Hey Everyone!

Just got back in town from a recent trip to Ohio State University. Lisa Wheeler, Diane Voytek and myself were up there doing presentations on Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning.

How did Horse Sense of the Carolinas end up in Ohio? Well, a business intern from last summer went back to the University excited about her experience, and drew the interest of her faculty and other staff at the University about this unique new treatment modality and learning opportunity.

She arranged two demonstrations for us: one for her classmates in an Animal Sciences course, and another for the general University, including the medical department, the psychology department, the social work school and many more.

We were joined by Pam Smith, of Reinbows at Serenity Springs Equine Center of Canton, Ohio (visit her site at www.serenityspringsequine.com). Together we offered a general introduction to EAGALA-model Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning.

We were very warmly received, and want to encourage you to look through the course listings at your local college or university for possible demonstration opportunities. It's a great way to further spread the word about your program and what you do, and to inform your community!

Happy Trails!

Shannon

Shannon Knapp
President & Equine Specialist
EAGALA Advanced
Horse Sense of the Carolinas, Inc
Real Help, Real Results™
www.HorseSenseOtc.com
828-683-7304 (office)
828-683-6281 (fax)

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Hey Everyone!

Just getting my feet back under me after returning from the EAGALA conference (and if you've sent me an email in the past week, know I'll get to it as soon as I can!).

There were so many excited and exciting individuals at this conference...over 200+ people there for the first time, I believe. The arena day was provocative and a great learning experience for everyone in the audience. I was most excited and impressed by the "three" sessions Mark Lytle and Lynn Thomas did that day with one client. They showcased the EAGALA model, and I think are getting ever better at clearly and concisely articulating the EAGALA model. This was a great way to thread the model throughout the day, and reinforce what EAGALA is (and isn't!). Oh, and I tried to fit that adorable burro into my carry-on, but was busted at the airport!

The next two days' of breakout sessions were wonderful and, as always, we walked away with many great ideas for bringing the work that others are doing into our community. There's just so much creativity and "juice" flying around during breakout session days. The booths as well were full of innovation and electricity (or is it just my enthusiasm for this field?). We brought out BodySense curriculum, our Policies & Procedures CD, and premiered our Running with Mustangs curriculum on working with adjudicated and/or incarcerated youth. The response was overwhelming!

We put lots of faces to email addresses, and got to meet a lot of new folks interested in bringing EAP/EAL to their community. With EAGALA's help, we all just keep getting stronger and better!

See ya next year, in our own backyard, as the EAGALA conference will be here in Asheville!

Happy Trails,

Shannon

Ah, the joys of figuring out your fees. What I manage as the Practice Administrator of the group is individual rates, family rates, group rates for EAP,  and then also EAL pricing. What I will share here are some of our strategies on how we set rates.

EAP Rates for EAP are based on regional averages. We surveyed what the average price was for an hour of therapy and went from there. We adjusted our rate to accommodate the fact that we are an experiential based program and NOT a talk therapy office-based program. We added 25% to the average cost so as to assist in covering expenses traditional therapy does not have. We have different rates for individual, family and group. Again, we looked at the professional market rate.

Horse Sense has not adjusted rates in five years and will in the coming months. My experience in health care is that rates for direct service (not merchandise or products) adjust every 3-5 years. The adjustment we make is based on reasonable percentage adjustment and increased operating costs. On average this could run from 5-15%. I will caution you on a double digit percent increase to services unless this is in line with market adjustments occurring within your community.

EAL Rates for EAL are different from EAP. This is because this is a different service, different market, and the market value for experiential personal, professional or corporate development is higher. Again, this is determined by regional market value and incorporates operating costs. We do adjust for non-profit and for-profit groups, and I would encourage you to do the same.

Getting prices together can be cumbersome. Take advantage of the resources you have at hand to determine these figures. There are good tools out there to help you determine fees thus saving you time and money.

Until Next Month,

Lisa

Hey everyone . . .

