Equine Assisted Psychotherapy – Bellewood and Birch LLC

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Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy

Allow yourself to connect with one of the most beautiful, strong, and intuitive creatures on planet Earth. Confront challenges and new experiences with confidence and conquer something that you were unsure that you could. Emily Voelker weaves the H.E.A.L. “Keys to Connection Model” by Leah Shambo into these Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy Sessions. This model focuses on building and maintaining healthy relationships outside of sessions while building a relationship with your horse in sessions. Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy consists of groundwork and horsemanship skills, while intertwining talk therapy modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and more.

This modality could be a good fit for you if you are struggling with Anxiety, Depression, low self-worth, relationship challenges, and so much more. Have you tried traditional office-based therapy without feeling much progress? Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy might be for you. This hands-on approach to relationship and skill building helps to retrain your mind and body through experiences. Experiences shape who we are as people, how we view the world, and how we view our place in this world. Join me for my 50-minute Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy sessions (Spring, Summer, and Fall), where you will build new experiences so that you can begin to build the life you want.

Example Session Agenda

1) Feelings check-in

2) Observation of the heard/horse

3) Discuss horse behavior and how they communicate with other horses, as well as people.

4) Discuss strengths and weaknesses of client communication

5) Participate in groundwork exercise: Lunging a horse at a walk and trot. This increases awareness of body language,how the person presents themselves to the horse and how clear the client’s verbal commands are.

6) Thank you treats for horses

7) Home Assignment: Client observes how they communicate with people in their life.

Why Choose Us

Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy can help with a variety of mental health issues, including anxiety, low self-esteem, addiction, trauma, depression, and improving social behaviors.

Our therapist is a trained and certified Equine-Specialist through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl)