Today I will be the presenter on the Veterans Affairs' monthly conference call among those who conduct programs in conjunction with Veterans Hospitals for patients with PTSD. We have been providing this weekly program now for a bit over seven years.
What we do is real. What we do works. And what we do is based entirely on my understanding of horses and trauma. My trauma education began at age five, when my parents took in the first of over 100 foster children. It extended over the past twenty years in which I handled the prosecution of child molestation cases, child abuse cases, and sexual assault cases. It has been capped off over the past five years with hours of classes on trauma and its impacts in professional educational classes.
But....I am merely a prosecutor with no letters behind my name to legitimize what we do. I have no certifications to stamp me as an expert. Our program has never been "peer reviewed." It has only been "people reviewed", often by people who explicitly tell me that working with the horses in our round pens saved their lives.
This morning a local vet had resposted this article to Facebook. https://thehorse.com/182990/researcher-horses-are-emotional-sponges/?fbclid=IwAR3BImEACEdt7AqT2qlDDrlgnA4eccXp8VyohloeBC3hFn-zGg36rMyxUEw
It is a great article. Our weekly sessions with patients From the Veterans Hospital really bear this out--horses often radically change their reaction and overall behaviors the moment the next person enters the ring. People who have been severely traumatized often react precisely the same way that horses do--the emotional sponge that they become is the same sponge that all large herd based prey animals exhibit. That is why it is so important for everyone whose life brings them into contact with severely traumatized people, from first responders, to teachers, to law enforcement, to guidance counselors, to Victim Witness Coordinators, to Social workers, to prosecutors, to medical admission staff and so many others to become trauma informed.
Natural horsemanship can lead not only to better understanding of horses, but to better understanding of people with PTSD
For those who are surviving PTSD, the understanding of their responses to stresses and predator body language is often a huge break through. Understanding their behavior can give the patient the ability to explain that behvior to family and friends. It can lead to trust. No treatment strategy can succeed unless the patient has some degree of trust in the treatment program and in those who are facilitating the trust.
it can lead to confidence. Coming to view oneself as being deserving of taking leadership of the horse and insisting on its compliance can lead to a boost in self esteem. Most importantly, it can lead to the complete understand of the absolute necessity of having security before achieving autonomy can give any real benefits.
And here is the lesson of the round pen boiled down into a few sentences.
Surviving horrific trauma often causes one to adopt the communication techniques, motivations, and fears of large, herd prey animals. Doing so makes it difficult to survive in a human world that is driven by the communication techniques, motivations, and fears of large Maximilian predators. The drive for autonomy is replaced by a need for security. The achievement of security allows one to derive enjoyment of steps that lead to the achievement of autonomy. The horse survives, in large part by trusting other herd members. People who trust no one can learn to trust horses and that can lead to trusting other humans.
But one does not live in a round pen. The round pen has a gate on it. Working horses in the round pen helps a severely traumatized person find that gate, walk through it, and successfully enter the next step in becoming stronger and happier.
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