While it is true that a therapist’s value system will influence his or her view of treatment goals,

it is also true that the manner in which spiritual issues are handled can dramatically influence

outcomes of therapy. At a minimum, the ethical counselor is aware of his or her own beliefs,

and makes sure that they don’t harm the client in any way. But, having done this, has the

therapist fully discharged duty to client? Some professionals hold the view that the therapist

must be prepared to deal with underlying spiritual issues to adequately meet the needs of

clients.

Today, more and more practicing therapists fulfill the dual role of counselor and pastoral

caregiver. Neither pastoral care nor therapy are new helping roles, but more professionals

are acknowledging the role of spirituality and religion in counseling, and are compelled to look

for ways to integrate the two more effectively. What we will consider here will not be

methods or principles of pastoral care, but rather how pastoral care might be included in

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP).

The pastoral role in healing has been compared to that of the psychiatrist doing

psychotherapy. In his book Pastoral Care and the Means of Grace, Ralph L. Underwood

characterized the seemingly opposing roles as an interpretive negotiation and dialogue

between two perspectives, in which the psychiatrist represents the authority of his field,

while the pastor is an official representative of God and organized religion. When religion

stands at the center of a client’s world, whether causing benefit or harm, the caring therapist

should consider the role a pastoral caregiver could play in client treatment. In institutions

and residential treatment facilities, pastoral caregivers have served as an integral part of

treatment teams for many years.

Pastoral care as an adjunct to clinical therapy is not new, but it is often unnoticed. It is not

unusual for a mental health consultation to be facilitated, supported, and followed up by a

pastor. At the very least, the pastor collaborates with the work of other professionals. For

the client with a strong faith orientation, the pastor may be an even more constant source of

nurturing and growth than the therapist. Most importantly, pastoral care knows no

bounds – it is rendered wherever a person is, whatever the conditions. It makes sense that

pastoral caregivers seek out ways to become involved in EAP wherever appropriate and

feasible.

How can EAP practitioners take the role of pastoral care out of the parish and into the round

pens and arenas of horse assisted therapy? Your answers may differ from mine, but that’s

OK, as long as our primary concern is for the well being of the souls we touch.

Pastoral care might come at the hands of a horse professional who collaborates with a non

religious therapist when the client’s issues involve religion. Involvement by someone skilled in

matters of theology and faith practice could be useful for building rapport and engaging such

clients in meaningful dialogue. Caregivers might also team up with either therapists or horse

professionals who embrace a common world-view in order to treat clients who are ideologically

identified with them.

Though I am usually on the giving end of care, horses are often present when God meets me

at the point of my need. I say "God meets me" there, because my head can distinguish

between a spiritual intervention and a psychological intervention, but my heart can not.

Over the past two years, I have been compelled to advocate for EAP as I have wrestled with

the progress of a crippling disease in the life of my fourteen year old daughter, Amber. The

disease had tormented her with pain all of her life, and now it was wielding a cruel,

devastating blow.

Amber shares my deep love of horses. Two years ago, as I cried out to God in anger, fear,

and helplessness, I wrote this poem, struggling to make peace with our fate. I remembered

her early years, and was driven not only by a faith-borne hope, but also by hope in the magic

of the peaceful, powerful beast we call the horse. I hope the poem will inspire and motivate

you to do Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy which fully embraces all that we are as human

beings - body, mind, and spirit.