April 26-29, 2012: FEEL Certification Program, Toronto, Canada

March 13, 2012 by Kathleen 

In April, I will once again be joining with Horse Spirit Connections and the students in Toronto, Canada.  I teach what I call the “foundational pieces” from psychotherapy, science, and spirituality in this exciting and thorough program.  Below is a short description of the program.  To find out more about the program and to register contact Wendy@HorseSpiritConnections.com

Horse Spirit Connections founded the FEEL (Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning) Certification Program in 2008.  FEEL is a leading-edge modality for developing human potential.  Participants learn to create a horse-centered, experiential learning environment that supports personal growth.  Throughout the training, prospective FEEL facilitators gain self-knowledge and acquire skills and experience to develop their own FEEL programs where horses are valued for their roles as teachers and therapists.

This comprehensive training program is suitable for coaches, educators, facilitators, equine professionals, wellness practitioners, and other individuals who are looking for practical training and experience in developing Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning programs in the expanding field of Equine guided healing.

The FEEL Certification Program is six months in duration.  It consists of sixteen days of on-site instruction spread over three sessions. Many dynamic teachers, with an incredible array of knowledge, are present to support the journey.

During the six months, there will be individual and group assignments integral to a deeper understanding and first hand experience of this new modality. In between program sessions the participants are required to practice and complete assigned horse related activities and log their experiences.  A program mentor is assigned to each participant for the duration of their training.

June 5-7, 2012: A Master’s Course – The Art, The Heart, & The Science of Deep Listening through Team Coaching and Group Process: Corrales, NM

March 13, 2012 by Kathleen 

A 3 day Intensive training in Group Process and Dynamics in Corrales, New Mexico with Kathleen Barry Ingram and Lisa Murrell, Susan Castaneda, and the Ranch DuBois herd.

Lisa and Kathleen, leaders in the field of Equine Facilitated Learning, Team Coaching, Coaching and Psychotherapy, will use their expertise, combined 30+ years of experience, and the latest scientific research to teach and encourage participants in the effective use of team coaching and group process.

As a therapist, counselor, coach or personal growth teacher you understand the “double edge” power of human groups.  Groups can create a transformative container for growth and self-discovery, but when groups go wrong they can destroy trust and leave participants more defensive than before. This is even more true for groups organized around EFL/EFC experiences, where the horses create moments of great transformative potential.  Masterful group facilitation is critical to successful and safe Equine Facilitated Learning and Coaching. 

This training is for counselors, therapists, coaches, health care practitioners, and anyone currently teaching and facilitating Equine Facilitated Coaching/Learning and psychotherapy in groups.  Whether you work with adults or youth, closed or open groups, or whether your scope of practice includes Psychotherapy/Learning or Coaching-this training will give you valuable information and increase your confidence and skills in facilitating group process and understanding group dynamics.

Cost: Early Bird Price $797 (Before March 30, 2012)
Price after March 30: $1297

To register: www.EquineAlchemy.com
Questions? Contact Lisa: Lisa@EquineAlchemy.com

Fast Action Bonuses (Act before March 30, 2012):
*The first 2 participants to register will receive a private coaching session with Lisa or Kathleen!
*The first 4 participants to register can bring a friend for 25% off!

***International Coaching Federation CCEU’s available
***CEU’s available

Healing Intuition Learned from Horses: Christy Allen, Lic. Ac.

March 13, 2012 by Kathleen 

Christy Allen: Acupuncturist and Chinese Medical Practitioner

Wednesday, January 25, 2012: Coaching From the Heart a FREE Internet ‘Salon’

January 22, 2012 by Kathleen 

Coaching From the Heart: A FREE Internet ‘Salon’
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:00 PM  EST

Are You A Coach Who Wants to Create Transformation, then join Lisa Murrell and Kathleen Ingram on for a FREE live streaming internet “salon” called “Coaching From the Heart” on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:00 PM  EST

What is coaching from the heart?   A way of connecting with ourselves and our clients that is based upon relationships and recognizes the value of emotions and energy in supporting and guiding those who come to us for coaching –concepts that are inherent horse wisdom and difficult to learn in traditional coaching programs.

Equine Coaches, Simon, Tibor and Spanky will join us as we go deeply into a conversation about:

• The 5 critical elements for transformational coaching
• How the ‘Shadow Self; (those unrecognized and unaccepted aspects of ourselves) hold important wisdom for our coaching and clients.
• Why emotional and energetic agility is THE future of coaching.
• How you can take your coaching to the next level through Equine Assisted coaching!

Your first Salon?  A  Salon is a gathering of like-minded people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation and connection.

What is Live Streaming? A very nifty piece of internet technology that will let us interact and engage live- almost like we were together in person – ala ‘salon’. (Don’t worry, if you can open a URL in your web browser, you’ll be able to participate easily and with grace.)

To register for this call visit Lisa’s site: www.EquineAlchemy.com

February 3-5, 2012: “Launching Your Coaching Journey,” A 3 day Learning Intensive with Lisa Murrell and Kathleen Barry Ingram, Albuquerque, New Mexico

January 22, 2012 by Kathleen 

This experience can, and most likely will, change your life!!

Are you ready to step into your greatness and share your gifts?  Do you want to wake up each day excited and full of gratitude because you are living your life with a clear purpose? Would you like to live in a like-hearted community of learning and support? Then you have arrived!  “Launching your Coaching Journey” is about launching your life as you intend it to be from now on…. Coaching is not a ‘job,’ it is a way of being.

