Learning From the Masters: Monty Roberts, Part 1

     Photo courtesy of Sara Fogan

Me with Monty Roberts at the Pomona Equine Affaire in 2008

     I did not remember his name the first time I heard of Monty Roberts. But I always remembered what he taught.
     Let's go back about 20 years. At the time, I hadn't ridden or even spent any significant time around horses in about a decade. I was living in Southeast London, doing my post-graduate degree. But my fascination and infatuation with them was still strong enough to influence where I chose to live: My landlords--and now, friends--owned a horse; my landlady rides and competes in dressage.
     On this particular night, I was curled up in an armchair, watching a documentary about a gentleman from Solvang, California. The subject of this documentary was very personable and  soft-spoken. He provided background about his difficult (abusive) childhood and his subsequent work with, training and advocating for the welfare of horses. Then Mr. Roberts explained how his gentle, respectful philosophy of "Join-Up" was based on his observations of how horses naturally interact with herd members in the wild. 

    

     The program showed him do this at a riding stable--I think the event was a motivational seminar of some kind for business executives. No whips, no ropes, no harsh words. Just a man and a horse that had never been handled before. Mr. Roberts explained what he was doing the whole time, and in about 30 minutes the horse was following him around the arena. Afterward, several attendees gave emotional impressions of what they had witnessed. He admitted that people often became emotional at his seminars (some even faint); he went on to explain that witnessing or experiencing this kind of human-horse interaction was very cathartic when there was abuse or trauma in the person's past.

     Then, the documentary showed him using "Join-Up" techniques to gentle the wild Mustang, Shy Boy, in the middle of a Nevada desert.

     Several years ago, I had the honor of meeting Mr. Roberts and Shy Boy at Equine Affaire in Pomona, California. By then, a friend at my barn had re-introduced me to his work. I only had to read a few pages of The Man Who Listens to Horses to realize that this was the man featured in that documentary I still remembered watching when I lived in London. I still feel the hairs on my neck prickle when I think about how his interactions with horses bring people to tears, and a wild Mustang colt to trust him implicitly.

     And then I heard him introduce/describe each of the horses in his demonstration as   "equine students"...and I was blown away. 

     Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

Homage to War Horses

Photo courtesy of Sara Fogan

Avalon's Galahad

     

 

 

     My first real introduction to the concept of a War Horse was in the song, "Comanche (The Brave Horse)," by Johnny Horton and Francis Bandy. This 1959 tribute describes the deeds of an equine survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn. According to the lyrics of this ballad, Comanche was the only survivor of this infamous battle. This was not true, but he was severely injured. After being rescued from the battlefield, the horse--who was owned by Captain Myles Keogh, not General Custer--recovered from his wounds and lived the rest of his life as a hero of the American cavalry. I get goosebumps whenever I listen to the song--which is often, as it is part of an iTunes play list I created for my new horse, Galahad.

    Galahad is an Arazzon: a "hybrid" in that he is one-half Arabian and one-half Lipizzaner. His Arabian side makes him a direct descendant of the original war horse, the Arabian. The Arabian dates back 2000 years. They are legendary campaign horses in the North African and Arabian deserts: Bedouin warriors would ride mares to battle, leaving the stallions to protect the women and children at the camps.

    Arabians are also the seminal breed used to create the elegant and rare Lipizzaner four hundred years ago. (The Arabian stallion Siglavy is a foundation sire of this breed.) Although the Lipizzaner elevated battle maneuvers to an art form in haute école, these horses were never used in actual combat. They were bred exclusively for the Hapsburg royalty to ride. Over the centuries, various wars have pushed the breed to the brink of extinction. During World War II, American General George S. Patton famously helped Colonel Alois Podhasky, the director of the Spanish Riding School, to smuggle the horses out of Austria. These days, Lipizzaners are renown for their haute école performances at the Spanish Riding School, where the levade, capriole and courbette thrill audiences.

    In December 2011, Steven Spielberg released the film adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel, War Horse. At first, I was very wary about going to see the movie. It wasn't that I didn't want to watch the movie. I really did. But I knew it would be a tearjerker.

