Equine Therapy Rehab Treatment Program

Malibu Horizon uses a multi-therapeutic approach to treating alcohol and substance abuse. We use equine therapy for the positive benefits of relating to an animal in a positive cooperative way. This unique interaction adds a powerful dimension to the treatment experience. A large, gentle animal, horses have the capacity to relate and even communicate with human beings. They send non verbal signals a client leans to pick up and understand.

A 2007 meta-analysis found that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is associated with moderate effect sizes in improving outcomes in medical difficulties, behavioral problems and emotional well-being.

Equine Therapy Rehab Treatment Program

Animal-assisted therapy is a type of therapy that involves an animal with specific characteristics becoming a fundamental part of a person's treatment. Animal-assisted therapy is designed to improve the physical, social, emotional, and/or cognitive functioning of the patient, as well as provide educational and motivational effectiveness for participants . AAT can be provided on an individual or group basis. During AAT, therapists document records and evaluate the participant's progress.AAT with horses is known specifically as equine-assisted psychotherapy, equine-assisted creative living, equine-assisted personal development.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, animal-assisted therapy. Working with animals, such as horses, dogs, or cats, may help some people cope with trauma, develop empathy, and encourage better communication. Companion animals are sometimes introduced in hospitals, psychiatric wards, nursing homes, and other places where they may bring comfort and have a mild therapeutic effect. Animal-assisted therapy has also been used as an added therapy for children with mental disorders. Research on the approach is limited, but a recent study found it to be moderately effective in easing behavioral problems and promoting emotional well-being.

Some of Therapeutic Benefits of Equine Therapy

• Improve fine motor skills
• Improve standing equilibrium
• decrease depression
• Increase verbal interactions among group members
• Increase attention skills
• Develop leisure/recreation skills
• Increase self-esteem
• Reduce anxiety
• Reduce loneliness
• Improved willingness to be involved in a group activity
• Improved interactions with others
• Improved interactions with staff

What is Equine Assisted Learning?

Unlike humans horses are prey animals. Instinctively, as prey animals, their survival depends on their ability to sense underlying emotional current in their environment. They use their animal wisdom - keen sense of smell, hearing, body awareness, and vigilance - to keep themselves safe. Because they are fully present and without agenda or judgment, they invite us to be the same. It's actually more difficult to not be present around the horse. And this is where the deepest and most effective work transpires.
Like humans, horses are herd animals and rely on each other for safety and survival. Whether clients are engaged in individual or group activities, interacting with horses provides an opportunity to work on dynamics related to relationships, isolation, asking for help, and one's role in the human herd. Areas that are commonly addressed include boundaries, assertiveness, trust, powerlessness, and frustration tolerance.
Horses are powerful messengers that mirror back their direct experience of humans. They are completely congruent and authentic with what they experience – in other words, what they show on the outside matches what they feel on the inside. They don't deny or mask their feelings and our masks/personas don't fool them.

The Learning is the Doing

Equine Assisted Growth and Learning is an experiential and short-term approach for real and lasting change. It is a unique opportunity that goes beyond the traditional to restore balance in people's lives while teaching problem solving, leadership, clear communication, goal setting, and social skills.
Understanding the patterns that keep you stuck is only the beginning. Our approach gives you the time and place to discover solutions.
The process begins by interacting with the horses, then identifying and reflecting with the staff on what transpired. Participants learn and practice new strategies to achieve goals outside the arena. Talking is minimal as the horse provides critical feedback that no human can offer. In Balance professionals help clients explore their interactions with the horses and the metaphors that inevitably emerge, bringing about insight and change.
Horses intuit our emotional states and respond accordingly, and therefore we learn the most valuable of lessons: by changing ourselves, the world around us can change.

" In Balance Equine Therapy " professional equine trainers

Malibu Horizon uses the best program, called Stand In Balance Equine Therapy organization to conduct our equine therapy.
All Stand In Balance professionals are EAGALA certified.

Their Team

Valerie E. Coleman, Ph.D., Psy.D. (PSY12592) (left) is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who has been in practice for over 20 years. She is the founder and Clinical Director of Stand In Balance and also has a private practice in Santa Monica, CA. Equine Assisted Psychotherapy allows Dr. Coleman to combine her analytical knowledge with her love and respect for horses - maximizing the powerful capacity these magnificent animals have for facilitating human growth and development. Her work is grounded in a combination of object relations theory, attachment theory, and sensor motor psychotherapy. She has been on faculty at Loyola Mary mount University and the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute.
Natasha Filippides, MS, MFTi. is a registered MFT intern with Stand InBalance as well as a certified Equine Assisted Psychotherapist by the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA). She received her Bachelors degree in Cognitive Science and a Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of La Verne. Natasha met her first horse at 5 years old, and has since trained and shown in both jumping and classical dressage. She has personally experienced the healing power of horses and is grateful to have the opportunity to share her knowledge; inspiring growth, change, balance, and authenticity. Aside from her equine, human, and administration duties with Stand InBalance, she is somehow finding time for her Ph.D. studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

ref: material used with permission of "Stand In Balance" organization