Frequently Asked Questions
What is scientific and evidence-based therapy?
Why emotionally disturbed, at-risk teenage girls?
Why horses and horsemanship activities?
Why the brain-body connection?
How does the brain-body connection change belief systems and restore the ability to learn?
How does changing the belief systems help the girls make better behavioral and life value choices?
Why focus on the vestibular system?
Why is HBM’s therapy program successful and how do you know it’s successful?
What are HBM’s vision and next steps?
· Why Horseback Miracles (HBM)?
Many existing organizations that offer assistance in the treatment of our youth lack the knowledge on how a distressed youth processes information. Most organizations only try to treat these youth through their observable behavioral issues, instead of addressing the increased learning difficulties and stress levels caused by their past and current life experiences.
Many of our participants have lived in abusive homes and the majority experienced little or no prenatal care, including addictive and/or abusive situations while “in utero”. Most have missed important cognitive developmental learning steps needed to make critical thinking/problem solving possible. Regardless of the reasons for such a stressful life for these youth, HBM is still able to fill in these voids in emotional development, develop different learned life values and to ultimately develop hope for their futures.
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· What is scientific and evidence-based therapy?
Using a scientific and evidence-based program enhances the program’s success and supports its credibility.
The following concepts provide the basic framework for HBM’s therapy program. The HBM Program …
• Uses scientific research to assess the needs and resources of the participants served by the program. For example, we conduct a Dominance Profile for each participant as she enters the program, which assesses her individual learning style, as well as assessing the levels of functioning of her Vestibular System (VS).
• Uses educational kinesiology, neurophysiology, behavioral psychology, sensory integration theory, social learning theory, cognitive development theory, attachment theory and relational cultural theory to select relevant therapy processes for each participant.
• Uses a logic model to select specific horsemanship activities that is measured by outcomes that support the program objectives.
• Conducts and processes an outcome evaluation that was designed and formulated by describing the data analysis plan for reliability and validity of the survey tools. The process starts by an exploratory factor analysis examining potential sub-scales of short and long-term outcomes, followed by computation of internal reliability estimates (Cronbach’s alpha) for each sub-scale. In addition, the analysis within group differences applies repeated measures ANOVA, post-hoc contrasts with Bonferroni adjustment and effect sizes to determine if a change occurred from pre- to post-examination.
• Requires significant numbers of participants completing the therapy program to verify the results. HBM has completed over 4,000 individualized sessions (2010).
· Why emotionally disturbed, at-risk teenage girls?
Although the HBM equine program demonstrates the capability of developing competency strategies among any youth demographic population, HBM has focused on emotionally disturbed teenage girls. Compassion to make a difference for these girls has been the guiding force that set HBM’s direction.
Note: HBM is currently in the process of evaluating our program with several cancer patients who have experienced deterioration of the vestibular system as side effects of radiation and chemotherapy.
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· Why horses and horsemanship activities?
Horses, like dogs and cats are emotionally safe, sensitive and intuitive animals. However, horses are the only practical animal that creates opportunities to tap into the participant’s neurophysiology (nervous system). In reality, it’s the specific horsemanship activities that accomplish this process.
Due to the fact that all of our participants have underdeveloped pathways in the central nervous systems, they have and demonstrate developmental lags, behavioral, emotional, and learning problems. It becomes imperative to open these pathways in the nervous system for any changes to occur. Without an intact nervous system, any of us are unable to interact comfortably with the world around us.
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· Why the brain-body connection?
The central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord, controls and responds to bodily functions and directs behavior. Communication between the brain and spinal cord occurs through neurons.
Optimally, messages from the brain travel through the neurons and give commands to the body (behaviors). Simultaneously, the body sends messages through neurons up the spinal cord to the brain for the evaluation of behaviors. When these function in tandem, the brain-body connection provides the girls with a working command center that allows learning to occur. When this does not function optimally, as we experience with most of the new girls, it results in blocked abilities to learn.
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· How does the brain-body connection change belief systems and restore the ability to learn?
In order to change a participant’s belief system, an individual must be able to learn. To learn, participants must be able to focus, reason and remember.
Establishing an intact vestibular and reticular activation system greatly enhances concentration and attention (focus), thereby allowing for cognitive problem solving (reasoning) that can be stored for later retrieval (memory).
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· How does changing the belief systems help the girls make better behavioral and life value choices?
Belief systems change through social learning theory with cognitive developmental factors, as well as behaviorist learning factors (operant and classical conditioning).
Your belief system becomes your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny. -Gandhi
Once the HBM participants are able to access their innate ability to learn, metaphors of the horse and horsemanship activities are used for learning, creating the change in the belief systems. Changing belief systems will support changing participants’ actions, behaviors and values and lead to hope for the future.
