European Equine Facilitated Therapy Network (EEFTN)

Our 2nd meeting was planned for the end of April in St Petersburg, Russia. We had to cancel it due to COVID-19, but we have started to meet online via ZOOM. Actually, we are much more active!

EEFTN has been growing – we now have 28 members from 15 countries – theCzech Republic, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The whole group has met three times since May, and our sub-groups are meeting regularly according to their needs.

The education sub-group, under the leadership of Anne Rokka (Finland), created an extensive survey to collect information about therapist competencies in Equine Facilitated Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy and Horsemanship. Now teams of Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists summing up the listed skills and knowledge. We still need more answers for Speech Therapist. The meetings are fascinating and enriching for us, and we are very curious about what outcomes we reach and how we will process it further.

The second sub-group Reserving the Knowledge, coordinated by Sanna Mattila-Rautiainen (Finland), is working on case study guidelines for EFT educational courses within Europe to get data for future studies and research.

The third team in the Best practice group led by Nikolaos Nikolaidis (Greece) is working on a project to create an online resource for all therapists working with horses as their therapeutic medium. We hope to create an online forum whereby therapists can look for ideas on therapeutic equipment, positions and mounting techniques with supplementary information on each area.

It is a great honour and pleasure to be part of this network – the working spirit is very high and enthusiastic and supportive of all members. We are connected via WhatsApp group as well to share our experience and also some small talks.

Věra Lantelme-Faisan, EEFTN Coordinator
and Chairwoman of the Czech Equine Facilitated Therapy Association (CEFTA)

June, 2020