In-Person Equine Assisted Services In East Grinstead With EquiSolace
Equine Assisted Learning & Psychotraumatology is an embodied type of change work from the help of horses. EquiSolace provides a range of Trauma-Informed Equine Assisted Services, where horses help humans to embody real, lasting change.
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EquiSolace
As well as Solace With Lydie, I also run EquiSolace, providing a range of Trauma-Informed Equine Assisted Services (EAS) in East Grinstead, East Sussex, UK. I am a qualified Psychotraumatology, standardised and regulated under the NCIP board, utilising evidence-based, integrative methodology.
Equine Assisted Services are where people have the opportunity to work with horses, inviting them to join them on their journey of recovery and self-discovery of authentic self. By providing a safe space for the body, so the mind can be fully present, we can work through uncomfortable feelings, benefiting all areas of our lives.
By building resilience, emotional regulation, confidence and working through stuck beliefs and uncomfortable feelings, people are supported to feel more present in themselves and in wider community. Rather than traditional talk therapies and development strategies, an up-to-date, embodied, integrative approach with the help of horses, is providing a more established mental health and personal development experience for all.
The Services Provided Are:
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Equine Assisted psychotraumatology treatment sessions.
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Equine Assisted Learning, providing support in Personal and professional development.
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The different session options differ in the complexity and scope of your needs as a client. Equine Assisted Psychotraumatology is more relevant for those experiencing trauma symptomology. A wrap around service with other professionals is common for such sessions. Equine Assisted Learning is more relevant for those wanting to do personal or professional development work and as preventative measures for mental health symptoms.
Equine Assisted Psychotraumatology
I utilise integrative, evidence-based techniques for clinical mental health trauma treatment, with the additional powerful approach of Equine Assisted Psychotraumatology. Following the trauma treatment protocol, I and the horses support clients through regulation, stabilisation and containment of trauma-related symptoms. Then through trauma-focused CBT, as well as embodied and somatic techniques, she helps individuals to safely unpick any stuck beliefs and explore any past stuck traumas. The horses are especially important in the integration piece of Psychotraumatology for clients to experience an embodied sense of their more nourished, safer feeling nervous systems. The benefits of Equine Assisted Services are now being recognised worldwide.
I provide a powerful approach of utilising trauma treatment protocol of NICE, UKPTS and APA evidence-based guidelines and published quality standards, with the added element of the client working with the horse. Phase one consists of regulation, stabilisation and containment work. Though people come with many different trauma experiences, narratives and symptoms, I am overall utilising the same approach - to regulate people’s nervous systems. This reduces people’s immediate symptoms and risk of self-harm/suicide. By helping your nervous system to return to a more stable baseline, often the body is able to process stuck traumas more easily even before the next step.
Phase 2 is then processing any stuck traumas and beliefs that are still present in the body and mind. A careful unpacking of these experiences are required, and I pride myself in my client-led process in this section of psychotherapy sessions. The wisdom of the body will assist in what it needs. I help you to feel safe enough to hear it.
Lastly, phase 3 is post-processing the trauma growth, meaning it is about relearning aspects of yourself, others and the world that feel very different now that you don’t have these stuck traumas in your system; different can feel challenging and it is an important part of the treatment process to ensure long-lasting change.
Equine Assisted Psychotraumatology sessions are normally 90 minutes long to ensure that there is enough time to experience the effects of the session somatically alongside the horses. This is a core integration piece in why this approach is so powerful. Sessions cost £150 and the minimum number of sessions is 6-8 to ensure proper treatment protocols and Saftey.
If required sessions can be 60 minutes long costing £100.
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Equine Assisted Learning
These sessions provide people with up skilling in emotional regulation, resilience and trauma informed psychoeducation. By exploring boundaries, communication, self awareness and more, a more nourishing relationship with yourself, others and the world is possible. This service is for everyone, helping to empower people to be more authentically themselves. Though this is a lighter touch than Psychotherapy sessions, major change processes occur, with similar neuroplasticity alterations. These are powerful coaching sessions which can help support you in life, through challenges and transitions with a present and future focused mindset.
