Did you know that talking isn’t the only therapeutic tool that Wellspring uses? We have a variety of experiential therapies that are also available for clients, both within a traditional therapy session or outside of it in a special venue.

Why do we use experiential therapy?

Because our minds and bodies are connected. What we experience in our bodies through our five senses is intertwined with our emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. Have you ever felt your body shake from fear, or raise your blood pressure from anxiety? If you practice mindful breathing, you have experienced how you can use your body to calm your emotions and thoughts. We are integrated whole beings.

If our thoughts are contrary to our experiences, we may even override what our heads think to consciously or subconsciously defer to our experiences. For example, consider the dilemma of knowing what the Bible says about God’s love for us, but feeling differently because life did not reflect what we thought God should do if he really did love us. Usually, our senses override our thoughts, whether we want them to or not. But sometimes it works the other way too, research has demonstrated that if we believe something to be true, we stop noticing with our senses the experiences that are contrary to our beliefs.

Experiences are more influential than words. For instance, if when you were learning to drive, your instructor taught you to “look left, right, left” before turning left, you may or may not remember to do so. However, if you have an accident because you failed to do so, the lesson will be indelibly imprinted. What we experience in negative events can teach us lessons leading to conclusions which may be correct or incorrect. For instance, if we had a disturbing event with a certain type of person, we might conclude that we should be wary of all people of that type.

So how can we turn all of these interactions to our advantage? We can use our senses to have corrective experiences, to “unlearn” some negative lessons, or to reinforce new positive beliefs. Check out our variety of experiential learning therapies:

Types of Experiential therapies at Wellspring:

•  Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy– Practice relationship and self-regulation skills with in-the-moment horses who are highly sensitive and social beings.
•  Expressive Art therapies– Tap into your inner world of thoughts and feelings and find non-verbal, artistic ways to discover and express them.
•  Processing therapies– Artistic therapeutic options not only express what we think, feel, and do, but they can also create change. Through sensory activities, drama, or music, we can move forward with new ways of thinking, feeling or behaving.
•  Symbolic therapies– Humans think in images, symbols, and icons. Like wearing a wedding ring or visiting a graveside helps us express our love and grief, Wellspring can help you create symbols to express significant grief and loss moments, commitments, affirmations, decisions, and more.

We invite you to join us to use one of these powerful tools. Sign up for our one-off “Come to Your Senses” events to try out an experiential therapy. Come for counseling and ask your therapist to bring out one of these tools. Sign up for one of our trauma programs (Bounce or Restore) to overcome and resolve a negative life event with therapy, groups and experiential learning. Get out of an office to enjoy equine assisted therapy.

Written by Tova Kreps