A Commentary on the Dizzying Array of Train the Trainers

Hey Everyone – Josie here, making my first blog appearance to let you know about this month's Free Monthly Telecall,  coming up next week!

Wednesday,  July 22nd 4:00–5:00 PM EST

Shannon will be joined by insurance expert Mark Fredricksen, Vice President of Peterson, McAnnaly & Tabor Insurance, Co., home to the only EAGALA Equine Liability Insurance Program.

Click here to register!

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Mark D. Fredricksen has held the distinction of being a Certified Insurance Counselor since 1986. The CIC is a designation that represents a commitment to continuous enhancement of one’s knowledge and service. CIC is nationally recognized as a symbol of professional excellence and leadership in the insurance industry.

As an insurance counselor, Mark can act as a third-party consultant to assist in the overview of your insurance programs, giving you an insight into the forms and cost effectiveness of your insurance program. Recommending forms, coverages, and risk management methods to help maintain control over your insurance portfolio.

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Don't worry if you can't make the time – just register now and an email of the recording will be sent to you after the call has been transcoded!!

Click here to see more calls like this that Shannon has held in the past. And you can visit this page to see more upcoming events at Horse Sense Business Sense.

And, as always, please contact me if you have any questions – JosieM@HorseSenseOTC.com or (828) 683-7304, ext. 113.

Take Care!

Josie

Hey everyone,

Here's a letter I got recently from one of the boys we work with using our Running with Mustangs curriculum, for working with adjudicated and at-risk youth. All our businesses can use a little testimony about the effectiveness of EAGALA-Model Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, and here's another one!

"Thank you for all your help and support. When I first started at Horse Sense I just wanted to do it because of the horses. Then when ya'll had me start the skill cards, I knew that before I finished I was going to become a better person. I'm surprised by the way I control my anger because I've never been able to control my anger, not even with the anger management classes. I've learned a lot more than I did know about horses since I met you. I really appreciate everything you've done and I will always remember you."

To read more about our Running with Mustangs curriculum, click here!

Happy Trails,

Shannon

Hi everyone!

Well, we just had another graduation of two boys from our Running with Mustangs program this week, and it was amazing. We created this curricula for the Gang Violence Prevention Program of Buncombe County, which is funded by the North Carolina Governor's Crime Commission and is a collaborative effort with several Buncombe County organizations, including the Mediation Center, our non-profit sister organization. Running with Mustangs offers Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, Natural Horsemanship, Vocational Training, and Spoken-Word Poetry for adjudicated and/or incarcerated youth. (Learn more about Running with Mustangs by clicking here.)

The closing/graduation is always a special time, in which the boys' therapists, case workers and other special people from the Youth Development Center come to see what the boys have been working on for the past 8 weeks/16 sessions at the farm. During the graduation, the boys "freestyle" their horse skills with their horse partner, and also read a few of their poems from their Spoken-Word Poetry work aloud. There is rarely a dry eye in the audience, and the whole Horse Sense team gets out to cheer 'em on.

Well, I just got the feedback forms from the boys, which they complete at the end of their treatment, and was blown away by what I read. (We ask all our clients to fill out feedback forms, so we can improve our skills and services.) One of the questions we ask is: What has changed for you since you began coming to Horse Sense? One of the two boys wrote:

"I used to listen to my thoughts; now my thoughts listen to me."

The other young man's feedback form had an equally remarkable comment. When asked what he had learned in his time with Horse Sense, his answer was simple, and profound:

"I am important."

I took these feedback forms from room to room, from desk to stall in the Horse Sense office & barn, reading these amazing sentences to each staff member. Today I'm here at the North American Handicapped Riding Association Conference (NARHA) in Hartford, CT, and I'm sharing those sentiments with attendees as I help out at the Strides to Success booth. I'm telling it to anyone who is interested in the work that we do in this field who will listen.

Why? Because this is what we do it all for. This kind of change and these kind of results justify every single thing we've done as we have struggled to bring Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Learning to Western North Carolina. And it's not just us. We as a field of Equine Assisted professionals all over are getting these kinds of results every day.

So these feedback forms are definitely going in my "Undespair" folder, the file I reach for when I'm knee-deep in grants and budgets and I can't quite remember what I'm doing it all for. And I hope it offers you the same inspiration for plugging away.

More power to us all! May the effects of our work and practice continue to ripple...

Shannon Knapp
Horse Sense of the Carolinas, Inc
HorseSenseOtc.com

Hey Everyone!

Just got back in town from a recent trip to Ohio State University. Lisa Wheeler, Diane Voytek and myself were up there doing presentations on Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning.

How did Horse Sense of the Carolinas end up in Ohio? Well, a business intern from last summer went back to the University excited about her experience, and drew the interest of her faculty and other staff at the University about this unique new treatment modality and learning opportunity.

