just for you.
Custom Services for Horse People
A personalized therapeutic experience for you and your horse partner.
Throughout life you’ve been inexplicably drawn to horses. You’ve certainly invested a lot of time, money, and energy into creating a life that would allow you to be involved with horses on an intimate level.
You’ve heard of equine assisted therapy and you’ve seen advertisements for retreats in far off places that would offer you experiences with unknown horses- but you have your own equine partner and you’d really prefer to spend that time (and those financial resources!) connecting back with them.
As horse people, we know that merely being in the presence of a horse can have a profound impact on our day. We keep returning to horses through the highs and lows of life, and may even think of the barn as a therapeutic space, or consider our riding time an integral part of our personal sanity plan.
I’m offering the opportunity to lean into this knowing by creating a container for you and your horse partner to explore new depths together.
If you’ve ever wondered what more lies to be discovered between you and your horse, I’d be honored to help facilitate the process by creating a custom experience specifically aimed at fulfilling these desires.
If you are a horse person who has been interested in therapy or coaching, now you can include your horse as a grounding resource or partner in your therapeutic experience!
Services for Horse People
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Mini-Retreats for You and Your Horse
A tailored and highly personalized experience to support your personal goals- with your horse!
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Coaching and Relationship Support
Coaching can be in person or virtual, short term or long term. Coaching can be focused on relationship support for you and your equine, or aimed at supporting your personal goals with the supportive presence of your horse.
Customized mini-retreats for you and your horse
A tailor made container to support you in exploring any number of intentions or goals for our time together.
A custom mini-retreat includes:
A free 20 minute consultation to ask any questions you may have
A full planning session where we go over intentions and goals for the experience, and cover the logistics (the who, what, where and when of it all!)
A customized in person half day to full day experience facilitated by myself, and designed for you and your horse to include a gentle beginning, a space for a deep dive into more exploratory and experiential components, a separate space designated for integration, and finally a landing to complete the day. I will walk you through ideas and possibilities for structuring the container so that you feel fully held in the experience, and there will be ample time for processing, integration, and of course for simply being with what shows up.
Opportunities to add on future sessions, for support in implementing any takeaways or for continuing work with me
Retreats can focus on a range of intentions or goals such as but not limited to:
stress management and relaxation
embodiment and self image
self regulation & co-regulation
exploring your nervous system and expanding your capacity for joy and deep presence
relationship building with your horse
understanding your horses unique gifts as a partner to you in life
exploring meaning and purpose
creating space for connecting to yourself and your spiritual practices
connecting to your creative and intuitive gifts
spending time connecting to nature and our natural rhythms
creating a space for all parts of yourself, or specifically for the parts needing some extra attention!
Customized retreats invite in opportunities to include your personal tethers or anchors towards growth and connection, such as elements of nature, meditation and visualization, creative projects like sketching or journaling, and using tarot or oracle cards, etc. If you have an intuition or a calling towards inviting in any of these additional components I would love to hear about them so we can fully cater to your unique needs and desires.
Coaching Services
Coaching services offer flexibility based on your needs.
These services can include:
personal sessions for you that include the presence of your horse
sessions focused on relationship support for you and your horse (with or without the horse present)
grief work around the loss of a beloved equine partner
support in navigating an incident with an equine that is impacting your ability to show up how you’d like in the present
If you’re interested in exploring ways to include your horse in your therapeutic endeavors on an ongoing basis, this is what you’ve been waiting for!
Generally, coaching is not about spending time looking into the past, and more about exploring what’s showing up in the present in order to provide freedom of choice for how we handle the future. With extensive training as a licensed therapist and training in trauma treatment, if something were to unintentionally show up I have the means to support you in that moment and assist you in moving forward with the proper resources.
Coaching can be done via Zoom, or in person. This means I can support you and your horse no matter where in the world you may happen to be.
Travel fees may apply. Please contact me for more details.
What can we gain by including our horse partners in our personal growth journeys?
Embodiment and Attunement as doors to Connection
Expanding our interoception- our ability to pay attention to our internal and external experiences and take in information about our surroundings.
Observing and learning behavioral or somatic cues that serve as avenues for us to attune and connect with our horse partners.
We can learn to recognize patterns in our horses nervous system, as well as our own, and how they intertwine.
This leads to a sense of “feeling felt and getting gotten” (Sarah Schlote) in relationship with our horses, and ourselves. Attuning to our horse allows them to experience what they might experience in a herd. Being deeply connected to the nervous system of other equines is what allows them to feel safe, and allows for wild horses to survive.
Experiencing your own internal stimuli (bodily sensations, emotions etc) with less judgment and more curiosity leads to embodiment- a gift for both you and your horse.
Relational Repair and Boundary work
In the context of poly vagal theory, interacting with horses allows us to support ventral vagal engagement- a state in which our bodies are able to settle into connection and closeness with others
You may experience opportunities for corrective emotional experiences as you witness deep attunement and space being held for your needs, and your equine’s needs simultaneaosly.
We can set the foundation for relationships that include qualities such as consent, mutual respect, compassion, choice and voice, and empowerment.
Relationships with our animals often reflect ingrained relational patterns and our early attachment learning that plays out with other humans. We can work to renegotiate these patterns in the body and nervous system with our animal partners in lasting ways that aren’t afforded by “top down” methods-which are limited to thinking and talking about it.
Co-regulation and Self Regulation
Working with your equine in personal development spaces allows you to experience co-regulation: a process where two nervous systems can help each other regulate their emotions to more effectively manage stress. Co-regulation nurtures a sense of trust, safety, connection and understanding.
As your facilitator I will introduce Somatic techniques that allow for you to foster a greater sense of self regulation, which you can take with you into other contexts and relationships.
Together we will observe how self- regulation leads to co-regulation and vice versa.
Resourcing and Grounding
Allowing your body, heart, and nervous system to soak in the feeling of being fully present with your horse allows for greater resourcing and grounding as we move through life and cope with stressors. Together we will work to embody this feeling so that you can take it with you wherever you are.
Spending time in nature provides many opportunities for grounding to the earth’s energy and allowing us to engage our senses in a meaningful way, which can become resourcing for us in the future.
Having the ability to resource provides us greater access to a safe landing strip when we begin to process trauma or feel a difficult emotion.
Relationship and Connection with your horse
A deeper appreciation for the special gifts your horse brings to your unique relationship.
Ways of relating to your horse differently; creating space for each of you to show up more fully and authentically.
Understanding ways the horse naturally exists, and allowing horse wisdom to guide us in towards greater emotional agility, embracing our intuition and sensitivities, and connection to ourselves and our senses.
“When we “are seen and heard, feel felt, and get gotten” by another individual, our nervous system begins to settle and we begin to feel safe in relationship. When we feel safe, as the polyvagal theory suggests, many more things are possible: a deeper sense of intimacy and connection, the capacity for play and creativity, the attention and focus necessary for learning and other higher order brain functions, and the ability to rest and digest effectively. Our nervous system can do all these things because it is in a state of sustainable physiology that is conducive to experiencing those said things.”
-Sarah Schlote
What is “attunement?” To borrow somatic therapist and Equusoma founder Sarah Schlote’s language, it is “when we are being seen, being heard, feeling felt and getting gotten.”
