Introduction:

Equine-assisted psychotherapy incorporates horses into the therapeutic process. People engage in activities such as grooming, feeding, and leading a horse while being supervised by a mental health professional.

Goals of this form of therapy including helping people develop skills such as emotional regulation, self-confidence, and accountability.

Who It’s For?

Equine facilitated psychotherapy may be just as effective with children and teens as it is with adult clients. Equine-assisted psychotherapy allows youth, and people of all ages, to work on issues such as:

• Assertiveness
• self-confidence
• Developing and maintaining relationships
• Emotional awareness
• understanding
• Impulse control
• Problem-solving skills
• Social skills
• Trust in others
• Trust in self

Benefits:

Although a variety of animals can be used in the psychotherapeutic process, horses offer unique traits that have made them a top choice for animal-assisted therapies. According to many anxiety experts, horses bring the following unique elements to the therapy process.

Non-Judgmental and Unbiased

As much as humans, especially therapists, do our best to offer a safe space for clients to explore deep emotional hurts and painful experiences, it can be uncomfortable for clients to openly share their thoughts.  Building therapeutic rapport can take time as participants working toward building trust and practicing vulnerability in session.

Having the horse present may offer a sense of calm, 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 and are 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 what is happening in the moment.

Managing Vulnerability

As clients might find themselves vulnerable when trying to open up about emotional challenges, past experiences, or life transitions, the horse can offer a reference point to use for processing.

Other Benefits

Some other potential benefits of equine therapy include increased:

• flexibility
• Distress tolerance
• Emotional awareness
• Independence
• Impulse control
• Self-esteem
• Social awareness
• Social relationships

Horses also require work. They must be fed, watered, exercised, and groomed. Providing this type of care can often be therapeutic. It helps establish routines and structure, and the act of caring and nurturing something else can help build empathy.

Conclusion:

Although equine-assisted therapy has been shown to be helpful in the treatment of anxiety, a client may fear being around a large horse and not feel motivated to attend this type of treatment. There may also be a traumatic memory involving animals that would prevent someone from being willing to participate.   It is important to speak with a trained mental health provider to determine if you or your loved one is a good fit for equine-assisted therapy. Most programs will have an assessment process to determine if EAP is right for you before beginning any treatment.

Introduction:

The Feldenkrais Method is a somatic, or body-oriented, intervention designed to help people reconnect with their bodies and learn ways to move with greater effectiveness it may help a person increase vitality, coordination, and achieve overall enhanced well-being.

How Does the Feldenkrais Method Work? 

The Feldenkrais Method uses improvement of one’s awareness to address dormant areas of the self and promote larger and more graceful motions, utilizing the nervous system’s own ability to create change and improve movement.​ The purpose of the approach is for those utilizing it to realize potentially constricting habits and movements and learn ways to expand their range of movement. By becoming more self-aware, people frequently become better able to involve more of their body in their movements and may experience an enhanced sense of physical and emotional functioning. 

Uses of the Feldenkrais method:

The Feldenkrais method is considered appropriate for any individual, of any age, and has been shown to offer the following benefits: 

• Improved health and well-being
• Improved attention and concentration
• Reduced pain 
• Completing tasks with less effort
• Improved posture, movement, coordination, and balance
• Easier breathing
• Better control over muscular tension

Criticisms and Limitations of the Feldenkrais Method 

The Feldenkrais Method does not try to either treat underlying concerns causing limited motion and pain or create lasting or permanent change in the body’s structure. Instead, the approach’s primary goal is to provide relief to those experiencing limited movement and/or physical discomfort, related or otherwise, and teach strategies to help individuals get used to to and more easily live with conditions that cause lasting pain. This may be a benefit to some, but others may see it as a limitation. 

Conclusion:

The Feldenkrais Method was specifically designed to treat those experiencing restricted or limited range of motion due to injuries, chronic pain, or other physical or neurological concerns.   Sessions may however relieve pain, muscle stiffness, and fatigue, but the increased ease of movement and higher levels of energy that may be experienced by participants can also have the effect of facilitating relaxation and easing stress. 

Introduction:

Magnetic therapy is an unconventional medical practice that uses unmoving magnets to alleviate pain and other health concerns. So-called therapeutic magnets are normally integrated into bracelets, rings, or shoe inserts, though therapeutic magnetic mattresses and clothing are also on the market. 

How does it work?

Those who believe in the efficacy of magnetic therapy often cite the ability of static magnets to alter a person’s bio-energy fields, or bio-fields, which are “energy fields that supposedly surround and penetrate the human body.

Uses of Magnet therapy:

It is used in various conditions such as:

• To treat pain associated with fibromyalgia
• Neuropathy
• Sciatica,
• Arthritis
• Diagnose and treat chronic pain syndrome
• Wound healing
• Insomnia
• Headache
• Several other diseases due to their ability to generate a static magnetic field.

Side effects of Magnet therapy:

Magnet treatment is relatively safe; however, side effects only happen in a very small percentage of cases

• Some patients may experience:
• Dizziness
• Low energy
• Palpitation
• Nausea, and vomiting
• Side effects can, include a decrease in blood pressure
• Local skin areas can become itchy, burning, and painful

Conclusion:

Magnetic therapy does not seem to be an alternative for routine treatments in reducing pain and it is only effective in reducing myofascial pain. Before embarking on taking Magnet therapy it would be well worth consulting with your physician and rule out the absence of hitherto unknown dangerous systemic disease.

Introduction:

Grounding or earthing is a therapeutic technique that focuses on realigning your electrical energy by reconnecting to the earth. There’s little research behind grounding but smaller studies have reported benefits for inflammation, pain, mood, and more.

Benefits of grounding:

• reduces inflammation
• reduces cortisol levels in the body
• increases energy
• increases healing speed
• decreases pain
• restores balance to the body

Research also suggests that grounding helps:

• chronic fatigue
• anxiety and depression
• sleep disorders
• chronic pain
• cardiovascular health

Risks of grounding:

There any potential negative side effects of grounding and they are that, you have to be careful of where you’re walking barefoot and watch out for any hazardous materials (such as glass or sharp rocks) that may be present where you’re grounding.

Conclusion:

Grounding is an ancient practice of making direct contact with the earth (mainly by walking barefoot).  The idea behind grounding as a health practice is that by having the skin meet the earth, you can help neutralize the electric charge that runs through our bodies. To incorporate a grounding practice into your life, try to get outside while totally barefoot for at least 30 minutes a day. If you can’t dedicate that much time, then do it for as long as you can on a regular basis. Is there any grounding science? Yes, research shows that the earth’s negative charges can create a stable internal bioelectrical environment for the normal functioning of all body systems.

Possible benefits of grounding include faster healing, less stress, reduced inflammation, less pain, better sleep and improved energy levels.  By getting outdoors to practice earthing, it can also help you avoid the all-too-common vitamin D deficiency, too, and maybe also lead to increased exercise. Grounding is an activity that everyone has available to them — and it’s a entirely free resource!