Eagala
The Eagala Model [H.O.R.S.E.] can help you take control of your life and change your outcomes. Where traditional talk therapy leaves off, involving horses in the process empowers you to 'see' your behaviors and how your behaviors impacts you and others. Liberate yourself as you find answers your are looking for, guided by caring professionals in a safe and empowering environment.
Click on H-O-R-S-E below to learn more.
The Eagala Model H: High Standards
Honoring a code of ethics is critical to any mental health treatment program. Any organization must state and follow ethics of practice, and abide by standards of best practice. Eagala’s Code of Ethics serves as a global standard by which to conduct business and guide practice for all Eagala members. We agree to adhere to Eagala's Code of Ethics to establish and instill confidence in you, our colleagues, and our communities. Decisions and actions honoring these standards ensure that treatment is in alignment with you and your goals. By having a code of ethics that is based on providing for the fundamental wellbeing and safety of our clients and horses, the Eagala Model serves you with the highest level of care. Eagala is the world’s largest and most professionally respected association for psychotherapy incorporating horses.
Professionalism, ethics, and global standards guide the actions of Eagala programs. An Eagala treatment team consists of a licensed Mental Health Professional, a qualified Equine Specialist, and the horses, with you at the center. It’s critical that these facilitators have knowledge and experience with horses, and in helping people process traumatic experiences, so you can be skillfully supported. Eagala facilitators are professionals, honoring confidentiality and emotional safety. They are committed to regular evaluation of their own professional skills and limitations, and they seek to enrich themselves, and their profession, through ongoing education and training. Your facilitators follow a highly specialized set of facilitation skills in order to provide the best possible care for you.
Eagala’s high standards and ongoing training create the environment for your success. A highly trained and experienced facilitating teamor is best qualified to help you process [feelings of hopelessness and frustration]. They are able to help you progress safely as you work through what can be overwhelming emotions. Therefore, to serve you at the highest level, the Eagala Model requires both a licensed Mental Health Professional and a certified Equine Specialist to be present with you in every session. You can rest assured that those helping you to change your life for the better are highly skilled facilitators, engage in continuing education, and are dedicated to your success. A commitment to global standards in the Eagala Model ensures you get the best care possible.
The Eagala Model is a framework of standards and skill sets. Believing the best solutions come from within, the Eagala Model allows you the latitude to discover, learn, and grow from the unique qualities of the horse-human relationship. The Eagala Model involves no riding and is ground-based. It does not require you to have any previous experience with horses. This creates a physically and emotionally safe environment and enhances the accessibility of the treatment, as the horses and clients are each unencumbered and free to interact. It requires nothing of the horse except to be a horse, and nothing from you except to be present to your experience. The Eagala Model follows a standard of facilitation that creates lasting solutions to life’s obstacles.
The Eagala Model O: Outcomes
Find the answers you seek to change behaviors and make your life better. Explore, problem-solve, and overcome challenges by being the expert in your own life. Find meaning and solutions to the problems that trouble you. Cultivate positive feelings, thoughts and actions to enhance your well-being. The Eagala Model delivers life-changing outcomes. You already have all the answers you’re looking for.Having your own experiences fosters lasting transformation. The Eagala Model is a client-centered approach that allows you to experience and sit with whatever comes up during your session in the arena with the horses. Feelings and thoughts come to you as you engage with the horses and can open new understandings in your life. You can speak to your team at your own time and on your own terms. You become open to seeing things differently for yourself. You can make meaning from your experiences and let go of behaviors that keep you stuck. You are free to live the life you intend. When you are allowed the freedom to reflect, you find your own answers. You become confident in handling anything life gives you. The Eagala Model is client-centered,
where you are the expert in finding the answers you need. Evidence-based solutions are critical in the lasting treatment of mental health issues. With over twenty years in the field, the Eagala Model is tested and subject to ongoing study and development, with a growing body of peer-reviewed evidence supporting its quality of practice, outcomes, and effectiveness. Eagala has a strong commitment to building upon our existing and promising evidence base to measure the benefits with different populations and a range of mental health issues. With a commitment to a measurement-based standard of care, data from your sessions supports you in [finding freedom from frustration, letting go of guilt, self-doubt, etc] and gives you a way to [enhance the quality of your life, create better relationships, achieve your goals]. Our program is committed to ongoing feedback to provide you with the best services possible.