     I ultimately did go to watch the movie. It was very well done. But, I won't say that I "enjoyed" watching it. The battle scenes were harrowing. Not just because war is so devastating. But because the humans who went to war knew (sort of) what they were getting into. However, the equine soldiers who were similarly drafted to charge into the machine-gun fire and swinging swords did not.

    When the movie let out, I drove to the barn to see my horse. I wanted to thank him for his gentle companionship and any sacrifices his forbears made for their human companions. On the cover of her book, Become Perfect Partners, Kelly Marks encourages everyone to strive to be "the owner that your horse would choose for himself."

    Galahad, that is what I will do for you.

     Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

Fears vs. Phobias

     Whenever a client tells me that he or she has a fear of something, the first thing I must do is confirm that the experience is a fear and not a phobia. A "fear" has a specific origin. For example, someone may develop a fear of dogs after being bitten by one during childhood. Such a fear can be treated by repeatedly exposing the person to the memory of the fear-inducing stimulus (the dog)--and "passing" that fear--during hypnosis. This repeated process of experiencing and passing the stimulus gradually desensitizes the person to the fear.
     Conversely, a phobia does not have a specific origin. To treat a phobia, the person is repeatedly exposed to the phobia-inducing stimulus; however, he or she is immediately "removed" from the stimulus and returns to imagery of "a special place" or somewhere safe, through guided imagery before actually experiencing the emotion or phobic reaction. This process would be repeated until the person is completely desensitized to the phobia.
     Once the client has resolved the fear or phobia issue, I have the person anchor these new sensations of relaxation, calm and comfort. While the client is still in hypnosis, I have the person continue to draw, hold, and then slowly release several deep breaths to increase relaxation throughout the body. I remind the person that each deep breath draws in confidence and relaxation, replacing the old anxiety/fear with relaxation and a sense of well-being.

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014

What Is a Hypnotherapist Qualified to Do? Part 3

    

As December comes to a close, many people are making a list of “New Year's Resolutions” that they would like to achieve in 2012. Following are just some of the issues (behaviors and attitudes) that I can help you change through hypnotherapy and or/therapeutic guided imagery.

Words that are followed by an asterisk (*) indicate issues that do not fall under the vocational/avocational self-improvement parameters of hypnotherapy. I would require a psychological or medical referral to address these issues. Similarly, items followed by two asterisks (**) may also require current enrolment in an addiction-control program (e.g., AA, NA, etc.).

 

Abandonment, Addictions**, Aggression, Agoraphobia, Anesthesia*, Anger, Anxiety, Assertiveness, Assist Healing*, Attitude Adjustment, Bed-Wetting, Biofeedback, Breathing, Career Success, Change Habits, Child Birth*, Chronic Pain*, Communication, Concentration, Controlling, Cramps*, Cravings, Creativity, Death or Loss, Discouraged, Dreams, Exam Anxiety, Exercise, Fears (general), Fear of Loss of Control, Fear of Animals, Fear of Death, Fear of Dentist, Fear of Doctor, Fear of Failure, Fear of Flying, Fear of Heights, Fear of School, Fear of Success, Fear of Surgery, Fear of Water, Forgiveness, Frustration, Gagging, Gambling**, Guilt, Hair Twisting/pulling*, Headaches*, Helplessness, Hopelessness, Hostility, Hypertension*, Hypochondria, Immune System*, Impotency, Improve Health, Improve Sales, Indecision, Inferiority, Inhibition, Insecurity, Insomnia, Irrational thoughts, Irritability, Jealousy, Lack of Ambition, Lack of Direction, Lack of Enthusiasm, Lack of Initiative, Lower Blood Pressure*, Medication Side Effects, Memory (improvement), Mistrust, Moodiness, Motivation, Nail-Biting, Nausea*, Negativism, Nightmares, Obsessions, Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors*, Overeating, Overly Critical, Pain Management*, Panic Attacks, Passive-Aggressiveness, Past-Life Regression, Perfectionism, Performance Anxiety, Pessimism, Phobias, Postsurgical adjustment, Premature Ejaculation, Pre-surgical preparation*, Problem Solving, Procrastination, Public Speaking, Reach Goals, Rejection, Relationship Enhancement, Relaxation, Resistance, Resistance to Change, Responsibility, Restlessness, Sadness, Self-Awareness, Self-Blame, Self-Confidence, Self-Control, Self-Criticism, Self-Defeating Behaviors, Self-Esteem, Self-Expression, Self-Forgiveness, Self-Hypnosis, Self-Image, Self-Mastery, Sexual Problems*, Shame, Skin Problems*, Sleep Disorders, Stop Smoking, Social Phobias, Sports Performance (improvement), Stage Fright, Stress, Stubborn, Study Habits (improvement), Stuttering, Substance Abuse**, Superiority, Surgical Recovery*, Tardiness, Temptation, Thumb-Sucking, Tics, Trauma*, Ulcers*, Victimization, Weight Loss, Worry, Writers Block.