Personal and professional human development sessions utilise the intial stages of therapy, creating an effective and sustainable foundational change in our nervous systems. Whereas therapy sessions would continue into more complexity, perhaps past memories and trauma processing materials, these sessions keep the narrative in the present and future. Though it may seem a lighter touch approach, the process provides massive shifts and transformative change. For those not requiring a higher level of Psychotherapy, or if you don’t feel ready to embark on that journey, this middle ground is perfect to explore yourself and create real change. We all have stuff, memories and experiences. Yet often, we don’t all need therapy. But that doesn’t mean we can’t all be supported through our lives, our stuck points. If we can build more regulation in our nervous systems, the issues we are experiencing will often lessen. Yet this is done through change, and change is not easy and a can be uncomfortable and scary. This is why a trauma-skilled professional is so highly beneificial for people wanting to be more authentically themselves.
Models Used in Trauma Treatment
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IFEEL CPR - A trauma-focused CBT based model is taught as the main phase II treatment. This challenges stuck beliefs and narratives, supports coping mechanisms to become less invasive and gently adapt unhelpful thinking styles.
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Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) is a cognitive-behavioral therapy that teaches skills and techniques to manage stress and reduce anxiety.
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Present-Centered Therapy (PCT) focuses on current life problems that are related to PTSD and immediate symptom relief.
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Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) focuses on the impact of trauma on interpersonal relationships and aims to improve the relationship with yourself, others and the world.
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Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a type of CBT but is designed to assist you in coping with strong emotional responses. Providing you with skills to cope with these emotional responses is paramount in trauma work.
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Somatic Experiencing (SE) is the core model in the bottom-up approach to this treatment of trauma. By working on the body, internal sensations and sensory awareness, we can help the body to process stuck traumas in the way that it is designed to.
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Neuro-Affective Relational Model (NARM) is a cutting edge model for the treatment of Complex PTSD, providing focus on attachment, relational and developmental trauma in psychological treatment.
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Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SMP) is a model similar to Somatic Experiancing but with more of a focus on the combination of cognitive and somatic aspects in the therapeutic process. Alongside CBT models, the body is viewed as an integral source of information, accessing stuck traumas and the required processing needed for recovery.
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Why Horses?
Horses are prey animals. They survive by being excellent at reading the smallest non-verbal communication of each other and potential predators.
They read our body language on a much more subtle level than we do, to the point that we are only just beginning to understand it. Not just what we think of as body language but electromagnetic fields, pulse and secretions of hormones etc.
Horses are constantly checking whether they need to run away from danger or if cornered, fight the danger.
They do this by automatically always checking for any incongruences in people’s body language. Healthy horses will not choose to cooperate if someone’s emotions and body language are incongruent.
Horses respond to what your body is really saying, not what your voice or simple body language says. Instead, horses will seem to react to the human’s incongruence exactly at the moment.
Horses are highly congruent in their behaviours. They have no social constructs as we do, of ‘proper’ behaviour to make them mask their emotions and behaviours.
Why Is This Useful For Psychotraumatology and Life Coaching?
The brain of the horse has a much larger limbic system:
One of the limbic system’s functions is to process and regulate emotion. By having a larger brain area, they are naturally better than we are in this and we can learn from them.
The brain of the horse has a much smaller neocortical brain:
One of the main functions of the neocortical brain is perception. We have a very large neocortical brain and see the world through a perception lens. Horses instead respond to the here and now. Their lives revolve around the present. Congruence is key for living presently. We can learn how to do this better from them.
Horses have more mirror neurons than other animals:
Mirror neurons at the simplest level, are why we yawn when others do. At the most complex level, they help us understand the mental states of others. Horses connect to others in a way that we cannot actually comprehend, as our brain does not have that exact capacity. We can learn to resonate with others better and have more empathy for others.
Horses have a much larger electromagnetic field (heart) and gut system than us:
The larger the electromagnetic field, the more individuals it can reach. This helps to connect the herd together and sense the intentions of a predator.
By having these much larger systems than us, they provide an instant biofeedback system from the neurological networks of their heart and gut.
We are able to tap into their biofeedback and get immediate feedback on how congruent we are at that moment. Horse’s know when we are being incongruent with ourselves, in cases when humans would severely struggle. We can ask the horses whether we can use their feedback as a safe place to explore our emotions, our experience of the world, our trauma.
Call Today For Professional Help
Get in touch with me today and we can discuss how my in-person equine assisted services can benefit you.
