Equine Therapy for Children and Teens From the State of Maryland
Equine-assisted therapy is particularly efficient in tackling the underlying issues of at-risk teenage girls from Maryland who suffer from trauma, clinical stress, depressive ailments, PTSD, and other severe mental health-related problems.
Equine therapy effectively treats troubled teens because teens feel less threatened and put on the spot as they would with traditional one-on-one talk therapy. This is particularly valuable because teens - whose frontal lobe is not yet entirely developed - regularly find it frightening and immensely difficult to communicate emotional pain and underlying issues.
Troubled teens generally find it challenging to loosen up and show well-hidden painful emotions and events. Equine-assisted psychotherapy enables teenage girls from Maryland to work on issues like:
- Self-reliance
- Cultivating and maintaining relationships or connections with others
- Emotional IQ
- Compassion
- Impulse control
- Problem-solving abilities
- Social skills
- Establish trust in others
- Trust in self
- Benefits of Equine Therapy for Troubled Girls from Maryland
Although numerous animals can be used in experiential, animal-assisted therapy, horses offer unparalleled characteristics that have made them a top selection for animal-assisted treatments. According to anxiety expert Dr. Robin Zasio, horses bring unique components to the therapy process for troubled teenage girls from the Maryland.
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Horses are great motivators. For example, they force teens to wake up early and feed and water them. Girls from Maryland participate in myriad equine-related activities at an equine therapeutic program, including cleaning stalls. Some programs even allow their students to earn wages to buy additional provisions that help maintain horse properties. Moreover, horses must be brushed, walked, and closely attended to.
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At an EAT program, teenage girls from the Maryland area participate in activities that are not always easy or pleasant in any way.
While at such a program, teens tend to the daily needs of others (horses).
What's more, teens at an equine-assisted therapy program learn how to work to maintain their relationships. By interacting and taking care of horses, teens learn to take care of something other than themselves. However, these skills can be applied to human relationships by participating and immersing themselves in equine therapy.
As much as humans, especially therapists, do our best to offer a safe space for clients to explore deep emotional hurts and painful experiences, it can be uncomfortable for clients to share their thoughts openly.
Building therapeutic rapport can take time as participants work toward building trust and practicing vulnerability in session.
Having the horse present may offer a sense of peace, as they only will react to the client's behavior and emotions with no threat of bias or any judgment of their emotional experience.
Feedback and Mirroring
Horses are keen observers and are vigilant and sensitive to movement and emotion. As a result, they often mirror a client's behavior or feelings, conveying an understanding and connection that allows them to feel safe.
This also allows patients to have a sense of self-awareness, using the horse's behavior and communications for feedback and opportunities to check in and manner what is happening at the moment.
Managing Vulnerability
As clients might find themselves vulnerable when trying to open up about emotional challenges, past experiences, or life transitions, the horse can offer a reference point to use for processing.
If something feels too painful to speak of, it can feel a bit easier for clients to process using the horse as an example or to align their experience with the horse's experiences at the moment. But, again, externalizing the content in this way can make things easier to approach and process.
Other Benefits
- Some other potential benefits of equine therapy include increased:
- Adaptability
- Distress tolerance
- Emotional awareness
- Independence
- Impulse control
- Self-esteem
- Social awareness
- Social relationships
Horses also require work. They must be fed, watered, exercised, and groomed. Providing this type of care can often be therapeutic. It helps establish routines and structure, and the act of caring and nurturing something else can help build empathy.
Mental Health Counseling in Maryland for Troubled Youth
MasterNet is the first choice for Maryland parents seeking a premier therapeutic boarding school to offer help to their troubled child experiencing substance abuse (including marijuana), behavioral misconduct, or ADD/ADHD (attentional disorder) related issues. Because working with highly resistant teens is challenging, most programs rely on level systems, punishments, and other behavioral techniques to manage a student’s behavior. Here at MasterNet, we recognize that the circumstances of one struggling child doesn’t always apply to all of our students. Because of this, MasterNet is committed to the life skills development and experiential education for each teen, and we do this with professionalism and care.
We are proud to offer inspired assistance to ensure a lasting restoration. We have the utmost respect for every student and family that we work with, and this is something that sets our therapeutic boarding school apart from the rest. MasterNet’s therapists acknowledge and appreciate the issues that teens from Maryland deal with every day. With decades of collective experience in the therapeutic boarding school industry, MasterNet’s therapists have the ability to quickly assess, identify, and offer help to teenagers experiencing pain medication abuse/addiction trials, issues related to ADD/ADHD (attentional disorder), and causes for academic failure.
Because we specialize in a variety of relevant residential treatment strategies (equine, life training, behavioral therapy) and provide outdoor recreation and adventure therapy, troubled teenagers can grow to be healthy adults, and MasterNet’s students can emerge as strong people who are motivated to succeed. MasterNet recognizes that the entire family needs the assistance that our experienced therapists offer; so that your child can be rehabilitated and whole. MasterNet’s family advocates can be reached immediately at (435) 574-4518.
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