Trauma Therapy and EMDR

Trauma is often defined as an experience that feels out of your control and life threatening to your existence, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, moral injury, sexual, psychological, developmental, and relational.  A traumatic experience could be a singular event like an accident, a diagnosis, or learning new information that is life shattering, or trauma may be experienced as a continual exposure to stress as in growing up in an emotionally explosive home, a neglectful parent, abusive spouse or religious abuse, for example.  What is significant is that trauma is defined by the person who experienced it and could be felt as a recurring distress that invades your mind, dreams, continual anxiety, flashbacks in your mind of what occurred, disproportionate reactions to situations that trigger old feelings, etc.  Trauma can also make you want to shut down or avoid anything that reminds you of the experience to name a few of the symptoms.  It can result in self doubt, feeling insecure in relationships, distrusting people, feeling bad about oneself, a perpetual sense of shame, inability to focus, questioning everything you knew to be true before the event, a loss of identity and purpose, feeling like a burden, feeling like wanting to disappear or die, etc.  

Healing is possible and there are many ways to feel better and mend what has felt shattered.   It is possible to learn a new way of responding to the world around you.  A person can not change what happened in the past but they can heal and move forward with life and begin to experience calm, joy and satisfaction once again.  What happened can stay in the past and hope is possible.  

My primary approach to working with people of all ages with trauma is Attachment-Focused Eye Movement Desensization and Reprocessing, known as AF-EMDR.  This is essentially "bilateral stimulation" (tapping one's legs alternately, holding onto a tool that alternates vibrations in one's hands, listening to alternating sounds in both ears, or hugging oneself and tapping shoulders alternately), accompanied by a facilitated protocol that helps people restructure a memory into a place in the brain where less emotion is attached to all that encompasses the brain's recording of that event, experience or series of events.  It requires preparation and trust in the therapeutic relationship which can take time to establish and this is done slowly and through a series of steps that I, as the therapist, help lead people through, checking in along the way.  

I am trained in both EMDR and AF-EMDR and currently working through the certification process with regular consultation and support by other certified therapists in this approach.  EMDR is one of the preferred modalities for trauma treatment and there are many scientific studies with evidence of efficacy backed by decades of research.  While there is scientific evidence of efficacy and positive outcomes, some of the processes of why this modality works are still being researched as neuroscience is always evolving and improving our understanding of how our central nervous system works. 

Why the horses and the outdoors then? 

For several decades studies have shown that humans reduce their stress when outside and being in relationship with animals can also reduce stress, thus the world of "therapy dogs, rats, horses, rabbits" etc.  Ecotherapy, wilderness programs, and experiential or adventure oriented therapy has a long tradition in the psychotherapy world that has always fascinated me.  When I worked in community mental health I often took my clients to parks to hike and explore and I often witnessed  "kids becoming kids" and letting go of anxiety and worry or other things they were working through.  It struck me how clients who I had never seen laugh, laughed for the first time in joy as we hopped stones across a creek, or they became curious about something they found on the ground.  Joy and curiosity are great enhancers of wellbeing and help facilitate learning new habits and a sense of wholeness in life.  Taking my therapy outside into nature has been a dream as a therapist and the opportunity came to me to establish my practice on a horse ranch not too long ago.  But alas, I needed training, so I enrolled in a 10 month post-master's certificate training through the University of Denver's Institute for Human Animal Connection called the Equine Interactions in Mental Health Certificate program.  

What have I learned?

Science is beginning to look at how interactions with animals can enhance the efficacy of mental health treatment due to several identified yet still unclear factors.  Some of the findings include the factors of increasing buy in to attending therapy regularly, strengthening rapport within the therapeutic relationship, engaging in the therapeutic process more deeply, adding another sentient being into the therapy dynamic possibly as a symbolic "third person", compassionate witness to therapy work,  equines can be a vehicle for increasing awareness of one's somatic experiences and self in a relational context, as well as practicing social skills and facilitating building a sense of connection and community within the ranch setting.  Horses also invoke a lot of symbolic meaning for people and can add a metaphorical presence in a therapy session.  The science is not completely clear and there is room for many more studies.  

Of course, humans will say, why do we need the science as we know we love animals and find comfort in them?  Isn't it obvious that being around animals is healing?  Well, scientific understanding helps protect against harm through misleading information in the healthcare environment as well as protects the animals from harm due to misunderstanding and misinformation about their behaviors.  Most animals get euthanized due to behaviors that could be mitigated if the humans responsible for them knew enough about animal behavior so those behaviors did not get formed thus making them "dangerous".  Not understanding animal behaviors nor the impact of being a part of the healthcare setting on the animals involved in healthcare is inhumane and unethical.  

I am still in training!

As I move to the ranch and begin this practice I am still in training so I am in consultation with my professor.  I am learning continually about equine behavior to be informed and clear about what a horse may be "telling" me as I work with them.  This is not only important for the health and welfare of the horses but also for the safety of the humans involved.  Learning to become a therapist that incorporates equines is going to be continual as  I am unlearning horse culture that I inherently learned from having grown up around horses and donkeys and I am constantly assessing and managing my own biases and assumptions that I have about equines.  This is my parallel process as I work with so many different humans also and is my love language to humanity and the earth. 

Equine interactions are going to be evolving slowly into my practice and I look forward to expanding my repertoire of skills and experiential work with equines in my psychotherapy practice.