About
Equine Therapy Of NJ offers a unique opportunity for you to connect with our horses in a therapeutic setting. We are focused on rebuilding mental health through equine therapy and horsemanship as horses provide many benefits.
An equine specialist along with your therapist works with you during each session to provide a healing, educational experience suitable for children, teens and adults.
The model program we use is EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association).
The Eagala Model provides an innovative solution that provides a unique space for an emotionally safe, hands-on experience for clients. With real-time feedback, clients are able to reach issues where traditional talk-based therapies leave off.
The services offered through Equine Therapy Of NJ:
Mental Health & Trauma
Autism & Special Needs
Specialized Veterans Program
Substance Use Recovery
Educational Programs
Horsemanship
Educational Community Programs
Team Building: Corporate & Professional
Why Horses?
Horses offer unique traits that have come to make them a top choice for animal-assisted therapies. Horses bring the following unique elements to the therapy process:
Non-Judgmental and Unbiased
Having the horse present during a therapy session offers 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, vigilant and sensitive to movement and emotion. They often mirror a client’s behavior or emotions, conveying understanding and connection that allows the client to feel safe. This also allows for clients to maintain a sense of self-awareness, using the horse’s behavior and interactions for feedback and opportunities to check in and process
Managing Vulnerability
The horse can offer a reference point to use for processing emotional challenges, past experiences or life transitions. 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 in the moment. Externalizing the content in this way can make things easier to approach and process through.
Empathy and Connection
Learning horsemanship and horse care increases empathy, understanding and connection to something outside of ourselves. Increasing our ability to care for and understand horses decreases internal anxiety, improves social skills and problem solving skills as well as self-confidence.