Certification and Ethical Challenges in the EFMH Field
The ‘Industry’ Ten Years Ago …
When I started developing my approach to working with people and animals ten years ago a major challenge was the lack of options for training, and the simple fact that very few people knew what it was. I became very used to puzzled expressions and the “you want to do what? … with whom?.... why?..” responses I elicited on a regular basis. My approach was to gain as much experience, training and qualifications as I could in as many relevant areas as possible. For example, I traveled to the US and the UK to find established programs to volunteer and intern with, while at the same time completed my masters degree and post graduate studies in counseling psychology and ethics; I volunteered and later taught with therapeutic riding programs, while also working and volunteering with a variety of counseling agencies; I completed various natural horsemanship training and certification programs with my own horses, and took a certificate course in Animal Assisted Therapy. From there I developed my own practice and approach which reflects my training, my personal style, and stays within my scope of practice, experience and skills with regards to my counseling approach, my horse experience and the specific populations I work with. I call what I do “Equine Facilitated Counselling” because I feel this best describes what I do, for example I am a counselor, not a ‘psychotherapist’, and I primarily work with my clients with horses.
The Current Dilemma ….
Now, as the practice of incorporating interactions with horses into a wide variety of approaches to human personal and professional development and healing has made exponential leaps in popularity and public awareness the challenges facing new people entering the profession have changed. It is no longer very hard to find a certification workshop or program in EAP (Equine Assisted Psychotherapy), EEL (Equine Experiential Learning), EAPD (Equine Assisted Professional Development or Equine Assisted Personal Development) or a variety of other acronyms. The challenge has become choosing between the various offerings and ascertaining the credibility and usefulness of the certification you walk away with. The other sad fact is that the whole area of certification seems to be developing into a battlefield where different practitioners, horse trainers, corporate trainers, mental health professionals and more argue about who has the ‘best’ approach, and criticize the approaches of their ‘competitors’.
Perhaps it is simply human nature to become territorial and competitive, especially when we have all invested so much in our own training and in developing our own practices. Or perhaps we are all deciding that there is much more money to be made in training new people entering the field than there is in actually providing services to our clients.
I really hope not. I hope that we, as a profession who claim to be self aware, cooperative and helpful are able to walk our talk and to rise above these financial and narcissistic temptations, to truly put the needs of our clients, our horses and our professions ahead of those of our pocket books and our egos.
One positive aspect of all the controversy in this area right now is that ethics are being brought up – there is a growing awareness that ethical responsibilities exist and are important. I will explore two key ethical and safety consideration below, before returning to address the certification challenge. It should be noted that we are only touching on one aspect of safety in this article. There are many other safety considerations critical to the development and delivery of EFC and related programs, which are not the focus of this article.
Ethics and Emotional Safety - With Regards to Both Clients and Horses
Anyone working with people and horses has an ethical responsibility to ensure that the services being provided are safe – both physically and emotionally – for both the clients being served and for the horses we are working with. When the clients we are working with are vulnerable, for example due to their age, mental health or emotional needs, this responsibility and the duty of care increase further.
Focusing on the client at the expense of the horse…
A program or approach which focuses upon human needs or opportunities at the expense of the health and well-being (including emotional) of our horses is not, in my opinion, ethical nor will it be beneficial for anyone in the long term. Our horses did not submit an application form stating they wanted a counselling position at our programs; they can’t lodge a complaint with human resources that they are being asked to do tasks outside of their job description; and they can’t ask their doctor to sign them off on stress leave. It is up to us, the humans they work with and depend upon, to ensure that our horse partners are happy in their work and are being treated with integrity and respect. A mental health practitioner with limited horse experience, or limited experience with the specific horses and exercises being worked with, may misinterpret, misunderstand or miss altogether the impact that the exercises and interaction they are facilitating are having on their horse partners. I will explore some of the potential pitfalls with an example:
Let’s say we have a mental health professional (‘Jodie’) working with a client with a history of abuse (‘Lucy’) on boundaries, assertiveness and personal empowerment. The chosen exercise is to attempt a join up in the round pen with Jodie coaching Lucy to become more assertive through her body language and intent. However, the chosen horse (‘Star’) has also been abused and has his own anxiety and confusion around the exercise and approach. As Lucy is coached to become more assertive Star becomes more fearful. Jodie sees a formerly submissive client ‘claim back her power’ and assert her intent in the presence of a 1000lbs of horse she was initially terrified of. After a lot of time and effort (which shows Jodie that Lucy is able to be persistent and try different approaches) the exercise concludes with Lucy getting Star to follow her around the ring with no halter or rope. If she can achieve this here just imagine what she can now do with the men in her life!