She arranged two demonstrations for us: one for her classmates in an Animal Sciences course, and another for the general University, including the medical department, the psychology department, the social work school and many more.

We were joined by Pam Smith, of Reinbows at Serenity Springs Equine Center of Canton, Ohio (visit her site at www.serenityspringsequine.com). Together we offered a general introduction to EAGALA-model Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning.

We were very warmly received, and want to encourage you to look through the course listings at your local college or university for possible demonstration opportunities. It's a great way to further spread the word about your program and what you do, and to inform your community!

Happy Trails!

Shannon

Shannon Knapp
President & Equine Specialist
EAGALA Advanced
Horse Sense of the Carolinas, Inc
Real Help, Real Results™
www.HorseSenseOtc.com
828-683-7304 (office)
828-683-6281 (fax)

Business Building Intensive in Asheville, NC, Sept 19-20
Jump-Start your EAP/EAL Business and your Business Skills! 

Hey everyone!

Well, another group of boys from the Youth Development Center (YDC) here in Western North Carolina (WNC) are about to graduate from our Running with Mustangs program. We are always sad to see them go!

From rather simple beginnings and with the collaboration and efforts of the YDC, our Running With Mustangs program is the counseling and vocational element of the multi-agency Gang Violence Prevention Program in Buncombe County. Running with Mustangs has grown into one of the cornerstones of the programming at Horse Sense of the Carolinas, and we really feel that others are looking to us as leaders in the field of innovative treatment of this specialized population.

As those of you who have attended our trainings know, we're passionate about adjudicated youth, and we're honored and grateful to be able to provide such an effective intervention.

Running with Mustangs, our curriculum for working specifically with incarcerated youth, is comprised of four components:

• Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP)
  
• Natural Horsemanship
• Vocational
• POETIX

We always begin with EAGALA-model EAP, and then progress into Natural Horsemanship. The Vocational and the POETIX components run concurrently with the EAP & Natural Horsemanship.

Today the boys prepared for their graduation ceremonies, in which they will perform some of their spoken-word poetry, and also demonstrate "freestyle" some of the skills they've learned playing with horses. The confidence and satisfaction in their eyes always fills us with gratitude.

As soon as we incorporate these boys' poetry into our Mane Lines book, we'll make them available for you to buy. All proceeds from the Mane Lines goes to support the Horse Sense Scholarship Program.

All the best as we continue to make a difference, together!

Click here to learn more about our Running with Mustangs program.

Hey Everyone!

Just getting my feet back under me after returning from the EAGALA conference (and if you've sent me an email in the past week, know I'll get to it as soon as I can!).

There were so many excited and exciting individuals at this conference...over 200+ people there for the first time, I believe. The arena day was provocative and a great learning experience for everyone in the audience. I was most excited and impressed by the "three" sessions Mark Lytle and Lynn Thomas did that day with one client. They showcased the EAGALA model, and I think are getting ever better at clearly and concisely articulating the EAGALA model. This was a great way to thread the model throughout the day, and reinforce what EAGALA is (and isn't!). Oh, and I tried to fit that adorable burro into my carry-on, but was busted at the airport!

The next two days' of breakout sessions were wonderful and, as always, we walked away with many great ideas for bringing the work that others are doing into our community. There's just so much creativity and "juice" flying around during breakout session days. The booths as well were full of innovation and electricity (or is it just my enthusiasm for this field?). We brought out BodySense curriculum, our Policies & Procedures CD, and premiered our Running with Mustangs curriculum on working with adjudicated and/or incarcerated youth. The response was overwhelming!

We put lots of faces to email addresses, and got to meet a lot of new folks interested in bringing EAP/EAL to their community. With EAGALA's help, we all just keep getting stronger and better!

See ya next year, in our own backyard, as the EAGALA conference will be here in Asheville!

Happy Trails,

Shannon

Ah, the joys of figuring out your fees. What I manage as the Practice Administrator of the group is individual rates, family rates, group rates for EAP,  and then also EAL pricing. What I will share here are some of our strategies on how we set rates.

EAP Rates for EAP are based on regional averages. We surveyed what the average price was for an hour of therapy and went from there. We adjusted our rate to accommodate the fact that we are an experiential based program and NOT a talk therapy office-based program. We added 25% to the average cost so as to assist in covering expenses traditional therapy does not have. We have different rates for individual, family and group. Again, we looked at the professional market rate.

Horse Sense has not adjusted rates in five years and will in the coming months. My experience in health care is that rates for direct service (not merchandise or products) adjust every 3-5 years. The adjustment we make is based on reasonable percentage adjustment and increased operating costs. On average this could run from 5-15%. I will caution you on a double digit percent increase to services unless this is in line with market adjustments occurring within your community.

