humans. If horses are not in their herd, they are instinctively motivated to pay attention to what the humans are doing in their presence. In EAP, the client and the therapists (human and horse)  work with the emotional response evoked by the animal-human interaction.

In the first session, Mary was feeling terrified of being so close to 1000 pound animals even though the horses were about 50 feet away from her happily munching their grass. Thus, the entire first session was about helping Mary breathe into her fear, be mindful of it and not to simply run away because she was feeling afraid. The strategy of fleeing when afraid, though it had worked, had kept Mary from being successful, both professionally, personally and relationally. At the end of the first session, Mary was able to approach a 4 year old horse that had been the outcast in the herd.  When Mary heard this story, she became compassionate toward this horse. She had felt like an outcast and the compassion she felt actually enabled her to pet this horse on it’s side. The end result was she experienced her courage and she learned a way to also show compassion towards herself when afraid. This is one of the major benefits of EAP:  experiencing feelings like fear and then actually doing different behaviors enabling one to translate these skills to real life.

MOVING THROUGH FEAR

EAP helps one experiment with fear in new ways other than to just run away. For example, fear, an appropriate response to a 1000 pound animal, presents an experiential opportunity to learn effective ways to maintain safety, set personal boundaries and be assertive while being mindful of the internal response of fear.

During the 2nd session, Mary was able to re-connect with the outcast horse for about 5 minutes.   Then another horse came up to her. She immediately began to panic; the horse backed away. I asked her to breathe into her fear. As she did this, she asked me what she should do to keep this horse from hurting her. I explored different ideas with her. She asked me what this horse’s name was and who she was. This question also reflected that she was out of the “lizard”-brain (which tells us to flee, freeze or fight) and into the thinking part of her brain,  the neo-cortex or “Wizard”-brain (which gives us options based on whether the threat is perceived or real). I explained that this horse was 30 years old and was a “grand-mother”-type horse that most of the horses loved and protected.  This interaction made her cry because it reminded her of her own grandmother who had been the only adult who showed her love and compassion. She immediately went to pet “Maggie”, the older horse. So, again, Mary was able to deal with another experience of fear in a different way.

Mary came to 8 more sessions. The last session had her leading a horse that reminded her of herself through a herd of 20 other horses. She came away from this last session knowing that as long as she remains connected to her entire being: her thoughts, feelings, awarenesses and perceptions, she will know what to do in any given moment and therefore keep herself safe.

Mary was able to learn that the fear that came up every time she was around other humans was a triggered response that came from her “projecting” her woundedness outside of herself. She learned to do this as a child because a child’s young psyche cannot deal with the mass of human emotions that come up when a child is abused. She had to project these feelings out there just to stay sane. Through, EAP, she was first able to embrace her own fear, anger and sadness and then learn ways to be present to it and find ways to deal with it. As she did, she was creating new behavioral responses when these feelings came up. After 3 months of doing EAP every other week, she felt “new hope”, simply because  she learned to be present to herself and then learned new ways of dealing with herself. Heretofore, she had been a hostage to her own psychology because she has projected her worst fears, her debilitating anger and sadness outside of herself which indeed made her a slave to her past. Because of the horses and their emotional honesty, Mary was able to be emotionally honest as well.

In conclusion, under the guidance of the EAP therapist, the client experiments with ways to deal with their issues. The way the horse responds directly and clearly to the client’s actions provides instant feedback about what works and what doesn’t. What results is a therapy in which the client can immediately experience the benefits of making changes. The insights gained through this work translate into practical life skills. Clients may gain greater self-confidence, improve their creative thinking and problem solving skills, enhance their understanding of personal responsibility and increase self-awareness.  95% of EAP takes place on the ground and should the client get on the horse, it is for a slow, guided walk in one of the last sessions.

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