Equoterapia
So, turns out I am pretty bad at updating. This is due only to the lack of internet access in the places I am going, and I doubt it will improve anytime soon.
But to get to the stories. So I went to the 12th International Therapeutic Riding Conference in Brasília, Brazil, from August 8-12. It was awesome and very informative, though definitely academic. It was what I was used to, but I just spent 4 years in lectures and reading abstracts, so I was glad afterwards to begin the Hands-On learning that this fellowship is all about.
I stayed in Brasília with the Asociacão Nacional de Equoterapia (ANDE) where I got to ride the horses and observe lessons during the week, and hang out on the weekends. ANDE-Brasil oversees therapeutic riding centers for the country and is subsidized in personnel through the Brazilian military. The center has a therapeutic riding facility, the ANDE offices, and an equitation school. It is interesting that the equitation school´s revenue pays for the equotherapy, and the practicants pay only a minimal amount like 10 reais (about 5 bucks) per month for therapy. ANDE centers are based on a multidisciplinary philosophy. Each equoterapia center has a team of therapists - fisio (physical), pedagoga (learning), psicologa (psychologist), and fonoaudiologista (speech-hearing), as well as the riding instructor and doctor(sometimes). These people all convene daily or weekly to discuss each individual case and devise a treatment program. though they won´t all work directly with the client - who wants 5 to 7 people just to conduct a freaking pony ride!?! - they are all complicit in the progress of the rider and contribute their individual knowledge. It makes for a much more complete therapy, and also requires each member of the team to have a little knowledge of every area.
I left Brasília, the lovely planned capitol of Brazil, a week ago and traveled to Rio to visit Catherine. We hung out with Cristo on Brazilian Independence Day, then went south to Curitiba, Brazil´s model city. It is very clean and has a lot of old buildings.
We chose Curitiba because it was half way to my next destination, Porto Alegre. I am staying with a psychologist I met in the Congresso who works at two different centers here. One is private and has 4 horses for therapy. The other is in the Cavalry facility and has I think 3 or 4 horses as well. Family members of the military don´t pay for the therapy since it is part of the cavalry, and others pay very little. Several military sites in Brazil have equoterapia, because they have the horses and the space...might as well do something good for society with it!!
The thing that strikes me in my first stop about equoterapia here is the lack of political correctness - in a good way - and lack of pretension. In teh US I felt like there was a physical distance between the therapists and volunteers (the able-bodied) and the practicants, which translates to an emotional distance as well. Mostly this is law-mandated by sexual abuse laws. But in our culture, when we greet someone we shake their hand or wave or for good friends we might hug them. Then we return to our comfort zone with 3-4 feet of air around us at all times. In the therapy arena, the rider is in contact with the horse and only the therapist, and the volunteer´s arm. When they dismount, the horse gets a pat and that may be it. Several papers have been published proving the therapeutic benefit to the rider of the sensation of touch, which is a founding principle of therapeutic riding. But if the people around the child aren´t allowed to touch the child SAFELY and APPROPRIATELY, how is the child going to learn physical contact or that he/she is cared for? Here, in most cases, the practicant hugs the volunteers and the horse, holds the hand of the therapist, and voluntarily sits with the leaders. Brazilians greet each other with a kiss on each cheek and are generally less distant. This translates to therapeutic riding with much more contact-oriented therapies. Of course they are more comfortable with it socially and I am not saying we should start hugging everyone in teh US, which is definitely not acceptable, but I am advocating thinking critically about ways we show affection. If you can´t tell someone you care for them, how? With some of these practicants you can say as much as you like and they wont understand a word. But you can convey that message very clearly with simple ´contact between friends´, the theme of the Congress.
I will be in Porto Alegre until the 24th, then I am going to Uruguay and Buenos Aires. I will try to update when I can!!!
But to get to the stories. So I went to the 12th International Therapeutic Riding Conference in Brasília, Brazil, from August 8-12. It was awesome and very informative, though definitely academic. It was what I was used to, but I just spent 4 years in lectures and reading abstracts, so I was glad afterwards to begin the Hands-On learning that this fellowship is all about.
I stayed in Brasília with the Asociacão Nacional de Equoterapia (ANDE) where I got to ride the horses and observe lessons during the week, and hang out on the weekends. ANDE-Brasil oversees therapeutic riding centers for the country and is subsidized in personnel through the Brazilian military. The center has a therapeutic riding facility, the ANDE offices, and an equitation school. It is interesting that the equitation school´s revenue pays for the equotherapy, and the practicants pay only a minimal amount like 10 reais (about 5 bucks) per month for therapy. ANDE centers are based on a multidisciplinary philosophy. Each equoterapia center has a team of therapists - fisio (physical), pedagoga (learning), psicologa (psychologist), and fonoaudiologista (speech-hearing), as well as the riding instructor and doctor(sometimes). These people all convene daily or weekly to discuss each individual case and devise a treatment program. though they won´t all work directly with the client - who wants 5 to 7 people just to conduct a freaking pony ride!?! - they are all complicit in the progress of the rider and contribute their individual knowledge. It makes for a much more complete therapy, and also requires each member of the team to have a little knowledge of every area.
I left Brasília, the lovely planned capitol of Brazil, a week ago and traveled to Rio to visit Catherine. We hung out with Cristo on Brazilian Independence Day, then went south to Curitiba, Brazil´s model city. It is very clean and has a lot of old buildings.
We chose Curitiba because it was half way to my next destination, Porto Alegre. I am staying with a psychologist I met in the Congresso who works at two different centers here. One is private and has 4 horses for therapy. The other is in the Cavalry facility and has I think 3 or 4 horses as well. Family members of the military don´t pay for the therapy since it is part of the cavalry, and others pay very little. Several military sites in Brazil have equoterapia, because they have the horses and the space...might as well do something good for society with it!!
The thing that strikes me in my first stop about equoterapia here is the lack of political correctness - in a good way - and lack of pretension. In teh US I felt like there was a physical distance between the therapists and volunteers (the able-bodied) and the practicants, which translates to an emotional distance as well. Mostly this is law-mandated by sexual abuse laws. But in our culture, when we greet someone we shake their hand or wave or for good friends we might hug them. Then we return to our comfort zone with 3-4 feet of air around us at all times. In the therapy arena, the rider is in contact with the horse and only the therapist, and the volunteer´s arm. When they dismount, the horse gets a pat and that may be it. Several papers have been published proving the therapeutic benefit to the rider of the sensation of touch, which is a founding principle of therapeutic riding. But if the people around the child aren´t allowed to touch the child SAFELY and APPROPRIATELY, how is the child going to learn physical contact or that he/she is cared for? Here, in most cases, the practicant hugs the volunteers and the horse, holds the hand of the therapist, and voluntarily sits with the leaders. Brazilians greet each other with a kiss on each cheek and are generally less distant. This translates to therapeutic riding with much more contact-oriented therapies. Of course they are more comfortable with it socially and I am not saying we should start hugging everyone in teh US, which is definitely not acceptable, but I am advocating thinking critically about ways we show affection. If you can´t tell someone you care for them, how? With some of these practicants you can say as much as you like and they wont understand a word. But you can convey that message very clearly with simple ´contact between friends´, the theme of the Congress.
I will be in Porto Alegre until the 24th, then I am going to Uruguay and Buenos Aires. I will try to update when I can!!!
posted by Sarah at 12:41 PM
4 comments
