A TEENAGER whom several services had already failed stood nervously at the edge of an arena. He trusted few people. Attending had taken weeks of encouragement from his youth worker.

Inside, there was no pressure to talk. Just horses.

A few weeks later the boy, at risk of disengaging from school, began opening up, developing coping strategies and strengthening relationships. Experiences with the horses became reference points beyond the sessions.

“When he was struggling,” says Caitriona Lyons, founder of Kerry Equine Therapies, “the youth worker could say: ‘Do you remember when the horses did this? Remember how you got through that?’”

Such stories are building interest across Ireland, and the Eagala model is an international equine-assisted psychotherapy model, operating globally for the last 27 years.

Lyons and colleague Caitriona O’Meara, chair of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy Ireland and co-ordinator of the Irish Eagala Network, both emphasise that the equine-assisted approach involves structured psychotherapy.

“What sets Eagala apart is that it is clinically grounded from the very beginning,” O’Meara explains.

Sessions involve a qualified mental health professional, an equine specialist and horses. All work takes place on the ground, often in more natural settings, with horses free to engage through their instinctual responses and interactions.

Around 16 people are fully trained Eagala facilitators operating across nine Irish counties.

“It’s a certificate for professionals,” says O’Meara. “You come into it already qualified. It is an add-on qualification in either mental health or in professional equine practice.”

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy Ireland was established by the Irish Eagala Network to strengthen national standards, with subcommittees addressing safeguarding, supervision and research.

“If something difficult emerges,” Lyons explains, “there is always somebody there clinically trained to support the client safely.”

Clients can create, observe or interact with representations of their experiences through horses and the surrounding environment - arena or paddock. Practitioners describe this as “externalising”: giving feelings or experiences a form outside oneself.

Imposing meanings

The emphasis, they say, is on supporting each client’s own exploration, without imposing meanings on the horses’ behaviour or demeanour.

For some, this creates enough distance to begin exploring experiences they have struggled to articulate.

Lyons, a psychotherapist and equine professional, recalls a woman carrying grief for more than a decade.

“The woman said: ‘This is the first time I ever got to put the grief outside me.’”

Lyons also describes a bereaved mother who struggled to speak about losing her child.

A horse approached and remained beside her for almost 20 minutes.

“Afterwards,” Lyons says, “she told us it was the first time she had ever been able to put words on losing her child.”

International studies have explored and validated Equine Assisted Psychotherapy with adolescents, trauma survivors, psychiatric patients and veterans living with PTSD.

Irish practitioners are currently working towards stronger research partnerships to build the national evidence base of what is often very powerful therapeutic work.

Horse welfare is central to the equine assisted psychotherapy sector too.

“We don’t use horses,” O’Meara says. “We work with them.”

Horses are assessed physically, emotionally and behaviourally before sessions. If a horse is tired, stressed or unsettled, work may be adapted or postponed.

Lyons also stresses practitioners’ responsibility to manage their own stress before entering the arena.

Access to services

Access to Equine Assisted Psychotherapy remains uneven across Ireland. Sessions can cost up to €130, reflecting facilities, horse care and the professional team involved.

Practitioners hope greater collaboration with mainstream mental health services will improve access and support further evaluation.

For now, stories like those mentioned here, illustrate what this unique approach can make possible: a different setting in which to begin engaging, exploring difficult experiences and building relationships.

For details of Eagala practitioners, visit equineassistedpsychotherapyireland.com or for career paths eagala.org.