• at the beginning of the two week class, we were instructed that change occurs outside your comfort zone, and that they would be asking us to play at the edges of our comfort zone. Hmmmm....sound like anything you've heard before? 
• a popular phrase here is "It's not about the..."(fill in the blank with whatever obstacle your horse may be facing, such as "It's not about the trailer" or "It's not about the jump"). It is, however, about the relationship, first and foremost. This reminds me of it not being about the task in EAP/EAL, but about the relationship between the horse and the client. 
• we were told that although faculty are there to assist us, they aren't here to do it for us. Sometimes, they said, they may see that dark storm cloud over our head and may deliberately pass us by, without stopping to help. It's about letting us find our own answers, or at least putting ourselves out there to try some new things before rushing for answers outside ourselves. It's also about setting us up for when we go home, and there isn't a faculty member in our back pocket to help. It's about empowerment!

The first day of the Strides to Success workshop is behind us, and I can't say enough good about this organization. Kacey, Laura and myself are all here in chilly Indiana to participate in a 4 day workshop on developing EAL programs with and for your local school systems. It's already been well worth the trip, and it's only day one!

Today was primarily a classroom day, with lots of important information about working with schools, designing lesson plans, and learning about how to talk to your school system. It reminds me a lot of what I often say about Juvenile Justice: it's not rocket-science to figure it out, but it is a specialized language for a unique audience that you need to learn about and be familiar with before you can make any inroads.

While this is true for any new program you develop, it's amazing how often I see programs just thinking they'll wake up tomorrow, march in to Important-Potential-Client's office, and blow them away by the EAP/EAL program, culminating in signing them up for a 5 year contract on the spot. There's a little more elbow grease that goes into it, not to mention trial and error!

Already they've addressed some of the troubles we'd encountered in our attempts to get a school program up and running beyond a semester-long program. We'd had good feedback and positive experiences, but something always seemed missing. Turns out we just didn't know what we didn't know. That's why I recommend seeking the experts who have already trudged the road before and learned, sometimes the hard way, the best ways to grow and develop.

Also, I'm delighted to see so many others here who tell me they came after stumbling upon the Strides information on the Horse Sense website or based on hearing Debbie Anderson, Executive Director and Co-founder of Strides in our Free Monthly Telecall with her recently. (If you missed the call, you can download the notes for free by visiting here. You can also purchase the MP3 & the transcript at the same site.) My goal of driving folks to high-quality programs and programming is working, and I'm honored to be a part of your journey to a successful EAP/EAL program in your community!

All the best!

Shannon

Well, I made it back from the Emotional Alchemy workshop in Albany, NY. It was BEAUTIFUL, but humbling, as big weather events always are. I'm grateful to be back in North Carolina!

The workshop was most interesting, and if you've not already read Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, be sure to ask for them for the holidays. I have been a big fan of his work for several years now.

I also was introduced to his wife's work. Tara Bennett-Goleman has written a book called Emotional Alchemy, which combines aspects of Jefferey Young's Schema Therapy with Mindfulness meditation and vipassana practice. She talk about us all having "the natural ability to turn our moments of confusion or emotional pain into insightful clarity." Heady stuff, and a remarkable weekend.

The other exciting thing about the weekend is that Tara and Dan are also horse people, having just gotten an Icelandic to bring into their already existing herd of two.  I introduced the idea of EAP/EAL to them, and they were most interested in what it is and how it works! I'm honored to bring this concept to their door.

Anyhow, hope you all are warm and well, and best wishes to my new friends digging out from the snow in New England!

Trailblazers, look for more from me on the Emotional Alchemy workshop shortly...

Happy Trails & Holidays!

Shannon

Question: I am having 25 social workers coming out to our program for a day with the intention of introducing EAP. We are thinking of having the social workers  (2)present a vignette and then design activities/interventions to move treatment in a positive direction.

Any ideas for activities would be appreciated. The majority of the social workers are in the child protective services division.

thanks, Judy

To see the blog and Judy's original question click here

Answer: Hey Judy!

Thanks for your question. When we do a demonstration such as the one you describe, we'll plan about 5-6 activities (a full day is a LONG demonstration, especially if you aren't getting paid. Just my 2 cents!).

First off, I LOVE your idea of having them design vignettes. That's a great way to make it tangible and immediately applicable to them. But I would start first off with some basic psychoed about what EAP is and how it works. When we do this in our CEU training introducing EAP, we spend a little time talking about the roles of the horses, the facilitation team, the client and the referring agency (when applicable), so they can see how it all works together. So I think some time spent there is well-advised.

