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EFP Efficacy

Question: What is the difference between Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy and Equine Facilitated Learning?

Answer: Equine Facilitated Learning promotes personal exploration of feelings and behaviors in an educational format, while Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy both promotes personal exploration of feelings and behaviors, and allows for clinical interpretation of feelings and behaviors. EFP denotes an ongoing therapeutic relationship with clearly established treatment goals and objectives developed by the therapist in conjunction with the client. The therapist must be an appropriately credentialed mental health professional to legally practice psychotherapy and EFP.  Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning falls under the heading of Equine Assisted Activities and may be conducted by a NARHA Instructor, an educator or a therapist.  Experiential Learning refers to a style of learning that occurs when a person is interacting with the environment, including the people, animals and situations involved.  It is learning by doing and may take place during a short period of time, such as during a workshop, or during regularly scheduled sessions.

Question: How does Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy help clients with psychosocial healing and growth?

Answer: Specially designed EFP experiences may promote psychosocial healing and growth through:

• improving self-esteem and self-awareness;
• developing trust in a safe environment,
• providing social skills training,
• encouraging sensory stimulation and integration,
• combining body awareness exercises with motor planning and verbal communication,
• developing choice-making and goal-setting skills,
• developing sequencing and problem-solving skills,
• encouraging responsibility, and
• Promoting pro-social attitudes through care-giving experiences.

Question: Are there any precautions or contraindications to EFP?

Answer:  EFP Standards developed by the EFMHA Standards Committee are being field tested and they are available from NARHA.  The EFMHA Standards Committee has suggested the following precautions and contraindications. These are guidelines only and should not be viewed as a substitute for clinical data collection and consultation with a mental health professional. The EFMHA Board of Directors and EFMHA Standards Committee are in agreement with Joff Barnett, MD:

Precautions and contraindications relate to functional capacity rather than the presence or absence of a diagnosis, disease, or specific sign/symptoms by history; many illnesses can be chronic and although there may at times be active symptoms there is also often compensatory coping and adaptation.

Thus, it is felt that clients should be assessed throughout the EFP process for readiness to safely participate on a case by case and moment by moment basis.

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rev 03/04/2008