21 May 2011 At Southern Christian Home, therapy with equines ‘breaking down defenses’

by Levi Gilbert

At Southern Christian Home in Morrilton, children are getting horses to jump over obstacles, and the horses in turn are helping the children break theirs down.

According to Danny Parrish, director of activities at Southern Christian Home, horses have been a part of the home’s activities for years, but certified equine therapy has only been going on for the last 3-4 years.

“You go to a training where you are certified in the therapy,” Parrish said. “We have a horse specialist and a therapist present at each session. Mostly we use ground activities. We present the child with a challenge – for example, they might have to set up an obstacle in the middle of the arena and then get the horse to go over that obstacle.

“In that particular instance, the young person isn’t allowed to touch or bribe the horse. It involves problem solving and working within a group. They also learn to relate to the horse, and then they take that experience and relate it to other areas in their life.”

Parrish is one of the home’s certified horse specialists. He often works with Dr. Mike Parker of Maumelle. Parker runs Anchorpoint Psychological Services in Little Rock and works with Southern Christian Home two days a week.

INTERVENTION TOOL

“It’s a very unique thing they have to offer here,” Parker said. “Working with animals is a very good intervention for kids that have trust issues, relationship issues – who have been burned by parents that don’t take care of them or reject them – it’s a good way to re-engage kids with trust and relationship building.

“It’s all about putting the kids in unusual, unknown situations where their old coping mechanisms don’t work. Their old ways of communication, of interacting with people, doesn’t work for them anymore. Their defenses crumble. You get a peek into that inner world of their securities and insecurities.”

One session that the children go through with the horses is learning how to put a saddle on them. Parrish and Parker act as “appendages” for the children, who aren’t allowed to touch the saddle or the horse.

“We hold hands – Danny on one end and me on the other – with the kid in the middle. We are the appendages. We have no brain. The kid is the brain, and they have to communicate with us to saddle the horse. Most of them have never even been around a horse, let alone saddled one.

“We do exactly what they say, but it doesn’t work because they aren’t specific enough. If they say, ‘Put the saddle on,’ we put it on upside down or sideways. When they want us to move a strap, but just say ‘put it down,’ we put the whole saddle back on the ground. We are teaching them about communication, about thinking before they speak.”

It can take three, four or even five sessions before the child successfully completes a task, Parker said. All along the way, Parker and Parrish are aiding the child in processing their emotions and experiences, helping them to learn new skills and lessons about themselves and others.

“Sometimes the child may have trouble relating to people, but they can relate to an animal,” Parrish said. “We have the child observe the horses interacting together. Horses are social animals; they have a social hierarchy and their own distinct personalities. The children observe them for a certain time period before introducing themselves to the horses.

“Then they’ll choose a horse to work with and tell why they picked them. A lot of time they choose to work with the horse that matches their own personality traits.”

Animal programs aren’t new to Southern Christian Home. They also offer husbandry programs to their children. Parker says these programs, along with the equine therapy, can offer a unique way to reach and help the children.

“You see kids open up and talk about hurts,” Parker said. “They may start talking about how the horse may feel. How do you know that? How do you know that the horse may feel trapped? Have you ever felt that way?

“Animals have bad days like we do, the kids learn to read that animal and respond to it in kind. That’s a skill. They then learn how to read what’s going on with their house parent, mom, dad, roommate or classmate. They learn to read and respond.”

FRUSTRATION TOLERANCE

Other skills the children can learn from the experiences are impulse control and frustration tolerance, Parker said.

“They can’t be impulsive with these animals,” Parker said. “Some of the kids have serious impulse control issues, and they have to stop and think. They can’t run up to an animal that weighs 20 or 30 times more than them. Through the obstacles, they also learn to not be as aggravated and frustrated, but rather to stop, think and problem solve to overcome the obstacle.

“We generalize it back to a time in the cottage or at school when they’ve tried real hard at something over and over, and it just hasn’t worked out. Learning to not be frustrated with the animal translates into not being as frustrated with people. These are longitudinal interventions. It doesn’t work quickly, but over time you see these changes.”

Southern Christian Home sees all different types of children come through its cottages, and many are extremely guarded because of the broken relationships they’ve experienced. The equine therapy is designed just for them.

BREAKING DEFENSES

“The program really breaks down the defenses,” Parker said. “Children learn how to have a relationship with the horse, with Danny and myself, and then take that trust and relationship dynamic back into the cottage. We see kids who have certain deficits that we think we can create experiences out there in the arena to meet and help them move along more quickly than in an office setting. Some people just aren’t real conducive to individual therapy.

“We put them in situations where they can be successful when they didn’t think they could. It’s not just about the negative – not just identifying and remediating problems and weaknesses – but it’s also about identifying and elevating success and positive character traits. We process the success as well as sitting down in the middle of the arena and talking about some pretty ugly stuff sometimes.

“Stop. Breathe. Think. React. It’s all about the processing. Horses are just a vehicle to get to the processing, and it’s very effective.”

(501 LIFE could not publish the names of the children because they are under DHS custody.)