Recent stories in the newspapers reported on Paul Gascoigne’s departure for a US rehab clinic, where the star will be treated for his addictions with revolutionary treatment involving horses, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP).
Don Lavender, who now directs the recovery programme at Camino Recovery in Velez Malaga, is the Psychotherapist who helped to develop this therapy in US treatment centres over 20 years ago.
Lavender, a former Catholic priest, has held clinical management and consultative positions in some of the most effective treatment centres in the world, including The Priory Hospitals in the UK and Sierra Tucson and Cottonwood in the US.
With over 30 years’ experience, Don Lavender’s work as a psychotherapist and counsellor is well known and greatly admired. Don’s years of experience in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy make the Camino Recovery Centre one of the world’s top rehabs’ to receive the treatment.
How Horses Can Help Battle Addiction
Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy allows horses to be used to help measure relationship issues for individuals, couples, families as well as management teams. Horses can reflect physical and emotional states in humans and their clearly defined levels of communication can help humans define boundaries in their own relationships.
They have hyper-vigilant connections to those around them. When a horse allows a human to be with it, it is allowing the person to be part of the herd, and within the herd, boundaries are tightly drawn.
The process also enables the therapist to gain insights that are simply not possible through other disciplines. For some people, the equine psychotherapy experience can be a life-changing experience. Don’s book Equine Utilised Psychotherapy explores this further.
To see footage of EAP with Don Lavender, please click here
The Camino Recovery Centre is an intimate and homely 12-bed facility specialising in the treatment of addictions including alcohol and drugs, eating disorders, compulsive gambling, sex – as well as prevalent co-morbid conditions such as anxiety, trauma and depression.
Based near Velez Malaga in Southern Spain, Camino is easily accessible from the most major cities in Europe as well as UK via regular flights to nearby Malaga and Granada Airports.
The Centre is housed in a large, private Spanish villa, with a large pool and set in beautiful gardens; it offers a place of peace and recovery where clients are treated with dignity and respect.
A case study is available who has experienced the effectiveness of EAP first hand, more information available upon request. Visit Camino’s website for more information and follow The Camino Recovery Centre on: twitter @caminorecovery, and Facebook Camino Recovery.