The Eagala Model strengthens resilience in innovative ways. It is a solution-oriented modality leveraging the horse’s unique natural responses to help clients discover new solutions and strengthen their resilience. Treatment sessions become a mirror for your life experiences, including those involving frustrations, high stress, and relationship problems. This provides new and safe opportunities to discover inner strengths and overcome perceived obstacles to change. Recognize patterns of behavior and learn how to change for the better. Real solutions to your challenging issues. Are you struggling to hold it together? Or finding yourself in the same situations over and over again? When you can recognize dysfunctional behaviors, identify painful or difficult feelings, face self-defeating views in yourself, and apply new behaviors, you strengthen your resilience, resulting in deep and lasting change. Through actions, not just talk, the horses help you transform. Your Eagala treatment team facilitates your finding your own solutions to free yourself from [the lack of self-confidence, fears, self-doubt]. Working together with your treatment team, you can achieve more than one person working alone. Make new meaning out of your experiences. Take on life’s stress and feel strong in your ability to take on life’s challenges and express your feelings in a healthy way in your relationships. Feel understood, seen and heard.Strengthen your resilience and feel liberated from the stronghold of rampant emotions. Overcoming low self-confidence, healing broken relationships, and finding relief from deep sadness, anger, or grief are just some of the benefits that can be achieved. The Eagala team works with you, for you, to free you from [frustration, overwhelming stress, and cascading emotions]. You are opened to new solutions, and prepared for transformation. Come to terms with what has happened in your past. Make new meaning and create better outcomes in your life. Strengthen your self connection and respect, and grow into the person you aspire to be. Wake up excited about life, deal with challenges as they are presented, and respond to life as your true self. Learn to express yourself in healthy ways and feel valued and seen.Find real world solutions to life’s toughest challenges. You find your own solutions to the struggles in your life. With the guidance of a certified Eagala treatment team, you build on your resilience and learn through self-discovery with the horses the changes you want to make in your life. There are answers to your toughest challenges.
The Eagala Model R: Revolutionary
Incorporating horses in a non-traditional way [for solving mental health challenges; to promote mental health and well-being]. The Eagala Model’s approach incorporates trained professionals and horses through an innovative and collaborative team approach. With you and the horses as equal partners in your sessions, you collaborate with your treatment team - the horses, your Mental Health Professional, and your Equine Specialist. Through this team approach, you gain clarity into what’s not working in your life, and create opportunities through the horses to try out new ways. This can bring you to your own truth faster than through traditional talk therapy. The revolutionary Eagala Model leverages the horse’s universal language, size, and expressiveness to help you recognize patterns of behavior and overcome life’s challenges. Providing opportunities for you to access personal resources and inner strengths.
Horses help you identify your feelings, and have a special ability to help you work through emotional and behavioral barriers without shame or stigma. Working with horses has the benefit of helping to illuminate your behaviors and emotions in a way that traditional talk therapy cannot. By nature, horses do not judge or interpret. This allows you to work through your life struggles in a gentle and emotionally safe way, without any feeling of judgment or interpretation by another person. Understanding where your struggles come from, and what to do with them, becomes easier. When facilitated by the professional treatment team, working with the horses allows you to receive unbiased feedback into reasons why you respond the way you do, in ways that maybe you haven’t realized. With this knowledge, you draw on new resources of strength, learn how to safely experience your emotions, and develop new ways of being. Bounce back more quickly and with less stress. Resolving your life’s challenges with Eagala.
Horses offer unique opportunities for you to discover inner strength, beyond traditional talk therapy. Horses are large and powerful and it's hard to ignore their presence, much like a seemingly impossible life issue you may have experienced. Because horses are highly sensitive, and survive by paying close attention to their environment, they respond to the feeling state and body language we express. You have to work to connect with a horse and find a way to develop a relationship with them based on trust - the same as in our personal lives. Their actions can be a metaphor for your life story. You see what is at the heart of the challenge or issue, and have a more profound experience than simply talking about it with a therapist. With the support of the full Eagala team, including the horses, understand how the stories you have told yourself have kept you from moving forward. Learn to make decisions that lead to changing your behaviors. Horses have the ability to transform your life so you can build a brighter future for yourself.
Integrating horses in the traditional mental health field is revolutionary. Eagala’s unique team approach of equal partners, including you, involves movement, physical activity, and relationship-building with the horses. This makes it more engaging, which fosters you to quickly and deeply get to the bottom of your issues, even when nothing else has worked. The horses’ unique sensitivities and special capacity to read and respond to your non-verbal cues can lead you to powerful emotional breakthroughs and life-changing insights. Be confident in your ability to handle life’s challenges with a collaborative team approach.
