Psychiatric Hospital Doing Ground Breaking Work With Patients Surehaven Glasgow is a psychiatric hospital providing treatment for people with complex mental health problems who require a secure forensic setting. Due to the risks that they present either to themselves or to others, they have been legally detained under the Mental Health (care & treatment Scotland) Act 2003 and present with a range of difficulties including psychosis, personality difficulties, complex trauma, addictions, brain injury and offending behaviour. We are Surehaven’s EAGALA certified therapists; Dr Marie-Louise Holmes (Consultant Clinical Psychologist) and Ms Hannah Turrell (Child Trauma Service Manager/Equine Specialist). We have now developed Scotland’s first equine assisted psychotherapy and learning programme within a forensic psychiatric service. Firstly, we have been struck by the depth of attachment to the horses that this patient group has been able to attain and the speed with which this has occurred. Almost without exception our patients struggle significantly with trust issues arising from long histories of adverse experiences in their human relationships. At Surehaven we follow a trauma treatment model which focuses on establishing physical and emotional safety as the basis for successful recovery. One of the therapeutic challenges within a secure forensic setting is the obvious bias in the power dynamic created by legal detention and compulsory treatment. The horses have been able to offer a truly safe emotional attachment experience, free of any power or control issues. For many of our patients, this is likely to be the only relationship of this nature that they have experienced.
Secondly, the EAGALA model integrates particularly well with a range of specific psychological therapies. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy teaches skills in emotion regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness. Our therapy sessions with the horses have provided rich experiential learning opportunities that further consolidate skill development directly related to these therapeutic aims. Many of our patients can become violent due to psychotically driven beliefs that they are being persecuted. Some dramatic shifts from deeply entrenched, hostile presentations to expressions of warmth, sensitivity and kindness towards the horses have taken place during the sessions. www.eagala.org
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