Our Approach

The Team Approach & How it Works...

Those aproaches are designed to help those in needs to identify, face and work through life issues.  By interacting with horses from the ground, observing horses’ reaction and accomplishing a task involving the horses, participants gained insights.  By mirroring what is going on in the inside of the participant, that he or she may have difficulty expressing, the horse help the individual to identify the issues and learn how to work through them.

Founded in 1999, EAGALA is a leading international non profit association.  With more than 4,500 members in over 50 countries, EAGALA has certified professionnals whom follow strict standards, as well as an ethic code.  

the team

Approach

An Equine Specialist, a Mental Health Professional and horses work together with clients in all EAGALA sessions.

The horse :  Horses have many characteristics which lend them to being effective afents of change, including honesty, awareness and ability with nonverbal communications.  The role of horse sis to be themselves;

The Equine Specialist (ES).  The ES chooses the horses to be used in sessions.  Works with the MH to structure sessions, keeps an equine log to document horse behaviours in sessions, stays aware of safety and welfare of clients, horses and teams, and makes observations of Horse behaviors which can bring in potential metaphors.

The mental Health Professional (MH) :  The MH is responsible for treatment planning, documentation of clients, and ensuring ethical practice.  The MH builds on the ES’s horse observations, bringing in the metaphoric and therapeutic learning relevance of the session.

How it

Works?

During the program the participant is teamed up with horses, a therapist and an equine specialist.
Before therapy begin, the participant will discuss with the therapist, his goals and the issues he wants to address.

There is no riding or horsemanship.  All activities with the horses are unmounted.  Participants are given specific and deliberate activities with the horses on the ground, based on the treatment goals.  Some activities will require the participant to apply certain skills :  non-verbal communication, assertiveness, creative thinking, problem-solving, leadership, work, taking responsibility, teamwork and relationships, confidence and attitude, for exemples.

Typically, a session will involve the participant(s) working in an enclosed area (indoors or out-of-doors).
After the activities, the treatment team offers observations about the horse behaviour during the session.  This allows for the participant(s) to bring metaphorical meaning to those behaviours.  The experience can stimulate much introspection and with that, a variety of feelings.

Solution-oriented :  The basis of the EAGALA model is a belief that all clients have the best solutions for themselves when given the opportunity to discover them.  Rather than instructing of directing solutions, we allow the individual to experiment, problem-solve, take risks, employ creativity, and find their own solutions that work best for them.