Two activities that jump out at me are 1) have them design an obstacle course of, say, 4-5 obstacles their clients, on the whole, generally present with. Label the obstacles as such, and then have them get the "client/horse" through the obstacle course without lead ropes, bribery, etc... That tends to be a really rich one we've used in the past!

The second activity that springs to mind is one in which you create
4-5 tasks for the group to complete with a horse/horses. You create 4 tasks such as "get horse over the jump" or "get horse to circle the barrel once to the right" and write them on separate slips of paper.
Then, break the group up into subgroups, giving each subgroup a slip of paper. No talking. This tends to bring up the many differing goals/divisions/groups that a client must "pass through" to complete a treatment program, and how sometimes one group overrides another, or whatever. It's been a great one for us!

Best of luck, Judy. Let us know how it goes!

Shannon

If you've been to any of my presentations or read the Horse Sense, Business Sense book, you've heard me talk about one of Horse Sense's guiding principles: "If it's ever about us, we're doing it wrong ." I'd like to spend just a minute talking about why I say that, and what it means to me.

When people get involved in this field, it is my hope that they become aware of how much they can impact a session. They can impact it by how much or how little they share about horses, about their roles, about safety, about any number of things. The EAGALA Part 1 goes a long way to helping people The 'S of the SPUD'S also helps highlight recognize & avoid leading questions.when facilitators' own biases and agendas show up, and the EAGALA training addresses how to deal with that.

But there is still one more area that relates to "If it's ever about us, we're doing it wrong" that I've noticed in facilitators that concerns me, and it's not just confined to one organization or methodology (like EFMHA, EAGALA, Epona and others). It's what I call the "Look at me" facilitation, when the facilitator becomes impressed with their insight, their questions, and their ability to "show" the client what he/she needs to do or know. Instead of "Look at the horse," it's "Look at me," a clear sign that the session is off-track in some way.

I love the Alcoholics Anonymous statement, "Principles Before Personalities", which reminds us that it's not us that makes this intervention work, it's the horses. While we all strive to be the best we can be in our field, it's an important point to remember!

All the best,

Shannon

Hey Everyone!

Wow! What a wonderful trip to Europe, and what a great conference in Vienna!

I was excited and honored to be a representative from the United States at the European Association of Horse Assisted Educators (EAHAE) during the annual conference, which this year was held in Vienna, Austria October 6-7. Along with almost 100 others from all over Europe, my husband Richard and I learned and shared a lot about our passion and vision for the field of Equine Assisted Activities!

The conference this year was organized by Robert Koenes and his lovely wife, Edith, of HorseCoach Institute. They were able to arrange for a private tour of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna for the conference attendees, which took place Friday afternoon. What a wonderful behind-the-scenes tour it was! Richard and I had already been that morning to a public practice session of the Riding School (which is held most days from 10am-12noon), and had also already been to the Lipizzan museum earlier in the week. But on this special tour we went into the stables where the horses are kept and met a 30+ year old Lipizzan Stallion, not to mention all the other beauties. We then went to the tack room, where they keep all the gold-plated breastplates and cruppers the horses wear during the evening performances, along with the gold-plated bridles. It was quite a site!

After the special tour, EAHAE hosted a social dinner event for all attendees. We made new friends from Sweden, Australia, Germany, Austria and many other places that evening alone! It was a lovely way to ease into the new event, and Richard and I both got to practice some languages we haven't used in quite some time. Richard knew a little German and French and, although I studied French in school, every time I went to open my mouth, nothing but Spanish would come out!

I'm writing a short paper this week on the conference proceedings for all Trailblazer members, so I won't go into too much detail now about all the wonderful presentations and what we can learn from this event. I'm quite excited about some things going on in this organization, and can't wait to share more with you! If you aren't already familiar with the EAHAE, you can learn more about it at their website (link to www.eahae.org/index.htm).

