EXPLORING EQUESTRIAN HYPNOTHERAPY

Hi, did you know that hypnotherapy can help you get rid of those butterflies in your stomach when you think about jumping bigger or doing anything outside your comfort zone? Let me tell you how.

My name is Louise Hamilton, and I’m a qualified clinical hypnotherapist & EMDR therapist, specialising in all things equestrian. I’d like to share with you, how hypnotherapy can help you. A bit of horsey background on me; I’ve owned and competed horses most of my life and currently have 2 TB ex racers (MJ & Mac) that I keep at home. Until last season I was competing BE & BS, but sadly health issues with both of my horses have currently brought my competition days to a bit of a standstill. Over my life, like all of us, I’ve experienced confidence dips (well actually at one point I stopped riding for 17 years, so that’s probably more than a “dip”), fears and anxieties relating to my riding, as well as issues with motivation. These issues have been exacerbated with the onset of menopause; also something I have helped people with. I wish I’d been aware of how hypnotherapy could have helped me at these points in my life.

Ways in which these therapies can help us equestrians are :

·         To eliminate our fears & anxieties so that we are no longer held back from doing the things that we love (jumping, cantering an open space, hacking, competing…the list is endless).

·         Change any bad habits that may be creeping into our riding position.

·         To banish our competition nerves.

·         Relaxation and tension release techniques to ensure that our horses do not pick up tension or anxiety from us.

·         Increase our confidence, so that our horses are reassured by us.

·         To focus on what we need to do to get the best competition results.

·         To help remember dressage tests.

·         I offer a specific “weight reduction/improve your riding” package which many riders find beneficial when preparing for the new season or for a specific competition. This has been very popular, particularly with more recent focus on animal welfare.

·         I also travel to competitions, using the comfortable living area in my horsebox as a mobile therapy room, where I do mini sessions to help banish competition nerves and anxiety; ensuring that you are in the best possible place mentally to perform at your best.

How our minds work.

As you will probably know, our minds work on 2 levels: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. These different parts of our mind work very differently to each other. The conscious mind is very rational and logical and holds our short-term memories. The conscious mind can only remember around 7 things at the very same second. I always say to my equestrian clients, that’s not much use to us when we are riding into a dressage arena, needing to remember the test, plus how we want our horse to go, plus what we need our body to do to get our horse to go correctly. In direct contrast, the subconscious mind is totally driven by emotions and feelings, can remember everything that has ever happened to us and can remember an unlimited number of things at the same time; after all it is the subconscious mind that is running our entire body, remembering to breath, pump the blood around our body, etc.

The subconscious mind is incredible.

The job of the subconscious mind is to protect us, to look after us, to help keep us alive. However, because the subconscious mind can remember everything that has ever happened to us in our life, it will attach an emotion or feeling to those situations, and then use that as a frame of reference as to how we are going to feel going forward. Frequently, the conscious mind does not even remember the situation that the subconscious has attached an emotion to, and this then causes confusion to the conscious, rational part of our mind and we find ourselves asking (for example) “Why on earth am I now feeling scared to jump/canter in an open space/compete (or whatever)”.

To reprogramme the subconscious mind into feeling differently, we use hypnosis. Hypnosis sounds far more magical than it really is. All hypnosis is, is a very, very deep state of relaxation. When you are at that level of relaxation, your subconscious mind becomes open & receptive to direct suggestions for the benefit of your health and well-being.

I’ve mentioned EMDR; What Is It?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing. It involves replicating the eye pattern that occurs when you are in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, whilst feeling a negative thought, feeling or emotion and eventually that emotion reduces and eliminates. It’s a fairly new therapy, developed in the 80’s and was initially used to help people overcome PTSD & trauma. I find it is an invaluable tool to help rid riders of fears and anxieties relating to their horses.

How many sessions will I need?

As a rule (and this is just a guide, as of course, everybody’s mind works differently), I take 2 sessions to overcome any equestrian issues.