I look forward to working with you in the New Year!

     Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist who specializes in helping equestrians to achieve their competition and riding goals. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

What Is a Hypnotherapist Qualified to Do? Part 2

     In my previous blog, I explained the legal and ethical parameters in which I provide hypnotherapy. Now, I would like to describe how I use hypnosis and therapeutic guided imagery to help my clients achieve their vocational and avocational self-improvement goals.

     Hypnosis has been used as a therapeutic tool for centuries. It is also a safe, natural state that everybody experiences twice each day: thirty minutes before drifting off to sleep, and thirty minutes after waking up. Other examples of being in a similar, naturally induced trance state include: being so deep in thought that you “missed” your exit on the freeway; becoming dazed wandering a shopping mall during a holiday sale; or losing a sense of time while studying for a test in the library.

     As a certified hypnotherapist, I use hypnosis and therapeutic guided imagery as a tool to help my clients change behaviors that no longer work for them. The reason why most attempts to change a habit don’t work is because the subconscious mind overpowers conscious willpower to make that desired change. Hypnosis is an effective, safe and drug-free tool that allows you to gain access to your subconscious mind and change the mental scripts for behaviors that no longer work for you. Each “suggestion” that I use during hypnosis will be based on your specific ideas/words/images/reasons why you want to change a specific behavior. In other words, through these suggestions you will essentially be hypnotizing yourself. You will be completely conscious and extremely aware of everything in your environment. You are always in complete control of what you do and say during a hypnotherapy session.

     Each hypnotherapy session lasts approximately one hour. During the first part of the session, I will discuss/review your (the client’s) goals for the hypnotherapy session. It is usually appropriate to discuss other aspects of your life/experience that may be influencing that goal; however, you guide the pace and direction of each session. As the hypnotherapist, my role and responsibility is to help you make specific behavioral changes (e.g., stop smoking, lose weight, increase self-confidence, etc.).

     The hypnosis component of a hypnotherapy session occurs in the last fifteen minutes or so of the session. I encourage clients to achieve a state of deep, complete relaxation through deep breathing and processes of visual imagery. When you are in this deeply relaxed state (hypnosis), your body is very comfortable and becomes completely relaxed. This state of complete relaxation is very similar to being asleep. In fact, I say the words “sleep,” “deep sleep,” and “going even deeper,” but these terms are used to induce increased relaxation and awareness, not slumber.

     I am a certified Master in therapeutic guided imagery, and I use a lot of visualization and imagery techniques while you are in hypnosis. Imagery techniques involve seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and tasting. I use terms “imagine, visualize, picture or pretend” to facilitate this process. Unlike hypnosis, where I (the hypnotherapist) would do most of the talking, you are encouraged to describe and interact with the “images” that are evoked during the therapeutic process. Like hypnosis, therapeutic guided imagery is a safe, non-invasive way to help you change behaviors that you believe or think no longer benefit you.

     Again, you will be conscious and aware, and in complete control of everything that you say and do during the hypnosis and therapeutic guided imagery processes of a hypnotherapy session. Specifically, no one can make you say or do anything that is in conflict with your personal, ethical standards, values or goals. There is complete confidentiality, and I observe the ethical guidelines of the American Counseling Association for the conduct of counseling therapists at all times.

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist who specializes in helping equestrians to achieve their competition and riding goals. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

What Is a Hypnotherapist Qualified to Do? Part 1

     At this time of year, many people make a list of their New Year's resolutions: I will give up smoking. I will stop procrastinating. I will start exercising more. I will lose weight. ... All of these goals are within the scope of what hypnotherapy can help you achieve.

