Horses are prey animals and social animals. This means that they have an uncanny ability to read what is happening around them. In the wild they do this for survival. For us this means that horses can teach us about ourselves by responding in straightforward ways to how we are feeling and how we are behaving when we are with them. We can see and experience our impact on others by noticing how horses react to us.
Within families much of the way we relate to each other is unconscious and we are often not aware of how we impact positively or negatively on our nearest and dearest. Sometimes, patterns of behaviour become so embedded in family life that we do not even notice them or the problems that they are causing.
Family therapy with horses is a new ground-breaking therapy that enables these patterns to become more visible, allowing us to understand and address them. It is often the case, that simply by becoming more aware of our behaviour and the impact that this has on others and the world around us, we can think, feel and behave differently. This awareness can help break cycles of conflict, anger and fear.
Horses within family therapy also provide opportunities to explore different ways in which family members can relate to one another in more positive ways.