We offer group workshops as well as private sessions where horses are the primary teachers of:
presence
self awareness
communication and relationship skills
If you haven't come across the terms "equine facilitated learning" or "equine assisted learning," then you may wonder what horses offer to any personal growth or self-awareness program. There are many healthy consequences of learning to interact with, communicate with, and form relationships with animals, and especially with horses. Horses have a lot to teach us about being totally present, living from our inner knowing, non-verbal communication, and about living as social beings in mutually respectful relationships.
They live tuned in to the world around them, and respond to what their instincts tell them. In other words, they offer authentic responses to what their "feelings" tell them. In our interactions with horses, we can learn to be more fully aware of our thoughts and feelings and live from the whole of who we are.
"Domesticated horses retain the thought and behavior patterns of their nomadic ancestors. Interacting with these animals on their own terms encourages a fluidity of human thought, emotion, and behavior that sedentary twenty-first-century life makes difficult."
-Linda Kohanov, "Riding Between The Worlds: Expanding Our Potential Through The Way Of The Horse"
Group Workshops
Personal Development
The focus is on becoming more in touch with your inner knowing through activities on the ground with the horses. You'll be guided in a body scan, understanding your body's sensations and messages behind emotions, and listening to your authentic self.
Please email Julie for more information or about setting up a workshop designed for your specific group.
We also hold workshops throughout the year on:
- Cultivating Intuition
- Mediation and Mindfulness
- Energy 101
Leadership
The focus with our leadership workshops are on teaching about non-predatory power, which horses embody and demonstrate incredibly well. Learning to effectively communicate with a horse takes a great amount of self-awareness and an understanding of non-verbal communication. Activities with the horses teach about a wide range of skills that can be applied in business, community, and family relationships. Dealing with resistant people when accomplishing goals or creating positive change is a major topic of this workshop.
Email Julie about designing a leadership workshop for your group.
Private Sessions
Are you ready to connect with a horse, and connect more deeply with your self?
Horses can help us get out of our heads and into our hearts, increase self awareness, and feel deeper connection and clarity about who we are.
When with horses, they give us feedback about our own inner state of being and whether we are in a state of alignment and offering authentic emotion and responses...or, if we are offering resistance and blocking emotion and out of alignment with that greater part of our selves. The closer we get to aligning with our true self (there are many ways of saying this...Soul, source energy, divine within), the more recognition and affirmation we'll receive from the horses. We feel what it feels like to show up as our pure, loving, authentic selves, and learn to pay attention to our inner guidance.
Horse Medicine and Wisdom Session
What do private Horse Medicine and Wisdom sessions look like? The sessions are held outside in a natural setting. They are held at Wild Heart Farm (near Chapin, South Carolina). The space we create together with the horses is a sacred space of nonjudgmental presence full of loving, divine energy. Even if this is your first session, you'll begin to feel at home in this space. Sitting near the horse(s), you'll be guided to briefly talk about what's happening in your life. There may be a particular topic or issue that you'd like to bring to the session. We may begin with a guided grounding meditation. The horses near us will offer their presence, and when you're ready and feel comfortable, Julie will ask you to enter the space with a horse to explore further. You'll be guided during this time with the horse with questions and observations to facilitate activating your own inner guidance system and wisdom. To complete the session, you'll reflect on what the experience meant for you and how you can take this out into your "non-horse" daily life. You can choose to journal or use art supplies during this reflection time.
What do the sessions cost? An hour and a half initial session costs $120, and subsequent sessions cost $85. Optionally, a 3 session package can be purchased for $250.
