Are You A Teambuilding Professional?
By Lynn Thomas, LCSW
Printed in EAGALA News, Sep/Oct 2002, p.12
EAGALA promotes that Equine Assisted Psychotherapy is
conducted with a team of a horse professional working with a licensed mental health
professional. Both sides of the team have minimum standards. EAGALA has developed
a point system for the equine side of the team, and we utilize the licensure standards
already in place for the mental health side of the team.
There is a growing movement of utilizing the EAGALA approaches for experiential learning
activities, such as staff development workshops, "teambuilding", social skills and
leadership workshops, coaching, and working with corporate groups. The EAGALA techniques
do provide incredible tools for any kind of growth and learning, and so are very appropriate
for this type of application.
However, the incredible power of this approach needs to be kept in mind. Even with
"teambuilding" workshops, very intense and powerful personal issues often arise. We are
continually amazed at the intensity of this work, which happens even when we are doing
basic demonstrations, such as presentations at conferences. Our Level I training is
designed to educate how to facilitate this approach, not to be a "personal therapy"
workshop. Yet, it often creates very powerful and life altering experiences for some
people.
I recently received the following letter from Martine White in Toronto regarding the power
of EAP:
"Being very excited after my Level I course, I wanted to show how great EAP is, even though
I had no mental health partner. I drummed up 5 people from the therapeutic riding center
where I volunteer as an equine bodyworker. All of them work around horses daily, albeit
not always in direct contact with them.
We had the psychotherapist, the physical therapist, the equine director, another bodyworker,
and a volunteer who trains and rides the horses. I also wanted to use the therapy horses
because these poor guys never get to be a horse. I chose a grumpy mare and her gelding
friend, and on older gelding who is kind of tired of humans, but puts up with them.
I explained the ideas behind EAP and safety. We started with the longeing exercise for the
two therapists. That went okay for the one, but the physical therapist immediately felt
too much in the spotlight and withdrew.
Then we set up Life's Little Obstacles with the remaining three. When the horses started
galloping around, enjoying as I expected their brief spurt of freedom, the psychotherapist
jumped scared beyond her wits into my arms. So, that was one spectator down. The physical
therapist mumbled something and retreated silently. The other 3 people did the exercise
and it actually turned out well. They started by working as individuals rather than a
team. The bodyworker got frustrated but kept doing the same thing, interesting.
Eventually, they clicked and joined forces.
We were interrupted when some member of the Board walked in. I was told the horses should
not be running around, makes them unsafe. I didn't understand that perspective - seems to
me that letting the horses bottle up their frustrations would be more dangerous. I
realized that the therapeutic riding center may not be the right place for EAP.
So, I learned my first lesson from this experience:
1) Give some thought to the venue.
All 5 participants agreed that this was interesting, but "waaay too powerful." I could
see the many personal issues brought out within this short EAP session, but not being a
psychotherapist, I had to keep my ideas to myself. Thus, lesson number two.
2) Do not try to do this without a good team of Equine Specialist and Mental Health
Professional!
The two lessons I learned are not new. You (EAGALA) clearly touch on them in your training.
I guess I just had to experience it first hand to make it sink in! It proves once again
that patience is a golden virtue in EAP, in my case, patience to find a venue and partner!"
It really is not new how powerful this approach can be, whether it is therapy, or a growth
and learning experience. Many accept the importance of professionalism in a psychotherapy
session, but relax this professional standard when it comes to teambuilding workshops.
What makes a "professional", professional? The dictionary defines "profession" as "An
occupation requiring training and specialized study; the body of qualified persons in an
occupation or field."
Some Equine Specialists feel that they can conduct teambuilding type workshops, and since
it is not therapy, do not need a therapist. Experiential learning experiences do not need
a therapist involved, but a "professional" still needs to be involved to be the other part
of the team. As mentioned above, a professional is someone who has specialized training
and education in the field of conducting experiential, teambuilding, coaching, or corporate
training workshops.
I received a call recently regarding a mental health therapist who is not involved with
EAGALA, but who went to observe a "teambuilding" session conducted by two equine specialists
who are EAGALA certified. The therapist was very concerned because even though this was
supposed to be a "teambuilding" group for adolescents, the questions became very probing,
and some intense issues came out that were definitely therapy related. In addition, he
felt the facilitators were not adequately trained in how to deal with these issues, and
so left some of the clients in a vulnerable place.
There are ethical considerations in conducting teambuilding workshops without involving
a qualified professional, whether this be a licensed mental health therapist for therapy
sessions, or another type of qualified professional in the human development fields for
experiential learning workshops. In addition, there are considerations in how to define
experiential learning and when it becomes therapy.
Some proactive EAGALA associates have formed a committee to begin incorporating experiential
growth and learning as an official part of EAGALA and the certification program. This will
include establishing minimum standards for conducting "teambuilding" workshops, including
minimum standards for the professional co-facilitating with the Equine Specialist.
We look forward to hearing your input. The EAGALA approaches are powerful, wherever they
are applied. We are appreciative of the ongoing work and help in establishing high
standards for this new and growing profession.
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