Therapist uses animals in practice

When one thinks of therapy animals, it's usually dogs or horses that come to mind. Donkeys, goats, ducks and chickens ... not so much.

Robine Bots, a Sisters-based licensed marriage and family therapist, uses all these species in her practice - and finds them to be valued assistants. The animals help clients define boundaries, and are a safe and comforting presence.

"Horses especially can help facilitate healing, change and growth in humans. When a person is congruent (when the outside matches what's going on inside), horses respond," she said.

The barnyard animals' natures and antics often provide metaphors for human experience and emotion. While watching a duck swimming in a water trough one day, a young client realized that she could manage her anger the same way ducks handle water, by letting it roll off rather than seep in.

A miniature horse captured the attention of another client. Ignoring Bots' advice to proceed quietly, she strode into the corral and then watched in frustration as the little horse resisted every attempt she made to get close enough to halter him. When the client put into active practice the breathing and calming techniques that Bots had been trying to get her to master, the horse stood quiet and attentive. And the client made the connection between what had just happened with the horse and what was possible in her human relationships.

Bots is a lifelong horse and animal lover and grew up riding, training, and showing horses in three-day eventing. As with many who have been around horses during their formative years, Bots discovered the healing power of horses during difficult times as an adolescent.

She earned a degree in psychology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1997, traveled through Europe and became a bilingual teacher before attaining a master's degree in clinical psychology. She has been a marriage and family therapist for 11 years and works with kids, teens, adults, couples and families.

Using her horse experience, Bots is also an equine-assisted psychotherapist, EMDR therapist and is certified as an equine-assisted EMDR therapist.

EMDR is an acronym for eye movement desensitizing and reprocessing therapy. It is a treatment modality for trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, abuse, substance abuse and self-esteem issues. Bots explained the theory behind it in layman's terms: "In rapid eye movement sleep, you're passively working through the day. EMDR does this while the person is awake."

Using an eight-phase system, the therapy has been proven through randomized studies to be effective. Bots described it as an emotional detox, saying, "Nobody forgets their trauma, but they don't need a visceral reaction or to get a trigger all the time." (More detailed information may be found online by putting EMDR into a search engine.)

Bots finds that by incorporating the horses and other animals into the therapy, whether through EMDR or other modalities, she creates an environment for children, families and couples that is challenging yet non-threatening. She also finds it very satisfying to have her furry and feathered assistants be rescuers.

"I enjoy helping to strengthen families, improve positive behaviors in kids and help parents find effective strategies for dealing with tough issues," she said. "I also love having all these animals around."

For those clients who don't wish to be around animals, she also maintains a traditional therapy office in Bend.

Robine Bots may be contacted at 541-390-2769 or by email at [email protected]