     Hypnotherapy is a very powerful, alternative treatment tool that may be used to complement healing arts, such as medicine and psychology. According to Dr. John Kappas, a clinical psychologist and the founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, and his colleague, psychiatrist Dr. Ron Hodges, the scope of a hypnotherapist's expertise lies in his or her ability to help clients to deal with vocational and avocational self-improvement issues. These areas include the topics listed above, as well as general relaxation, increasing self-confidence, and improving study habits and sports performance. In addition to helping clients achieve those goals, I also work with equestrians to achieve their competition goals and improve their relationship with their equine partners.

     In some instances, hypnotherapists may also work with a client who is addressing other issues that ordinarily fall outside of the scope of vocational/avocational self-improvement, such as pain management or depression. In order to work with these clients, the hypnotherapist must first obtain a referral from the client's medical doctor, psychiatrist or psychologist. This referral protects both the client and the hypnotherapist: Hypnotherapists do not have the expertise to determine whether there is a medical reason why a person is experiencing a physical symptom, such as a headache or discomfort elsewhere in the body. When a person wants to lose a lot of weight (e.g., 25 pounds or more), it is always a good idea for the doctor to make sure that there is not a medical reason why their patient has gained the weight and that he or she may safely participate in an exercise or physical-fitness program.

     George Kappas, the current director of HMI, also insists that hypnotherapists may only work with someone who has a substance addiction if the client is also enrolled in an appropriate 12-Step program to help manage that addiction.

     Following is the Business and Professions Code 2908, which is the guideline of practice for hypnotherapists in California: "California law allows access by California residents to complementary and alternative health care practitioners who are not providing services that require medical training and credentials. The purpose of a program of hypnotherapy is for vocational and avocational self-improvement (Business and Professions Code 2908) and as alternative or complimentary treatment to healing arts services licensed by the state. A hypnotherapist is not a licensed physician or psychologist, and hypnotherapy services are not licensed by the state of California. Services are non-diagnostic and do not include the practice of medicine, neither should they be considered as a substitute for licensed medical or psychological services or procedures."

     I will discuss the way(s) in which hypnotherapy and therapeutic guided imagery can help you achieve your New Year's resolutions in the next blog.

    

    

     Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

    

   

Eyes on the Ground

        No matter who you are, everyone benefits from having someone observe you ride. Ideally, you can train with a riding instructor who can constructively critique your position, aids, etc. while you work with your horse. No matter how good or experienced an equestrian you are, it is almost impossible to notice every detail about your position or technique that another person’s experienced eye could easily see. There is nothing so valuable for improving your ride as receiving feedback—good or bad—at the precise moment you are asking for a movement. This kind of instruction can truly make all the difference in how you ride.

        Many years ago, figure skater Michelle Kwan decided to train without a skating coach. She had previously won a silver Olympic medal, and she owned many national and world championship titles. Surely, these experiences and her talent as a skater qualified her to work without a trainer. However, she did not skate so well on her own; within a year Miss Kwan re-hired her former coach and started winning medals again.

        Even trainers have trainers. At the very least, they acknowledge the philosophies of other horsemen who have influenced their own work with horses. In 2010, I was privileged to audit a couple of Jan Ebeling’s dressage clinics at Equine Affaire (Pomona). In addition to teaching his own students, he competes at Grand Prix dressage competitions around the world. At one point, Mr. Ebeling disclosed that in addition to being coached by his wife (also an accomplished dressage competitor), he sends videos of his training sessions to his own instructor…in Germany!

        I will be riding in my first horse show in a few days. To prepare, I am taking riding lessons almost every day. I follow the mantra, “Perfect practice makes perfect performance,” and I rely on my trainer Julie Van Loo’s experience as a riding teacher and a successful competitor in dressage to help me prepare for this competition. I want to ride accurate tests on show-day, and I trust Julie’s insights as she advises me how to fine-tune my position and aids when I ride Candy through walk-trot transitions. She even corrects my mistakes before I even make them—or, at least before I am aware that I have made the error.

        As the tagline for those MasterCard advertisements read, “Having a trainer to watch you ride: Priceless.”

     Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.