CO742i  Crisis and Trauma Counselling 2 (Integration and Applied Practice)

Morling’s Master of Counselling students completing the Crisis and Trauma Counselling 2 unit recently had the opportunity to visit an Equine Therapy site.  

Read on to find out more and to hear their responses to this unique experience.  

About the Equine Therapy experience.

Lilli Wilkinson (Master of Counselling), has been living in St Albans, and working with horses for the last 7 yrs. She has developed her own style of Equine Assisted Learning and Therapy integrating experiential psychology and spiritual practice. Lilli runs both therapy sessions and retreats at her Centre. Lilli's Book 'Playing God', which is an introduction to her process, is due for release mid December. You can find details about her book and contact Lilli at publishingimpressions.com

What the students had to say…

“We had the opportunity to visit the township of St Albans and experience Equine Therapy with Lilli, her husband Mike and their daughter Lina.  The setting was spectacular, set on a lake and surrounded by green hills, which was immediately calming.  Then our group was able to interact with the horses, as a group and later one on one.  We invited the horses to follow us around the paddock and it was incredible to connect with them so they felt comfortable enough to follow.  My personal highlight was how Lilli wove our relationship with God into our experience with the horses.  Using the metaphor of a gate, Lilli led the horses to the gate, but made them wait until they went through. Then, when she directed them, they could choose to follow her through or not.  Just as Lilli invited the horses to follow her direction, so God invites us to follow Him, never pushing, always inviting.  It was a special experience.”

“The power of Equine Assisted Therapy is multi-layered. The combination of an experienced, qualified Counsellor, the majesty of the horses, the vast outdoor setting, and just being out in the raw elements of God’s creation seem to combine to amplify the therapeutic effect of this counselling approach. One day of this special work felt like many sessions and it revealed to me a new area to process and integrate—in fact I was still engaged in interpersonal processing of that specific issue for several days.”

If you would like to find out more about studying Crisis and Trauma Counselling as well as other Counselling course units, contact counselling@morling.edu.au, phone (02) 9878 0201 or visit our website at https://www.morling.edu.au/course/counselling/