Kyle Duquette Introduces EquiPresence™
Originally published in Maui Family Magazine, Summer issue 2007
When you think of horses and Maui, chances are that images of long rides on the beach at sunset is what comes to mind. While that's a great way to spend time for tourists on vacation, island residents may benefit more from a new program that uses horses to help kids and adults become happier and more successful at home and in life.
EquiPresence™ is the brainchild of Kyle Duquette, who has worked with Maui families and children in crises for a number of years in several mental health therapy settings. "To me horses have always been about more than just riding," says Kyle. "I had a very unstable childhood filled with numerous stepfamilies coming together then falling apart. My salvation was a horse my mother bought me when I was eleven years old." From the very beginning Kyle’s relationship with her horse helped to give her the emotional stability and sense of peace that was lacking in her family.
"I know personally the pain and the long-term damage that can result when families lack the skills they need to deal with everyday life. I also know first hand that it isn't easy being a parent and a husband or wife. And it isn't easy to be a kid facing the pressures of doing well in school, making friends, growing up."
While personal experiences led her to her chosen career, it was Kyle’s experiences with horses that drew her to equine assisted psychotherapy. "When I heard about the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association and their system using horses as tools for helping people with emotional, behavioral, mental difficulties, I was hooked." EAGALA, founded in 1999, uses a team approach, pairing licensed mental health care professionals with experienced horse professionals working together in specially designed sessions to help clients in ways traditional talk therapy can’t.
In EAP sessions, one or more horses are brought into the arena along with various props such as buckets of feed, bales of hay, halters, ground pools, safety cones or anything else that may be helpful in creating a situation that will allow participants to work on an issue. For example, if a family needs to work on cooperation, an exercise called "appendages" might be used. One person would be chosen as the "brain" with the others serving as the "arms." The group then attempts to put a saddle on a horse with the "brain" controlling the "arms." To begin the exercise, the team is allowed a few minutes to create a strategy. After that, everyone must figure out how to communicate without speaking until the goal is reached. Finding a way to work together without speaking creates challenges that help the family learn where the break downs are and find ways to improve.
Using EAP techniques, Kyle has designed several EquiPresence™ workshops that address common problems like communication, discipline, focus, setting and reaching goals, independence, making better choices, self-discipline, self-esteem to create stronger families, more effective parents, more confident, happy and successful children and more peaceful homes.
"EAP is something you really have to experience to fully appreciate," says Kyle. "It is tremendously healing in ways that sitting in an office talking can’t match."
"Horses mirror human behavior," explains Kyle. "If a person confronts them with anger, or fear, or sadness the horse is going to respond accordingly. It is that reaction and interaction that helps clients "see" for themselves what they need to work on and change."
And of course there is the spiritual aspect of the animal. "Horses relate to humans on a level that is very unique. I don't know of anyone who has ever worked with horses that hasn't felt that connection. It is remarkable."
While rides along the beach at sunset will always be a draw for Maui tourists, Kyle is hoping that with EquiPresence™, Maui horses will be able to help their human neighbors on the island live happier, healthier lives.