What causes us to change? Is it positive encouragement? More or better self-esteem? Or is it something like being "sick and tired of being sick and tired"?

Like many of us, when I first found out about Equine Assisted Therapies & Learning modalities, I spent a lot of my time trying to figure out the differences among the "big three" as I called them: EAGALA, EFMHA & EGEA.  I looked to things like how many facilitators were in the arena, what kind of credentials they had, whether riding was a part of or not a part of the experience. While this kind of questioning gave me some broad brush strokes to look at the field and see where I was philisophically & programmatically a "fit", it didn't give me the deeper philosophical answers I was seeking. But I decided to "get in there" and begin practice, so I could see what I felt worked best for clients.

A few years after starting Horse Sense, a mentor of mine asked me the question: "What do you believe causes change?" It was and still is a great question. We can all agree that most of our clients come to us because something in their lives isn't as they would wish it to be, and therefore they are seeking change. Because if change is what they are after, then the question becomes how best to elicit change.

Now a great new resource is available on the topic of change & how to cause and support it: a book called Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip Heath & Dan Heath, the authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive & Others Die (an excellent book as well!). I had a chance to read the opening chapter of an advanced copy a few weeks ago at Prescott College, and can't wait to read the rest. (Switch is actually being released tomorrow, February 16th).

The book is broken down into three sections: "Motivate the Elephant," "Direct the Rider," and "Shape the Path". Keen readers have already realized how much the language of these sections resembles the language of good horse training, dog training & people training! Seems like they had horses and horse people in mind when they were writing this (aside from the elephant reference!). Here are a few of the key points from the opening chapter:

• Motivate the Elephant: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion (or, Self-control is an exhaustible resource)

• Direct the Rider: What looks like resistance is often lack of clarity (how many times have we seen people read a horse as resistant when the horse just plain doesn't understand?)

• Shape the Path: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem (is that horse or client just "being difficult," or is he/she in pain?)

Now is a great time for you to answer the question for yourself about what you think best causes and supports change, both in your life and business, and in the lives of your clients and horses. I would love to hear from you about this topic: email me your thoughts at Shannon@HorseSenseOtc.com!

Shannon