Believing in your expert capacity to find your own solutions. Science says people learn best by doing. Explore, problem-solve, overcome challenges and experientially discover solutions for yourself. The Eagala Model prescribes a hands-on approach where you are given the space to project and analyze your situations, and to find your own solutions. Simply being in the presence of the horses can open you to deeper healing. There is a natural unfolding that occurs as you are free to explore, think, and listen within yourself for clues that offer insight. Since these solutions are personally experienced at an emotional and physical level, along with intellectual understanding, they tend to be deeper, more profound, and longer lasting. Believe in yourself and the unique abilities of the horses. Unlock your innate ability to find your own solutions and regain control of your life. Solve your own problems and create lasting solutions.
Horses are prey animals and as such, are highly sensitive to their environment. Humans have long recognized the unique power of horse behavior and have been studying it for thousands of years, but it wasn’t until the last century that they began developing therapy models incorporating equines. Some people respond well to traditional talk therapy, but many gain insight by doing along with talking. Add to that the unique sensitivity of horses providing non-judgmental feedback, and clients report healing can happen much quicker by involving horses in the psychotherapy process than with traditional treatment modalities. Horses make excellent partners in the Eagala Model because they require engagement to build trust with people.
The Eagala Model S: Safety
Horses cultivate emotional safety. In the safe environment created by the non-judgmental presence of horses, you feel inspired to open up. You engage and move and respond. You may realize you have feelings and behaviors you were not aware of and that you want to change. In this safe space, you become open to discovering resources and strengths you didn’t realize you had. Overcome perceived obstacles and take control of your life. Incorporate horses in your mental health care and safely manage overwhelming emotions. Come through stronger than ever.
Feel emotionally safer with horses and overcome perceived obstacles to change. Horses do not judge, which helps create the space of emotional safety during sessions. The horses’ unique sensitivities and special capacity to read and respond to peoples’ non-verbal cues can lead to powerful emotional breakthroughs and life-changing insights. When we feel safe, we have a chance to see ourselves. Serving you at the highest level, cultivating safety.
Physical safety and proper structuring of the arena and session is key. An Eagala Certified Equine Specialist and Mental Health Professional are with you at all times when you are with the horses. The environment is prepared for each session, making sure everything is in its place and that the horses are properly cared for. This creates a safe space for you to get the most out of your sessions. You are free to reflect and see yourself and your life differently with the support of the professional facilitators. Experience and skill are critical to creating emotional and physical safety for you. Change your life in profound ways with Eagala.
The Eagala Model does not involve riding or require any previous experience with horses. It asks nothing of the horse except to be a horse, and nothing of you except to be present and willing to explore. While working with horses can seem daunting, the environment is structured to foster a life-changing experience, encourage engagement with the horses while remaining physically and emotionally safe. This is why there is an Eagala Certified professional team of Equine Specialist and Mental Health Professional in all sessions, ensuring that high standards of practice, ethics and safety are upheld. A safe environment frees you to [develop healthy relationships and overcome emotional and behavioral challenges.]
Horses cultivate emotional safety and offer a unique way for you to address difficult experiences. You may find yourself hesitant to open up to another person about emotional challenges, past experiences, or life transitions. Horses are highly intuitive and sensitive beings who connect with us in ways that give you understanding about your behaviors and emotions. They can reflect back to us things that we otherwise don’t see in ourselves or in our lives. Working with horses in this way, you gain new perspectives that create life changes. Processing challenging life experiences can be easier with a horse.
Creating a space of emotional safety for you is paramount and it begins with trust. Eagala professionals recognize the role emotional safety plays in the success of your treatment sessions. For you to feel comfortable addressing difficult, painful, and personal experiences, you can trust that professional standards, ethics, and confidentiality are upheld. You can be yourself without judgment. Eagala professionals hold space in a non-interpretive, client-centered approach, while the horses’ special capacity to read and respond to peoples’ non-verbal signals and cues provides a naturally judgment-free experience. Eagala’s certification requires the professional team to commit to best practices, high standards of ethics, and professional integrity. Any mental health program must create emotional safety. Giving people a safe environment where they can discover solutions to difficult issues.
