Why Horses?

Equine Facilitated Learning

Horses offer non-judgmental acceptance that allows clients to learn about their own behaviour through the reactions of the horses. This awareness can then be transferred into everyday life and relationships.

Emma has experience of working with young people who have been excluded from school as a Lead Coach for The Seeds of Change (www.theseedsofchange.co.uk) teaching City and Guild Qualifications and using Equine Facilitated Learning. She has also worked with young people at risk of becoming homeless with The Banbury Young Homelessness Project (BYHP) (www.byhp.org.uk) and worked with a number of organisations supporting young asylum seekers and refugees.

Time and again, affirming interactions between facilitators, the young people and the horses have resulted in positive outcomes by increasing self-esteem, confidence and improving the young people’s behaviour and communication skills.

Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy

Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP) is a specialised form of psychotherapy based on experiential work with horses to facilitate the therapeutic process. The modality is designed to increase clients’ awareness of their way of being through the reactions of the horses during ‘therapeutically meaningful interactions’ in the here and now. Emma is a Senior Practitioner of LEAP (Leading Equine Assisted Psychotherapy) (www.leapequine.com).

Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy aims to enable clients to consider and improve how they relate to others through increased self-awareness and improved affect regulation. Positive therapeutic outcomes from EFP have been demonstrated in clients experiencing anxiety, lack of self-confidence, low self-esteem, boundary issues and behavioural problems. EFP has also been evidenced as having positive outcomes in the areas of eating disorders, addictions, trauma and PTSD.