How to recover psychologically after a serious fall: the story of Zoya Konter

Zoë Konter/photographer: Frank Fotistica

Zoe Konter, daughter of Stephex Stables founder Stefan Konter, has achieved a lot by the age of 21: from team gold and individual bronze at the European Youth Show Jumping Championships (2016) to the top steps of the podium at five-star show jumping tournaments. However, in 2018, at an international competition in Rome, Zoe fell off her horse and broke her fifth cervical vertebra. The story of how she managed to survive a serious psychological and physical trauma and return to the saddle again is in this material.

Text: Annette Paterakis is a sports psychologist for riders of all levels.

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We started working with Zoya in 2014 and I have watched her rise and fall. When I found out about her injury, I was shocked. About a month later we met, and she told me what had happened.

She rode a new horse, on which she had performed just a few times before. They started the route well, but in front of the system, the horse got scared of something and got tangled in its legs, after which Zoe fell right on the bars, she was immediately taken to the hospital by ambulance.

That same fall of Zoe:

Due to the fact that Zoya was taken to the hospital in time, the operation was carried out immediately. Zoe quickly recovered, but the doctors did not make any predictions. The recovery did not take long, and Zoe realized that she was literally born in a shirt. But be that as it may, the fear of returning to the saddle did not leave her, so Zoe underwent a five-month course with a physiotherapist before getting back on the horse.

Zoë Konter/photographer: Frank Fotistica

Вызов

During her recovery, Zoe thought a lot about what it was like to be back in the saddle. When she finally got on the horse, she felt very good. More precisely, until her horse stumbled and Zoey heard a crack in the neck. Fortunately, everything was fine, but fear overwhelmed her. Zoey suddenly felt very vulnerable. She came back to me and explained the situation and also shared her worries.

Athletes-equestrians often do not pay attention to fear. However, fear is one of the main emotions. This is the brain’s way of protecting us, and it has many ways to do so. One of them is the processing of information, its storage and use in the future.

It’s no secret that sleep has several phases, one of them is the phase of REM sleep, when we see those dreams that we remember. While we sleep, our brain processes all the information and all the experiences of the day. When we are faced with a dangerous situation, such as falling from a horse, our brain remembers this and saves it in a special file. Let’s call it the “danger dossier”. So every time you find yourself in a situation like this, your brain recognizes it as dangerous and it activates your self-preservation instinct to keep you safe.

Unfortunately, this state causes us to react with fight, flight, and fear. While driving, this signal may be perceived as potentially dangerous. In this case, you begin to either fuss, rush and make mistakes, or you become numb with fear. Neither is the right response.

Zoe knew she had to relax and trust herself and her horse. She practiced breathing exercises, as I taught her, but fear alone took over. Thus, we had to find the information about the fall and re-process it, renaming it from “danger dossier” to “file: I survived and I am safe.” To do this, we had to work on the subconscious, since such information is stored there. I have found various techniques, one of the most successful is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

Process

When a person is scared, he tries to pretend that nothing is happening. Over time, he becomes a real pro at ignoring emotions and fear that he simply cannot understand what is really going on inside him. The Emotional Freedom Technique is a great way to learn to accept your emotions.

I asked Zoe to pick the worst moment from the fall to today. For her, it wasn’t even the fall itself, but a trip to the double system a couple of days before – the same system on which she fell. Using EFT, we went through the system step by step, constantly feeling fear take over. The first time she was too scared, but after she went through the system several times, she felt better.

When using techniques such as EFT, we can let go of emotions and forget certain experiences. Zoey created a new image of her going through the system, thus replacing old memories with new ones. First, the fear subsided, and then completely disappeared.

Сonclusion

Zoe was able to recognize her fears, accept them, and create new meaning around them. Today she is back in the saddle and competing at the same level as before the fall.

“Before my fall in Rome, I was very pleased with the way I performed. I rode very confidently and was full of determination, which are two very important qualities in the competition,” says Zoe. “During my recovery, a few questions kept running through my head: Will I ever be able to compete at the same level again? Will I be scared? It’s very scary and there’s nothing you can do about it. The moment I started practicing and jumping again, I said to myself: I’m not afraid, nothing happened, I’m not afraid. I thought it would be easy to pick up where I left off, but it wasn’t.

Zoe Konter and the Belgian team, silver medalists of the European Championship among juniors-2019

I did get scared a few times, and thought it would only be once, but the anxiety kept coming back. That’s when I decided that I needed Annette’s help to get this fear out of my head. She helped me first recognize my fear before we could get rid of it. For me it was one of the most important stages of my return. I stopped denying that I was scared and instead acknowledged my fear. It’s hard to do, but at the end of the day, it was reality and I needed to face it before I could move on.”

Source: noellefloyd.com