Features Q&A
Equine therapy: A unique approach to healing trauma for first responders

Editor Brittani Schroeder recently spoke with Carmen Theobald, a wellness coach, about equine therapy and its benefits for first responders.

Q: Carmen, can you start by telling me why you were motivated to become a wellness coach for the first responder community?

I had the unfortunate experience—as many do now in North America—of being a survivor of a school shooting, and the only reason that I am alive today is because of the incredible work of first responders. I was able to leave that situation with my life—physically unharmed—but of course, there was much harm that was done emotionally and psychologically.

I was inspired to learn more about trauma, so I could understand it. At the time of the school shooting, I was studying social services, but I ended up leaving the city to go work with horses. I learned a lot about myself, the horses, and how very similarly we respond to trauma.

When I became a wellness coach and facilitator, I asked myself who I wanted to serve the most, and the answer was obvious: serving those who serve others. First responders have many different backgrounds and recognizing this is important. I’m aware that my singular traumatic experience of the school shooting, for example, is the kind of event that many first responders deal with regularly. There are so many deeply impactful, difficult events that they are facing every day, and if there is an opportunity to create a protected, supportive space for them, to me it feels like the most important thing I can do with my time.

Q: What is equine therapy?

Horses can help us develop healthier relationships with ourselves and with others, for a variety of reasons. They are emotionally and socially intelligent beings who can see through the masks that we wear. They see through the pain and insecurity, all the layers of armour – metaphorical and physical. Horses respond to the deepest core of who we are in that moment, without judgement or assessment of our character. They respond to us authentically and honestly, with tremendous kindness.

Despite their large and powerful size, they are gentle, and I think that’s important for first responders because they need to leave space for both the powerful and gentle in their lives. Horses make space for the vulnerability that is so important in a healing journey. Most people also don’t realize that horses can help us learn about regulating our nervous system.

There are many different branches of equine therapy, and although they are related—like distant cousins—they can be very different. For me, it’s always looking in the end at how the horses are impacting our nervous system, how we’re impacting theirs, and the influence we have over each other.

Q: How can equine therapy help first responders address trauma?

Very often, therapy can over-emphasize the need for words, but what I find effective is helping our bodies shift gears into a state of feeling safe – safe to be in the moment, lean into the vulnerability and whatever emotions or experiences that we might be carrying with us. We carry so much trauma and stress, and even if we understand and rationalize our way through all of it, that’s not necessarily going to help us feel better. People, and first responders specifically, easily get stuck in their healing process and feel like they’re not able to overcome the challenges they’re facing. They feel like they can’t get there because the trauma is trapped and lodged far in the body, and the body then thinks life is not safe. You start operating from a state of survival, physiologically.

This is where the horses can help us learn how to move past the current state we’re in, to move into wellness. Horses allow us to lean in a little bit more to the wholeness, the fullness of who we are in the physical, emotional and even spiritual areas of our being. We’re better able to access what is right for us and what isn’t, and validate what we know in our core to be true, giving us a deeper sense of self and allowing us to feel safer in the expression of that.

Q: Have you seen an increasing need for therapeutic services, like equine therapy?

Absolutely, I have. I think a lot of first responders have hit some kind of roadblock in the more traditional methods of healing, like talk therapy, where they’re just not getting the results that they need and want.

Horses aren’t human, and I think that’s a big part of why equine therapy has been so successful – we don’t need to show up for another person. Horses are non-predatory and perceive the world differently than those of us with eyes pointing forward. Horses are prey, and as humans, we’re both predator and prey. Horses can help us lean into that other side of ourselves, not to make us feel unsafe, but to recognize how much power there is in the non-predatory aspect of who we are. We don’t always have to lean into the lion. Horses have massive hearts, and we can learn from them how to speak the language of the heart.

Q: What is important to note about equine therapy?

Equine therapy, also known as equine-facilitated learning and/or equine-assisted learning, is an unregulated field. For first responders and members of the military who are searching for the right provider for them, that is something to keep in mind so they can make an informed decision. You want to make sure there is someone you can trust, who has experience with equine facilitated wellness along with the credentials, and will resonate and connect with you. It needs to be a safe experience for everyone involved, which will lead to a strong partnership.