Therapy
Equine & Art Therapy
Equine and Art Therapy are for people of all ages. You can learn new skills and/or revisit/develop old ones.
Being on the farm you will be in the ‘here and now’. You may find that you are able to reconnect with your emotions, rather than be stuck in a repetitive cycle of less helpful feelings and thoughts.
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Equine and Art Therapy will benefit people who feel lost with their emotions and are seeking a way to find balance in their lives.
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Equine and Art Therapy will appeal to people who like to be active and work collaboratively in therapy.
Some Theory Behind The Therapy
There are many models of therapy to draw from, however, we predominantly draw on the following models:
Attachment Theory
This theory describes the long-term relationship between humans. In the 1950s, John Bowlby first started writing about the effects of the early mother/baby relationship. He has had considerable influence on Donald Winnicott, Mary Ainsworth and others, who have taken his ideas further. Research has shown links between the sort of attachment that one forms with ones’ caregiver and the effect on a persons’ social and emotional development.
Care Farms
These have been established in Norway, Holland and other European countries for some years. They have been developed to provide specific support to people with mental health problems. The farm environment enables people to be fully immersed within a group.
Ecotherapy
This form of therapy has been recognised by MIND. It offers people an alternative or a supplement to taking medication long term. Research by MIND, at Essex University, indicated that physical exercise outdoors increased peoples’ wellbeing and alleviated some symptoms of depression.
Mentalization
This term was coined by Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy in 2006, meaning to be able to recognise and understand the inferred mental states within oneself and others. They believe that mentalization skills should develop in very early childhood in the context of a securely attached relationship.
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The therapy aims to recover ones capacity for mentalizing. This should in turn reduce your negative feelings, self harm and suicidal feelings. This is achieved through a partnership rather than the therapist taking the position of expert, thereby encouraging a stance of curiosity to look at, monitor and regulate emotional arousal.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness can help us change our relationship with our ‘inner critic’ by encouraging a focus on the feelings in the ‘here and now’ and observing those thoughts. This may help to avoid getting stuck in repetitive thoughts. Mindfulness practice originates from Buddhist traditions.