Overview of the first session:

·         For hypnotherapy to be as effective as it can be, there needs to be a level of rapport & trust between client & therapist. During the first session we build on this, and I spend a lot of time asking questions to ensure that I understand the exact issue, identifying triggers, understanding both physical and mental symptoms of the problem, understanding how you feel and how you would like to feel in any given situation. This not only builds up the trust but allows me to use the answers to the questions to tailor your second session specifically to your needs.

·         I spend a lot of time explaining about hypnotherapy & EMDR, to ensure that you are fully comfortable with what will happen.

·         We do some EMDR to eliminate negative thoughts, feelings or emotions.

·         I take you into hypnosis for about 20 minutes so that you can experience the feeling and know what to expect in your second session, where we will do more therapy. Whilst in hypnosis I will give you an anchor, which will allow you to recreate a feeling of calmness or confidence at any time after the session.

Overview of the second session:

·         After discussing progress and how you’ve been feeling since the first session, we do some more EMDR.

·         We do a lot more hypnotherapy, focussing on identifying what has caused the issue (using a technique called regression)

·         Further hypnotherapy on changing your limiting beliefs.

·         Further hypnotherapy on changing your behaviour.

·         I then give you another anchor if required (if you had a calm anchor the 1^st session, I’d give you a confidence anchor in the 2^nd session).

Regression

Regression is my favourite hypnotherapy technique, because it uncovers the root cause of the problem, and is so interesting. Some examples are given below.

·         A client who used to dread the prospect of competing regressed to 15 years earlier at her first ever competition which was dressage. Her horse had a martingale on (her first competition so she wasn’t to know), and a fellow competitor tore strips off her, making her feel foolish.

·         Another client also with a dread of competing regressed to 20 years previous when she was at a cross country competition with her Mum & her Mum’s friend. Her Mum’s friend was ever so nippy & critical, and my client overheard her and it made her feel not good enough.

Both of the above resulted in a fear of being judged or criticised….which led to the dread of competing.

·         A client who didn’t feel she was good enough to jump regressed to being very young on a pony and her aunt was supposedly giving her a lesson & just said “go & jump that”, pointing to a jump. The client at the time had no idea what to do. This led to her always feeling as though she didn’t know what she was doing when it came to jumping.

·         A client who developed a fear of cantering in open spaces regressed to 7 years earlier when a horse took off her with her on the hunting field. She said she wasn’t fazed by it at the time, but over the years these little memories can get compounded and grow into bigger and bigger fears.

·         A non-horse example was a lady who came to me for fear of public speaking, regressed to being 3 or 4 years old, when her Mum was telling her off, saying “children should be seen and not heard.”

The thing that I find incredibly sad, is that many of my clients’ regression memories relate to people criticising them or putting them down. I would love it if the thing you take away most from reading this is to realise that potentially, your throw away comment can have huge repercussions on somebody’s confidence. Let’s all decide to just be nice.

Hypnotherapy can help with other things too….

·         Weight management

·         Overcoming phobias 

·         Sports performance

·         Motivation & willpower

·         Changing bad habits

·         General Anxiety/panic attacks/stress

·         Self confidence/self esteem/lack of self belief

·         Exam anxiety/driving test anxiety

·         Public speaking/interview anxiety

To be honest, the above list is not exhaustive…hypnotherapy can help with most things. I’ve helped people relieve symptoms of IBS, stress tics, getting rid of PTSD, depression.  I am currently working on a WINTER WELLNESS PACKAGE to help motivate people (particularly equestrians) through the winter months; giving them a happy anchor, motivating them to exercise which will naturally produce the feel-good chemicals in their brains such as serotonin, dopamine and endorphins. As well as helping with optimism, self-care and changing behaviours that would help make the winter months seem less daunting.

I could write forever about hypnotherapy, and particularly how it can help equestrians maximise their enjoyment with their horses. But, probably far more interesting, are the reviews I have on my Facebook business page….these demonstrate how well hypnotherapy works far better than any words that I could write. If after reading this, you have any questions or would like any information, please just give me a call or drop me a message.