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· Why focus on the vestibular system?
In order to understand why HBM focuses so much on the vestibular system (VS), it is important to understand the central role that balance plays in the biological functioning of all of the brain’s activity.
The first sensory system to fully develop is the VS, at five months after conception. During the first fifteen months of life, the VS continues to progress in a manner that establishes balance, locomotion, coordination of vision and movement plus discrimination of speech and language.
If the VS is fully developed, the reticular activating system (RAS) is also fully functional and allows for focus, sustained attention to task, task completion, communication among all areas of the brain and functional brain/body communication.
Fully functioning VS and RAS are necessary for ease of learning.
The girls who come to HBM have not had the environmental and biological opportunities to develop a fully functioning VS or RAS. Therefore, learning is very difficult for these girls when they enter the HBM program.
To develop the girls' VS and RAS, HBM uses Educational Kinesiology based on neurophysiology throughout the activities. Developing these systems activates learning and allows access to all areas of the brain in order to change belief systems and corresponding behavioral choices and changes.
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· Why is HBM’s therapy program successful and how do you know it’s successful?
The cornerstone of HBM’s success is an understanding of the brain-body connection. We target specific horse movements to the three rider axis with the aim of stimulating the nervous system in particular ways. Although science plays the fundamental role in the core development of the program and how participants are able to internalize learned information, the program methodology assists in opening new communication channels that make learning possible. The evaluation process establishes and supports the effectiveness of the program in changing individual belief systems.
Due to the lack of standardized evaluation tools for equine-assisted therapy programs, Horseback Miracles staff, including Jan Hunt Dawson, PhD, NCSP, LSP, LEK, Psychologist, Educational Kinesiologist / Brain Gym Consultant in conjunction with Kate DeRoche, Ph.D., Applied Statistics Research Methods, specializing in Behavior Research Methodology developed a comprehensive evaluation system.
• A repeated measuring t-test, and effect size, displayed a significant positive large difference between the participants pre and post self-assessment scores; t(20) = 9.57, P<.01, d = 1.91. (Reference: HBM’s Evaluation December 2009.)
Note: A detailed evaluation report may be provided, upon special request.
• In laymen’s’ terms, according to Cohen’s d interpretation scale:
.2 = small change from the pre- to post-test evaluation
.5 = moderate change
.8 = large change
Out of the core treatment issues measured, HBM’s overall average improvement score ranged between 1.25 and 2.54, which is significantly higher than the scale presented above for large change results from the pre- to post-testing evaluations.
• An excerpt taken from the initial data analysis conducted by clinical professionals and behavioral research methodologists follows:
"The preliminary analysis revealed that both youth self-report and therapist assessment of youths’ behavior indicates that female adolescents engage in more positive social and emotional behavior after completing the HBM program. A significant difference between both youth and therapists pre and post-total, as well as the majority of sub-scale scores, provides preliminary evidence that the HBM therapy program may influence the expression of positive social skills in high risk adolescent girls. The data from the evaluation has provided preliminary evidence that therapy at HBM is currently achieving the measurable desired objectives/outcomes of the program."
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· What are HBM’s vision and next steps?
Although HBM has and will continue to serve mass number of girls, we will never be able to fulfill the existing and future needs. HBM’s vision has always been and will continue to be based on the goal of reaching tens and even hundreds of thousands of emotionally disturbed teenage girls throughout our nation and also internationally. Obviously, the only solution is though the duplication of the HBM’s methodology.
It is now time to share our knowledge and experience with other equine-assisted psychotherapy programs so that these equine programs can capitalize on the HBM methodology. Granted, equine programs are attempting to exist and serve these girls to make a difference, yet, to our knowledge, none have the scientific and evidence-based information to conduct as successful a program as we have developed.
To our knowledge, no other equine program has the experience, knowledge or ability, nor evaluation results to address how participants processes information and how we work to change their belief systems. Fortunately, all these other programs need is education, training, direction and guidance. Therefore, HBM has established an international training facility to bring other equine therapy programs together though what HBM has established as a “best practice principle” for equine therapy. Our facility, our certification process and instructors are available to provide this service.
Funding remains the major challenge in duplicating the HBM methodology. The reality of any successful duplication process is the ability for those who are being taught to remain financially sound. To address this challenge, HBM is searching for organizations and individuals to facilitate our efforts by offering financial support to programs that complete the HBM one year on-going Training Certification Program.
One method of support is to organize local and regional fund raising events throughout the county for those who have graduated from the HBM Training Certification Program. In addition, scholarships for the certification process are another avenue to attract participating equine programs.
HBM is currently searching for partnerships that will support our vision and be able to benefit from national and international name recognition exposure.
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