Member Spotlight
USING
HORSES
IN PSYCHOTHERAPY Story and Photos by Nancy L. Smith
“It all started with a pony ride,” says Bekah Baughman of Lincoln, Delaware. Her desire as a three-yearold to ride a horse has blossomed into Courageous Hearts Equine Assisted Psychotherapy & Learning Center LLC, a mental health practice where she works as an equine specialist with her mother, licensed clinician social worker Rosemary Baughman.
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osemary, Executive Director of Courageous Hearts, licensed clinical social worker and certified addictions counselor, explains, “This is a mental health model that incorporates horses.” Unlike traditional talk therapy, which involves sitting in an office with a therapist, Courageous Hearts encourages interacting with horses or simply observing them. Clients do not ride the horses. The practice serves people of all ages and experience including farmers, military, at-risk youth, trauma survivors, school groups, people in recovery, PTSD victims, workplace teams, and children with behavioral problems. The youngest client was three years old; the oldest was in their 80s. “It’s appropriate for anyone. You can always learn and grow and ask for help,” says Rosemary. Her practice is part of Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, a global network of therapists incorporating horses into mental health treatment. The association operates in 40 countries and served nearly 50,000 clients in 2019. Courageous Hearts has eight horses — all of them rescues or retired from their first career — and a staff of licensed therapists and equine specialists. Rosemary explains, “It’s impossible to fake a real connection with an animal who’s evolved over millions of years to intuitively understand who can be trusted and who may be experiencing the kind of inner turmoil that can signal a threat.” “Horses have their own personalities,” Bekah notes. “Our clients create their own relationships with each one. The horses become whoever or whatever our client needs or wants them to be.” Rosemary adds, “We use horses because they’re very intuitive and they can pick up on your heart rate, your breathing. The way they react tells us what we need to know.” “We recreate who we are no matter where we go, so with the horses, we can work on behaviors we like about ourselves and increase them, like independence, for example. Or, we may have a behavior that we don’t want to do any more, but we don’t know what to replace it with. This is a great place to practice.” Courageous Hearts also has two donkeys. “They are great with our kids with ADHD,” explains Rosemary. “The children begin to see that their behavior
