National Defence committee  I have a private practice, so anyone in the civilian population can come to me. The majority of my caseload is Blue Cross related. It's the Canadian Forces contracting me to treat soldiers. I don't treat soldiers using horses. Using the horses is a part-time practice for me, and I don't do it directly with soldiers.

National Defence committee  It's not permitted with soldiers at this point because it's not evidence based.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  We would start with an assessment to see what the needs are of the person. I'd go based on what the person's needs and what they want in therapy as well. In doing therapy like this, we would need to have a willing participant.

National Defence committee  First of all, there are some things we do have to look at. If a person has addiction issues, we wouldn't want to be doing this type of work with a person who's intoxicated. That would have to be put in place at the beginning: that if they have addictions issues, they would not use while doing therapy like this.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, honourable members of Parliament and distinguished guests. I am honoured to be here to talk about equine assisted psychotherapy. I'd like to start by making a bit of a distinction between three practices in the field. You can have equine services for physical rehabilitation; you can have some for education, which is equine assisted learning; and you can have some for therapy.