Becoming an Equine Psychotherapist?

[Curlin]

Hello everyone!

I’m brand new to these forums, so forgive me if my terms are not up to date. I am currently looking into starting up my own center for Equine Psychotherapy. I was wanting to ask some questions on some things I’m confused about.

I see where there are organizations that “certify” you to practice psychotherapy (PATH, EAGLA, AHA, etc…) Are certifications required? Are these the best associations to go through? Do I need riding instructor certification? What do I need to start my own center, (insurance, etc…)

Thank you all so much for reading. I can give a little background. I have been riding my whole life. I taught lessons for several years, I trained and exercised for several years as well. I was out of the saddle for about 8 months due to my pregnancy, but I have been riding again. I have worked with children/adults with disabilities and I’m about to finish an Early Childhood Education degree.

Any information, resources or help anyone could give me would be highly appreciated. I’ve been trying to Google information, but I’m getting different answers from conflicting sources. I have no idea what’s accurate and what’s not lol.

[darby1]

The organizations like PATH don’t train you to become a psychotherapist; they certify you to assist in a session with the licensed therapist and the client. In my experience the job is to help the therapist design activities with the horse that are relevant to the client’s needs and to be there for safety of the client and horse.

Generally this was unmounted work.

If you want to open your own center, I’d strongly recommend volunteering for a program to get some experience.

I would also recommend getting certified through PATH or Eagala (AHA is for hippo therapy). If you plan on being a non-profit, you’ll want the be associated with one of these organizations for grant writing purposes or if you eventually want to be able to accept insurance.

[Rackonteur]

If you want to open your own center it might be a good idea to first look at college degree programs in equine science and psychology. There are some out there. I don’t know of any that offer a degree in equine psychotherapy (there may be some I don’t know of); I do know of at least one undergraduate school where you can do I think a double major in equine science and psychology/psychotherapy. You would probably need that sort of degree in order to be able to qualify for insurance.

You might be able to use some of your ECE credits towards a degree like that, but really ECE is not psychotherapy or equine science.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/equine-assisted-psychotherapy-healing-therapy-or-just-hype/

Equine Facilitated Mental Health studies:
http://www.judson.edu/academics/academic-programs/sciences/equine-science/

http://www.smwc.edu/academic/social-and-behavioral-sciences/equine-assisted-therapy/

These colleges include PATH certification programs, but as someone has already said here, PATH doesn’t do equine-assisted psychotherapy –
http://www.pathintl.org/resources-education/colleges-universities

I hope you find a program that works for you – if I were young enough to go back to school I’d go for the double degree program at a school with a good barnful of horses and a really good psych program! It’s the journey, not the arrival.

[betsyk]

Generally speaking, the person providing the therapy needs to be a licensed/credentialed professional in whatever type of therapy they are providing. So for equine facilitated psychotherapy, someone would probably need at least a MS in some type of therapy or counseling. If you want credibility with other professionals who may refer clients, you need to speak their language. I second the advice to volunteer with a program and learn about the field.

[Mukluk]

Will you be billing insurance? May want to check around and determine what qualifications various insurance companies have for providers. I also think there would be a difference between therapeutic riding which is primarily for physical issues though it seems to impart many emotional benefits vs any type of Mental Health treatment that utilizes horses. Agree with betsyk-In the later case in most states you would need at least an MS degree and would need to be licensed. You would likely need to charge more than standard mental health treatment due to your operating costs of having horses. To make money, you may need to cater to the wealthy.