It's one thing to sit in a therapist's office, talking about the things that frustrate you. It's another thing to experience the potentially very frustrating task of coaxing a horse to step over a plastic "hurdle" without touching him or luring him with food. Equine assisted therapy for clients dealing with "frustration tolerance" issues is an effective, dynamic way to tackle the problem, and a seamless interface with talk therapy.

Traditional therapy to develop effective frustration tolerance skills involves several steps: Identify there is a problem; Determine which situations cause frustration; Realize how you usually react so you can change that behavior; Use relaxation techniques to stay calm; Consider all your options; Be patient enough to go through all six steps!

Now, imagine after sitting in a room, discussing these steps, you're now in an arena. You're staring frustration in the face, and it has four hooves, a flicking tail, and NO desire to step over that plastic pipe you carefully rolled into place.

Because clients develop a bond with the therapy horse, the very presence of the animal frequently helps people remain engaged beyond the point where they may typically "explode" emotionally, and give up the seemingly impossible task.

Whether the client is a youngster or an adult, he or she will quickly discover that feeling frustration, even internally, triggers the horse to seek a calmer, safer environment and trot away. Clients immediately see the direct relationship between their behavior, the impact it has on others, and their ability to accomplish their goal.

Because the client has received immediate feedback from the horse, he or she can quickly incorporate the just-learned lessons in effectively modifying behaviors. Clients see that by remaining calm and maintaining positive rapport, they can often gain the trust of the horse, and get the animal to cooperate.

Most clients immediately draw parallels between the task with the horse and real-life situations. They quickly recognize the volatile behavior patterns they'd been struggling with, and how taking a different, calmer approach caused the horse to cooperate, so they could achieve their goal. They get to test a different behavior and receive on-the-spot positive feedback, which helps cement the positive shift. The exercise dramatically reinforces the concepts introduced in traditional talk therapy, and helps move the client ahead to the next step.

For more information about how Horse Sense Equine Assisted Psychotherapy sessions might help you help your clients, click here, or call us at (828) 683-7304.