After the conference, Richard and I spent time in Zurich, Interlocken & Lausanne (all in Switzerland), and Bayeux in Normandy. We're both WWII fans, and we got to see some humbling and impressive historical sites such as Omaha Beach, the American Cemetary, and the gunnery at Longues Sur Mer. We also got to see, in our trips through Switzerland, why Western North Carolina is often referred to as "Little Switzerland". It was like looking out our window, except it was all cows and not horses!

It's great to be back, and I look forward to hearing from you now that we're home!

Happy Trails!

Shannon

PS: stay tuned to learn about a conference we're planning at Horse Sense in Fall of 2008 that will bring all of you to our Little Switzerland! It's guaranteed to jumpstart your EAP/EAL business, and get you on the way to a great program! More will be revealed soon!

Hey guys!

We just spent this last Saturday doing an EAL group with teens from a local Hospice organization. We had four teens, four horses and all
day: it was wonderful. Laura and I facilitated: it's a population we've been wanting to work with for some time, and one that is close to my heart, having lost my father at a young age.

After introductions and such, we began with observation of the horses from outside the arena, and then went into "Moving Closer", which is basically an invitation to introduce yourself to the horses in any way you like. The two boys and two girls were very receptive and eager (a big change from the "challenging" clients I usually work with!). We then did some catch & halter, and the doors swung wide open. The kids were drawing comparisons between the horses and their families, and emotions (and tears) were out there for all to see. The morning had such an intense and charged atmosphere, but the horses kept us all grounded and present (bless them!). When asked what difference the horses made in their feelings, one of the teens compared himself to a spring or a coil pulled thin, flat and tight. But when the horses were around, he said, that tight line returned to a coil, that once again had give and spring to it. It was a wonderful visual for us all.

After an intense morning, we had lunch and then started into some afternoon activities out in the outdoor arena (it was a beautiful fall day...blue sky, a hint of coolness in the air). In the middle of an activity, Scout's Honor, our leopard appaloosa, decided to lay down. And he didn't just lay down...he sprawled! And he stayed down for a long time. Hook, the other horse in the activity, decided that was a fine idea, and dropped down with him. It was one of the most unique things I'd seen: the six of us in the arena, a beautiful day, and both horses zonked out. Every few minutes the horses would halfway sit up, and then they'd think better of it and lay back down. 

Laura and I and the kids took the hint: CHILL OUT! Enjoy the day! 

So...we agreed that we'd hang out until the horses told us to get back up again. We sat down in the arena and joked and told stories, until the horses told us different.

And it's days like this that feed the soul, that go in my "Undespair" box. Hope it's given you a lift as well!

Shannon

Hey everyone,

I think we all know and understand the power of journaling, but a study I read about recently has shed even more interesting light on this, which impacts all our programs. While expressive writing has been shown to have a "favorable influence on the immune system and blood pressure...[and to be] at least as beneficial as psychological intervention,"  it's not just any expressive writing that brings about a favorable response.

In this study I read about recently in Scientific American Mind (Aug/Sept 2007) a psychologist asked a group of people who had all experienced the same difficult event (the abrupt loss of employment, after many years of service) to "journal" for 20 minutes a day for 5 consecutive days. One group was instructed to write down how they spent their time each day; another group was told to write down their deepest feelings about the loss of their job. The third group was given no writing instruction at all. Which group do you think responded the best?

It was the second group that reported the most significant change, but that's not all. How you write about difficult events impacts your mental health. More recent data suggests that "describing a problem or retelling an experience, rather than merely pondering it, can bring about a change in perspective" for the good. They found that "telling stories enabled subjects to analyze an event step by step...providing a beginning and an ending. Merely thinking about it, on the other hand, created chaos: events, images and emotions became intertwined, leading people to relive the experience--with the danger of becoming lost in misery all over again."

Ultimately, the take-home journal may be a powerful supplement to the services we offer in EAP/EAL. We suggest offering your clients the following guidelines:

• write about negative experiences, not positive ones
• spend at least 15 minutes per session
• focus on your deepest feelings
• let the words flow: don't worry about spelling and grammar

More on this topic in a future blog, as there is interesting data on writing about positive experiences and what effects that has as well. I'd also love to chat about what implications this has for theoretical models of what causes change.

Hope you are well!

Shannon