EAL Rates for EAL are different from EAP. This is because this is a different service, different market, and the market value for experiential personal, professional or corporate development is higher. Again, this is determined by regional market value and incorporates operating costs. We do adjust for non-profit and for-profit groups, and I would encourage you to do the same.

Getting prices together can be cumbersome. Take advantage of the resources you have at hand to determine these figures. There are good tools out there to help you determine fees thus saving you time and money.

Until Next Month,

Lisa

Hey everyone . . .

• at the beginning of the two week class, we were instructed that change occurs outside your comfort zone, and that they would be asking us to play at the edges of our comfort zone. Hmmmm....sound like anything you've heard before? 
• a popular phrase here is "It's not about the..."(fill in the blank with whatever obstacle your horse may be facing, such as "It's not about the trailer" or "It's not about the jump"). It is, however, about the relationship, first and foremost. This reminds me of it not being about the task in EAP/EAL, but about the relationship between the horse and the client. 
• we were told that although faculty are there to assist us, they aren't here to do it for us. Sometimes, they said, they may see that dark storm cloud over our head and may deliberately pass us by, without stopping to help. It's about letting us find our own answers, or at least putting ourselves out there to try some new things before rushing for answers outside ourselves. It's also about setting us up for when we go home, and there isn't a faculty member in our back pocket to help. It's about empowerment!

Well, I made it back from the Emotional Alchemy workshop in Albany, NY. It was BEAUTIFUL, but humbling, as big weather events always are. I'm grateful to be back in North Carolina!

The workshop was most interesting, and if you've not already read Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, be sure to ask for them for the holidays. I have been a big fan of his work for several years now.

I also was introduced to his wife's work. Tara Bennett-Goleman has written a book called Emotional Alchemy, which combines aspects of Jefferey Young's Schema Therapy with Mindfulness meditation and vipassana practice. She talk about us all having "the natural ability to turn our moments of confusion or emotional pain into insightful clarity." Heady stuff, and a remarkable weekend.

The other exciting thing about the weekend is that Tara and Dan are also horse people, having just gotten an Icelandic to bring into their already existing herd of two.  I introduced the idea of EAP/EAL to them, and they were most interested in what it is and how it works! I'm honored to bring this concept to their door.

Anyhow, hope you all are warm and well, and best wishes to my new friends digging out from the snow in New England!

Trailblazers, look for more from me on the Emotional Alchemy workshop shortly...

Happy Trails & Holidays!

Shannon

Question: I am having 25 social workers coming out to our program for a day with the intention of introducing EAP. We are thinking of having the social workers  (2)present a vignette and then design activities/interventions to move treatment in a positive direction.

Any ideas for activities would be appreciated. The majority of the social workers are in the child protective services division.

thanks, Judy

To see the blog and Judy's original question click here

Answer: Hey Judy!

Thanks for your question. When we do a demonstration such as the one you describe, we'll plan about 5-6 activities (a full day is a LONG demonstration, especially if you aren't getting paid. Just my 2 cents!).

First off, I LOVE your idea of having them design vignettes. That's a great way to make it tangible and immediately applicable to them. But I would start first off with some basic psychoed about what EAP is and how it works. When we do this in our CEU training introducing EAP, we spend a little time talking about the roles of the horses, the facilitation team, the client and the referring agency (when applicable), so they can see how it all works together. So I think some time spent there is well-advised.

Two activities that jump out at me are 1) have them design an obstacle course of, say, 4-5 obstacles their clients, on the whole, generally present with. Label the obstacles as such, and then have them get the "client/horse" through the obstacle course without lead ropes, bribery, etc... That tends to be a really rich one we've used in the past!

The second activity that springs to mind is one in which you create
4-5 tasks for the group to complete with a horse/horses. You create 4 tasks such as "get horse over the jump" or "get horse to circle the barrel once to the right" and write them on separate slips of paper.
Then, break the group up into subgroups, giving each subgroup a slip of paper. No talking. This tends to bring up the many differing goals/divisions/groups that a client must "pass through" to complete a treatment program, and how sometimes one group overrides another, or whatever. It's been a great one for us!

Best of luck, Judy. Let us know how it goes!

Shannon

If you've been to any of my presentations or read the Horse Sense, Business Sense book, you've heard me talk about one of Horse Sense's guiding principles: "If it's ever about us, we're doing it wrong ." I'd like to spend just a minute talking about why I say that, and what it means to me.

When people get involved in this field, it is my hope that they become aware of how much they can impact a session. They can impact it by how much or how little they share about horses, about their roles, about safety, about any number of things. The EAGALA Part 1 goes a long way to helping people The 'S of the SPUD'S also helps highlight recognize & avoid leading questions.when facilitators' own biases and agendas show up, and the EAGALA training addresses how to deal with that.