The Eagala Model E: Empower
Holding space means to be with someone without judgment. The role of the Mental Health Professional and Equine Specialist is to hold space for you - to observe, to put their personal opinions aside and allow you to just be to explore whatever experiences come up for you. It is the art of being present with you. They listen and observe with their ears and hearts, practicing compassion and empathy. They accept your truth, no matter what. Likewise, by nature, horses do not judge or interpret. They provide a naturally judgment-free experience. With horses serving as equal partners of the treatment team, simply being in the presence of the horses can open avenues to deeper healing, as you open to insights and new behaviors. When we feel seen and understood, without threat of judgment, we become empowered to look at our challenges in a healthy way.
Gain insight into how you respond to others and life’s situations. When you are repeatedly triggered, and [unable to handle stress well], all your relationships suffer. A hands-on approach gives you the space to project and reflect on your situation. You naturally discover within yourself understanding and this creates the opportunity for breakthroughs. You make connections and insights naturally unfold. Your breakthroughs are deeper, more profound, and longer lasting because they are in conjunction with a broader understanding. The Eagala team holds space for you, believes in you and the horses, avoids judgment and interpretation, and empowers you to change your life. Become more self-aware so that you rebound from difficult life events.
A natural unfolding occurs that prompts you to see your behaviors in a whole new light. Because horses allow you to reflect and gain understanding of painful experiences, working with them can help you gently heal from a variety of psychological issues, and also to help organizations [improve effectiveness and performance]. As your Mental Health Professional and Equine Specialist hold space without judgment, you are able to feel safe, calm your emotions, and embark on a natural unfolding of self-awareness. By interacting with the horses, you learn to [build healthy relationships] as you gain insight into your own emotions, reactions, and the stories you’ve told yourself about the past. Discover how these have kept you from moving forward, and step into a new way of being that offers understanding. Horses bring you to understanding and self-awareness so that you feel empowered.
Gain new knowledge and deepen your self-awareness, beyond what is offered by talk therapy. When we become conscious and understand our own feelings, motives, and desires, then we can learn to change. Processing challenges through your connection and interaction with the horses can be easier than speaking directly about your personal experiences and feelings. We meet you where you are, guiding you to naturally connect within yourself in a state of calm. As you begin to interact with the horse and try new things, you step out of your comfort zone and discover new ideas and strengths within yourself. Through the relationship with the horses, you learn how to express your feelings and needs in a way that creates connection. Feel valuable and seen. The Eagala Model helps you find connection and understanding, and opens you to feeling [confident and empowered].
The horses and your facilitation team empower you to create a new relationship with your life. Feeling stuck and without hope of recovery can be devastating. [Fear of losing your family] takes a toll on your ability to express yourself and respond in healthy ways. Horses, with your treatment team, offer you an opening to discover new ways of naturally connecting with your feelings. You open to your inner guidance and experience breakthroughs. Feeling accepted and fully supported, you begin to feel excited about life, confident and strong. Be a positive influence for your family again, no matter what’s going on.
Create lasting solutions to life's obstacles.
Feel understood, seen and heard.
Be confident in your ability to handle life's challenges.
Come through stronger than ever.
Become more self-aware so that you rebound from difficult life events. See your behaviors in a whole new light.
There are many ways horses help people who are dealing with mental health issues. From the size of the horse, to its instinctual nature, its responses and reactions, its communication style, in the feelings of self-esteem and self-confidence that develop through the horse human relationship the opportunities for addressing clinical mental health goals are plentiful. Combined with the farm atmosphere patients with a wide variety of mental health conditions are profoundly affected in this internationally certified mental health modality.
Equine assisted psychotherapy incorporates horses in an experiential process for emotional growth and learning. It is a collaborative effort between a licensed mental health professional, a qualified equine specialist and the horse(s) all working as equal team members with patients . Sessions with horses are structured specifically to address treatment goals and not to learn horsemanship. It is on the ground only and not a riding situation.
The use of therapeutic metaphor is a key component of equine assisted psychotherapy. Here the horse(s) and the experience of the patient become symbolic for other relationships in the patient's life that otherwise may not be discoverable in talk therapy alone. Equine assisted therapy is solution oriented. Here the patient is known to have solutions that are organically grown, innate and intuitive unto themselves. In the relationship with the equine the patient is provided an opportunity to discover those answers they have for themselves. And in that discovery the patient learns of their own authentic story not one that is told for them.
Here at the farm equine assisted psychotherapy can be either a primary treatment modality or be used in conjunction with other treatments such as dialectical behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness and walking meditation.
Eagala is a worldwide organization and serves 40 countries. It is a recognized professional model of mental health care and supported by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) due to its rigorous training and ethical standards. Kathy has been a certified mental health provider with Eagala since 2012.
