Gestalt Psychotherapy and Horses Helping Refugee Youth Build Embodied Resilience
- Apr 12
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 16
Written by Ioana B Marcus, Psychotherapist & Founder, Equibliss Psychotherapy and Ailish Dermody, MA, LPC Resident in Counseling
Dr. Ioana Marcus is well known for her psychotherapy work with clients with trauma and eating disorders, and for integrating trauma-informed animal-assisted therapy. She is also a counselor educator with more than 15 years of teaching graduate students in counseling, a researcher, and presenter at numerous national and international conferences.
The Gestalt principle of the here and now is one of the most powerful components of Gestalt-based equine-facilitated psychotherapy, as it challenges participants to let go of their cognitive interpretations of past experiences and be fully present, emotionally and somatically, in their current experience. As prey animals, nature requires that the equines occupy a state of vigilance, a vigilance that is also required on behalf of the client due to the equine’s weight and size. The equines invite clients to join them in the here and now and remain present with their emotional states, becoming aware of what they are experiencing in their bodies. As witnesses and co-facilitators, these states are reflected, demonstrated, and challenged by the equine, bringing attention to the client's emotional experience and somatic embodiment.
Group environments possess the unique therapeutic qualities of offering a safe place for support and opportunities to create, experience, and receive collective feedback. When we move a therapeutic group to the outdoor farm and herd environment, people become an integral part of the herd. The sensory experience, as well as their embodied and emotional experiences, are intensified in the here and now, where sentient beings come into contact with large, embodied, sentient beings, the horses. This can enhance feelings of vulnerability, as well as of being fully seen and supported. The stories of the past are often intertwined with the presence of the people and the herd. Participants are not alone in their pain nor in their healing.
The refugee youth and families come to the group in various emotional states, some having arrived in the U.S. just weeks before our group meetings. Refugees are fifteen times more likely to have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as elevated rates of depression and anxiety compared to the general population.[1] It has been estimated that up to 60% of refugees have experienced torture, with associated PTSD.[2] The torture and related abuses they have experienced challenge core adaptive systems, including their sense of safety, attachment, identity, and existential meaning.[3] But when they hear the horses’ stories, that in their past lives, they also experienced the trauma of displacement, being taken from the herd at an early age, being in new and unfamiliar places, and experiencing maltreatment of varying degrees, they can see themselves in the horses. These horses show up to meet them with gentle curiosity and without judgment. As they groom, lead, and engage with the equines, there is a sense that the children are inhabiting a space where they can fully settle into their bodies and commune with sentient beings who, because of their similar experiences, understand them. The experience is empowering, not only because they are leading an animal ten times their size but also because they experience a reprieve from the constant state of hypervigilance, worry, and fear they live with daily, and build relational resilience.
When our herd supported refugee youth or foster care families, the embodied awareness and relationship-building in the here and now created a lasting sense of transformation and support. In addition to creating mind-body awareness in relationship to the herd and the natural environment, we share the stories of each of the horses. We share their names and their journeys as sentient beings. We facilitate a sense of curiosity about the horses’ personalities, preferences, and teach them how to get to know the horses better, without words, without judgment or interpretation, by being present, observing them, their breath, their subtle body language, energy levels, and ways they connect back with the group. We do believe that the quieter we become, the more we learn from the horses.
During an equine-facilitated group, a participant was sharing the traumatic loss, and telling the story left her in a state of heightened dysregulation, unable to stay present in her body. As she shared her story, with mounting emotion, she began to gutturally sob, heaving as she recounted the events. While she was speaking, Ember, a retired off-track thoroughbred and current equine co-facilitator, joined the circle, standing between two members on the opposite side of the circle from the client. As the client continued, she dissociated, and Ember, usually a quiet, intuitive communicator, began pounding his hooves into the ground repeatedly and with increasing intensity. As the client left her body and returned to the scene of the traumatic loss, Ember was intent, through his pounding hooves, to bring her back to her body. When the client concluded her story and returned to her body, Ember remained present with her. She was unaware of his efforts but was surprised and moved that he had remained with her, that her expression of grief was not too much for him, and that he was able to remain in the here and now, no matter how dysregulated she became. The client shared that her family was unable to be present for her grief and did not want to talk about the loss with her. The client needed a fully present witness to her grief, and Ember was committed to staying with her throughout.
In a world of constant challenges, changes, and turmoil, being present in the moment, and in relationship with equines and humans, is the most grounding. It is also where we find true connection within ourselves and a sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves, whether it’s the herd, nature, or the greater universe. Some of the themes that emerge from our groups are related to narratives people have of themselves and others, and how the horses challenge them without judgment or words, pain arising from disconnection, betrayal, trauma of displacement, and violence, warmth stemming from kindness, authenticity, and embodied presence of others in the community, a sense of joy from connection, searching for a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging, and the many ways people try to forge connection.
The truth is that most of us still have to learn and lean into connection with other humans, by being fully present, vulnerable, trusting, and forgiving ourselves and others. And for that, the herd of horses is there to teach us.
Read more from Ioana B Marcus
Ioana B Marcus, Psychotherapist & Founder, Equibliss Psychotherapy
Dr. Ioana Marcus is a passionate advocate for mental health. In both clinical and teaching, she became passionate about inviting animals, particularly horses and dogs, into the healing process, and pursued several post-doctoral certifications in equine facilitated psychotherapy and animal-assisted play therapy, as well as EMDR and Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR). Ioana founded Equibliss Psychotherapy in 2013 as a way to support clients in a healing, natural environment with the embodied support of the horses and other animals. Ioana is also the founder of HEART Space Fund, a nonprofit supporting immigrants, refugees, and foster care families in Northern Virginia.
References:
[1] Song et al., 2018
[2] Murray et al., 2008, p.16 in Vogel, 2015
[3] Sivlove, 1999 in Vogel, 2015