But there is still one more area that relates to "If it's ever about us, we're doing it wrong" that I've noticed in facilitators that concerns me, and it's not just confined to one organization or methodology (like EFMHA, EAGALA, Epona and others). It's what I call the "Look at me" facilitation, when the facilitator becomes impressed with their insight, their questions, and their ability to "show" the client what he/she needs to do or know. Instead of "Look at the horse," it's "Look at me," a clear sign that the session is off-track in some way.

I love the Alcoholics Anonymous statement, "Principles Before Personalities", which reminds us that it's not us that makes this intervention work, it's the horses. While we all strive to be the best we can be in our field, it's an important point to remember!

All the best,

Shannon

Hey Everyone!

Wow! What a wonderful trip to Europe, and what a great conference in Vienna!

I was excited and honored to be a representative from the United States at the European Association of Horse Assisted Educators (EAHAE) during the annual conference, which this year was held in Vienna, Austria October 6-7. Along with almost 100 others from all over Europe, my husband Richard and I learned and shared a lot about our passion and vision for the field of Equine Assisted Activities!

The conference this year was organized by Robert Koenes and his lovely wife, Edith, of HorseCoach Institute. They were able to arrange for a private tour of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna for the conference attendees, which took place Friday afternoon. What a wonderful behind-the-scenes tour it was! Richard and I had already been that morning to a public practice session of the Riding School (which is held most days from 10am-12noon), and had also already been to the Lipizzan museum earlier in the week. But on this special tour we went into the stables where the horses are kept and met a 30+ year old Lipizzan Stallion, not to mention all the other beauties. We then went to the tack room, where they keep all the gold-plated breastplates and cruppers the horses wear during the evening performances, along with the gold-plated bridles. It was quite a site!

After the special tour, EAHAE hosted a social dinner event for all attendees. We made new friends from Sweden, Australia, Germany, Austria and many other places that evening alone! It was a lovely way to ease into the new event, and Richard and I both got to practice some languages we haven't used in quite some time. Richard knew a little German and French and, although I studied French in school, every time I went to open my mouth, nothing but Spanish would come out!

I'm writing a short paper this week on the conference proceedings for all Trailblazer members, so I won't go into too much detail now about all the wonderful presentations and what we can learn from this event. I'm quite excited about some things going on in this organization, and can't wait to share more with you! If you aren't already familiar with the EAHAE, you can learn more about it at their website (link to www.eahae.org/index.htm).

After the conference, Richard and I spent time in Zurich, Interlocken & Lausanne (all in Switzerland), and Bayeux in Normandy. We're both WWII fans, and we got to see some humbling and impressive historical sites such as Omaha Beach, the American Cemetary, and the gunnery at Longues Sur Mer. We also got to see, in our trips through Switzerland, why Western North Carolina is often referred to as "Little Switzerland". It was like looking out our window, except it was all cows and not horses!

It's great to be back, and I look forward to hearing from you now that we're home!

Happy Trails!

Shannon

PS: stay tuned to learn about a conference we're planning at Horse Sense in Fall of 2008 that will bring all of you to our Little Switzerland! It's guaranteed to jumpstart your EAP/EAL business, and get you on the way to a great program! More will be revealed soon!

Hey everyone,

I think we all know and understand the power of journaling, but a study I read about recently has shed even more interesting light on this, which impacts all our programs. While expressive writing has been shown to have a "favorable influence on the immune system and blood pressure...[and to be] at least as beneficial as psychological intervention,"  it's not just any expressive writing that brings about a favorable response.

In this study I read about recently in Scientific American Mind (Aug/Sept 2007) a psychologist asked a group of people who had all experienced the same difficult event (the abrupt loss of employment, after many years of service) to "journal" for 20 minutes a day for 5 consecutive days. One group was instructed to write down how they spent their time each day; another group was told to write down their deepest feelings about the loss of their job. The third group was given no writing instruction at all. Which group do you think responded the best?

It was the second group that reported the most significant change, but that's not all. How you write about difficult events impacts your mental health. More recent data suggests that "describing a problem or retelling an experience, rather than merely pondering it, can bring about a change in perspective" for the good. They found that "telling stories enabled subjects to analyze an event step by step...providing a beginning and an ending. Merely thinking about it, on the other hand, created chaos: events, images and emotions became intertwined, leading people to relive the experience--with the danger of becoming lost in misery all over again."

Ultimately, the take-home journal may be a powerful supplement to the services we offer in EAP/EAL. We suggest offering your clients the following guidelines:

• write about negative experiences, not positive ones
• spend at least 15 minutes per session
• focus on your deepest feelings
• let the words flow: don't worry about spelling and grammar

More on this topic in a future blog, as there is interesting data on writing about positive experiences and what effects that has as well. I'd also love to chat about what implications this has for theoretical models of what causes change.

Hope you are well!

Shannon