Ripples EFP - Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy

20/08/2023

We all have something unique to offer. We each carry a particular medicine which is only ours.

Even if we are similarly trained in a certain skill or method, the way we each deliver it is utterly unique.

It can be hard to remember this all the time, especially if one of our underlying templates is to feel ‘less-than’ others and to doubt our worth for who we intrinsically, truly are.

If such self-belief was eroded early in life then it lays down a pervasive and highly limiting blueprint which can thwart us time and time again if we are not vigilant.

Remember this deep truth: Only you can bring YOUR medicine into the world and only YOU can do what YOU do.

And furthermore, there ARE people waiting to receive exactly what YOU offer to the world.

Don’t compare and contrast. And each time you find yourself doing so and labelling yourself as “not as good as so-and-so”, pause; check-it and correct it; breathe deeply into your belly and heart centre and come home to your unique truth.

And remember: Only you can do what you do.

Angela Dunning
The Horse's Truth with Angela Dunning
Equine Facilitated Learning; Practitioner Support & Writing
Author: The Horse Leads the Way
www.thehorsestruth.co.uk
Find more articles exclusively for equine facilitated practitioners here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/angeladunning

Image by Renate Gellings-Reese, Pixabay

18/08/2023

Four key strategies for managing anxiety and reducing stress

21/04/2023

So many of us believe that were we to give in to our sorrows and pain we’d never stop crying. This fear of feeling keeps us locked in stasis, where our energy is blocked and the pain stays buried inside, sometimes for years or even decades.

One of the most beautiful and powerful gifts that horses offer us comes into play in these situations. Whereby simply coming into their presence something stirs deep inside and our feelings start to unlock. Grief over a loss from years back can resurface, something we’d convinced ourselves we’d “dealt with and got over” comes back with a full torrential outpouring of the pain of loss and sadness.

Something about a horse’s gentle yet enormous presence brings us back to the heart of things, that which is still perhaps keeping us stuck and small. Often in the mixture of our feelings there’s usually some guilt, shame and remorse, and an abiding sense that we got something wrong, or that we “should” be stronger and over this already.

Whereas the horse simply feels the blocked mass of emotion in us, sitting like an energy block in our body, a knot wound tightly around our heart. And as this feels out of balance to them they encourage us to start to release this. To stop the holding on and pretence that we’re together and fine and instead to be real, and moreover, to just trust and allow whatever feelings we have managed to contain until this moment to come out.

They convey a sense of emotional safety in this regard and I’ve never once seen a horse NOT respond with such powerful, graceful support when someone accesses their true feelings. It happens every single time without fail.

Experiences like this can gradually help us realise that our feelings won’t kill us, we won’t stay stuck in them, we will stop crying and in fact the very opposite: Feeling our feelings in such a safe supportive space releases our sense of stuckness and impotency, refreshing us with new energy and vigour. Not only that, but we return more fully to our authentic self again so that we may begin to move forwards.

Angela Dunning
The Horse’s Truth
Equine Facilitated Learning; Practitioner Support & Writing
Author: The Horse Leads the Way
www.thehorsestruth.co.uk
Find more articles exclusively for equine facilitated practitioners here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/angeladunning

Image by Daniel Requena Lambert, Shutterstock.

11/03/2023

🤔 You may wonder, why horses for mental health and not other animals?

Horses have been found to act similarly to humans in their social and responsive behavior. It’s easy for people to connect with the horse as they reflect many aspects of ourselves.

Just being near horses or stroking them can reduce stress and anxiety levels and increase a sense of wellbeing.

It doesn’t involve humans trying to imitate the way horses interact with one another. It’s a symbiotic and dynamic process that recognizes horses as sensitive, decision-making beings.
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Andrea Petitt. Keri Brandt-Off. “Intelligent bodies: Embodied subjectivity human-horse communication” Apr 2022. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290956952_Intelligent_bodies_Embodied_subjectivity_human-horse_communication

26/02/2023

27/01/2023

Our actions say far more about us than our words, whether spoken or written.

What we do, or don’t do, and HOW we go about it speaks volumes about our many inner-parts and our unconscious, shadow aspects, as often they take the lead until we get a good firm grip on what’s going on inside of us.

We can literally say one thing and then do the exact opposite. We can have all the good intentions we like; speak all the warm words and praise to another and then treat them with disrespect and confusing behaviours.

This in essence is what working with horses in a therapeutic and learning setting is all about: helping us confusing, complicated humans bring about greater balance and harmony inside us so that our actions DO match up with our thoughts, intentions and words. It’s about bringing greater coherence and congruence within; it’s about exploring our unconscious aspects that often trip us and others up, without meaning too of course but nonetheless, that’s exactly what they do, creating problems in our lives and our interactions and relationships.

As I often talk about, the personal is the professional and vice versa where our unconscious selves are concerned; those parts of us that we disown and reject which like to slip in under the radar and form our deeds contrary to our declarations of intent. This is why our own personal inner-healing and work to get to know ourselves as best as we can is vital when we are working in a teaching, helping or healing capacity of any kind.

Building self-awareness through tracking our inner compulsions and our behaviours in all that we do is essential and enables us to do our work with other people as best we can, and it avoids sowing confusion, distrust and anger in those we interact with.

When we approach a horse this whole piece is magnified through their immediate and purely non-verbal and physical responses to us. They react to what is lying within our actions not our words, and they don’t beat around the bush like humans often do. They tell us straight about our approach AND about how aligned we are or not in mind/body/action. Exploring just this one simple interaction can glean an abundance of insight about how we go through life, and why, and most importantly, how we can repair these internal mismatches that wreak such havoc in our lives.

Angela Dunning
The Horse’s Truth
Equine Facilitated Learning; Practitioner Support & Writing
www.thehorsestruth.co.uk
Visit: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/angeladunning for additional content and resources to support practitioners

Image by PIC by Femke, Shutterstock.

08/01/2023

30/12/2022

Horses are especially attuned to humans’ emotions and nonverbal signals and they respond accordingly. While engaging in activities with the horse, a person may attempt to recognize how the horse’s behaviors might be due to their own emotional signals—a person who is angry or anxious, for example, may see the horse pull away or otherwise respond negatively. This “mirroring” process is can help a person identify what they’re feeling and potentially modify their emotions for the better, all in a nonjudgmental environment.

24/12/2022

Merry Christmas from all at RipplesEFP.
Wishing you all a relaxing and happy festive period.

12/12/2022

02/12/2022

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24/11/2022

I am 100% on board with this idea.