Star, on the other hand, sees a predator who initially acted quite harmless suddenly try a variety of approaches to chase him around in an enclosed space where there is no escape. Star, being more sensitive to underlying emotions and energy than most people, picks up on the suppressed rage inside Lucy and is triggered back to his own abuse at the hands of a human being. He expresses his anxiety the only way he can – through his body language: he poops, he runs, he looks for a way out – but neither of the humans working with Star understand his language. Eventually he gives up, just as he had to when previously abused, and follows the predator around the round pen. Star is returned to his field re-traumatised, while Jodie and Lucy return triumphantly to debrief the learnings from the exercise. The next session Jodie is confused and Lucy devastated when the horse she believed she had developed a deep and meaningful relationship with won’t let her within 20 feet of him in the field. Lucy interprets this as yet another rejection and Jody asks for another horse. Ultimately nobody has gained.
Focusing on the Horse at the Expense of the Client …
On the other hand a program can protect the interests of the horse and neglect or miss the emotional impact and potential trauma being experienced by the client. A horse professional with limited mental health or counseling experience may misinterpret, misunderstand or miss altogether the impact that the exercises and interactions they are facilitating are having on the client.
If we take the same example as above – but this time we have a horse professional – ‘Mike’ working with the same client, horse and exercise. Initially Lucy is very tentative and afraid of Star who seems so big and uncontrollable to her. Mike coaches her to read Star’s body language and to see that he is responding to her and reflecting back her body language and intent – i.e. if Lucy is submissive Star will ignore her but if she increases her energy and level of assertiveness he will start to respect her. Lucy has only ever had two approaches modeled to her in her human relationships – submissive and aggressive - so as she tries to understand and follow Mike’s directions and become more assertive she actually starts to act quite aggressively. Star’s body language tells Mike that he is confused and scared. Mike starts to interpret this for Lucy instructing her to slow down because what she is doing is scaring the horse who sees her as a predator. Lucy is confused by the changing directions and by her own emotions and by accident she hits the rope loudly against her boots. Star is frightened by the sudden noise and kicks out at Lucy who is terrified and runs out of the ring. Mike is able to coach Lucy back in to the ring explaining that Star had only kicked because Lucy had frightened him and that they need to work together to calm Star down and show him that he can trust them. Lucy submissively obeys Mike and fearfully follows his directions to rub the horse. Star senses Lucy’s fear and confusion and dances away from her preferring to stand by Mike. All the time she is doing this Lucy is being triggered to the numerous times her ex- husband would hit her and then tell her it was her fault because she ‘made’ him do it. Many times, for example if Lucy spoke to another man, her husband would beat her later saying it was because he didn’t feel he could trust her. Lucy realizes that he must have been right because the same thing has just happened with Star. Mike is not very familiar with the dynamic of family violence and abuse and Lucy, who is well practiced at hiding her emotions, does not enlighten him.
So How Do We Protect the Interests of Both Client and Horse?
In my opinion, to safely and effectively deliver services which bring humans and horses together in a therapeutic or personal development environment (be it EFC, EEL, AAT, EFMH, EAP, EAPD or whatever else) an individual or team requires appropriate training, credentials, experience, skills and monitoring in regards to all of the following: 1) the therapy or service being delivered (e.g. counselling); 2) the animal being incorporated into the therapy or service (e.g. horses); 3) the specific human/ animal interaction (e.g. equine facilitated counselling); and 4) with the specific population being served (e.g. victims of family violence). If it is a team delivering these services one person should be appropriately credentialed in mental health AND have an appropriate level of experience/ qualifications with horses while the horse professional should possess therapeutic riding/ other appropriate horse professional credentials AND have an appropriate level of experience/ qualifications in mental health issues. Both members of the team should then receive training and be assessed in the actual service being delivered (e.g. EFC) and with the actual population being served (e.g. family violence).
In my opinion, the only way to achieve this and also to develop credible, independent and effective training and certification is to do this through a credible and well established national organization or, better still, a partnership of existing credible national organizations which represent the various professions involved. This removes the conflicting objectives of personal gain and ensures that the focus is upon training and certifying professionals who will best serve the needs of our clients and of our horses. If the current minefield of certification is confusing to us, just imagine how it appears to a prospective client!
In the US a national certification process is being developed by EFMHA (Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association) which is a part of NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association). This process has the benefits of being field generated from best practices, is being developed by a multidisciplinary team of leaders in the profession, and builds upon the processes already established, proven and recognized - by the legal system, professionals and clients - within NARHA.
In Canada a similar initiative is underway through EFMH-Canada, a sub group of CanTRA (Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association). The hope is to involve other professions, including mental health professional associations, in this initiative. While it is still in the early stages of development the end product may look something like this:
Specialty training and certification for both mental health professionals and horse professionals working in the area of EFMH.
Developing such a process will require a lot of work and it is hoped that a multidisciplinary group of professionals, including horse professionals, mental health professionals and EFMH practitioners will volunteer their time and expertise to this important initiative. It is further hoped that the wide variety of organizations currently offering their own private ‘certification’ programs will choose to work collaboratively with the national process (e.g. by providing preparation workshops, mentoring services, and internship opportunities) rather than choosing to work independently and competitively.
© Sue McIntosh 2007