Relationship building is at the heart of coaching!  The experience of working with horses requires a relationship with another being. It requires an acute awareness of boundaries -yours and theirs- as well as skill in interpreting body language. Interacting with horses requires obtaining permission to lead and demonstrating a willingness to follow. Such a relationship demands courage as well as vulnerability. Most importantly, the horse requires authentic communication. Twenty minutes in the round pen with a horse will take these powerful, insightful concepts off the page, out of your head, and anchor them into your entire being. You will also experience a tremendous boost in self-esteem and confidence from learning how to connect and establish boundaries with a thousand pound creature through a mind/body connection, presence and clarity of intent and connecting with your ‘heart’s desire’.

Virtual Classroom Work before the in-person learning intensive to prepare for our time with the horses will include:
Introduction to Coaching
-The ICF competencies and standards
-Distinctions between therapy and coaching
-Setting the coaching foundation
-Co-Creating the relationship, Part 1

On-site Equine and Experiential Components – Creating Awareness of Self and Others:
Through a series of specially designed activities with horses on the ground (no riding), you will deepen awareness of your personal challenges, core feelings and areas of bodily tension that inhibit your ability to reach your true potential.

Launching your Coaching Journey Workshop includes:
-Pre-site work
-3 day on-site learning intensives with the horses
-1 private coaching session with Lisa
-1 90 min content session with group
-1 90 min peer coaching call

This is an ICF Approved Coach Training Workshop

Cost: $2000 per person

For more information, or to register, visit:  www.EquineAlchemy.com

March 19-21, 2012: The Zone of Intuitive Knowing, an Intensive with Kathleen Barry Ingram and Sun Tui, United Kingdom

January 22, 2012 by Kathleen 

The Zone of Intuitive Knowing led by Kathleen Barry Ingram MA co-creator of The Epona Approach ™

Exploring the Scientific, Psychological and Spiritual Dimensions of Equine Facilitated Learning and Psychotherapy

If you are interested in the subtle energetic connections between all of life then this workshop is for you.   We exist as a unity, interdependent in relationship with all in the invisible web of the quantum field.  Horses, as consummate teachers, can show us how to re-discover, connect and develop our “knowing” selves.  The Zone of Intuitive “Knowing” comes directly from the ‘brain in the gut’ and the ‘brain in the heart’.  This workshop includes experiential exercises with the horses that engage our innate abilities to use these organs of perception.  We can choose to enter the Zone of Intuitive “Knowing” through direction from these powerful centers of intelligence in concert with the intelligence centered in the brain.  When fully grounded we are able to extend our self-awareness into all aspects of daily life and live authentically each moment with tangible success.

Business and life coaches, counselors, psychotherapists, healing therapists (any discipline), teachers, business managers, trainers and consultants, all horse professionals or anyone interested in human growth and development will find this workshop helpful. This is a no- riding workshop.

This workshop can be used as a qualifying workshop for IFEAL Facilitator Training

Cost: £1,450.00

Contact Sun Tui:   SunTui@me.com
For more information or to book this intensive: www.IFEAL.me

 

 

April 2- 5, 2012: Connecting the Pieces, Private Sessions with Kathleen Barry Ingram and Sun Tui, United Kingdom or Cypress

January 22, 2012 by Kathleen 

Connecting the Pieces, Private Sessions with Kathleen Barry Ingram and Sun Tui

The researched evidence is that in order for any therapeutic technique to be effective, it is essential that the person is fully present, empathetic and congruent.

These private day/days Intensives affords the opportunity for an individual (or partnership – either personal relationship or professional) to deepen awareness of personal issues, core feelings and areas of bodily tension that inhibit the ability to reach your fullest true potential. Elemental horse related activities, that could include swimming or a sweat lodge set with in the IFEAL herd’s woodland environment, are designed to explore and integrate an expansive yet grounded mind set, capable of endless compassion, innovation, energetic adaptability and creativity. Our work will include experiencing the spiritual and scientific biology of emotions to integrate them with the Mind and Body.

Each session is custom tailored to meet individual’s needs, lasts 3 hours or more, begins with Tai Chi with the Herd.

A biodynamic organic lunch and nutritious snacks tailored and served to your taste are provided.

Kathleen Barry Ingram, co-founder of The Epona Approach™ is a Tucson-based life coach, consultant, lecturer and educator specializing in Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning

Sun Tui is the founder and director of IFEAL and is an Advanced Epona Approach Instructor. She teaches Horse Way Tai Chi and Integral Body Mind Therapy.

Special Note: These intensive sessions are also available at Sun Tui’s Olympus Mountain retreat home in Cypress. The home is a beautiful 11th century cottage, with mountain views over the 11th Century Monastery and Monagri village. The cottage is a pleasurable scenic 30 minute drive to either glorious Mediterranean beaches or breathtaking views from the top of Mount Olympus. On-site accommodation available.

Contact Sun Tui:   SunTui@me.com
For more information or to book a private session: www.IFEAL.me

 

April 12, 2012: The Power of Horses: An Introduction to the Epona Approach ™ with Kathleen Ingram, Dusseldorf, Germany

January 22, 2012 by Kathleen 

The Power of Horses:  An Introduction to the Epona Approach ™ with Kathleen Ingram, Co-founder of the Approach. 

A full day of learning, horse experience, and the basics behind the Epona Approach ™.  This is not a method of training but an approach to being in integrity with the horse and the client.

Cost:  180€ with snacks and a vegetarian lunch.

This workshop will be held in English – German translation possible if required.

Please contact Eva Balzer, Stockweg 143, 45481 Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany
www.Zentaura.de
Email: kontakt@evabalzer.de
Mobile phone: +49 (0)172-2320836

April 14-15, 2012: Connecting with the Heart – Yours and the Horse’s, Dusseldorf, Germany

January 22, 2012 by Kathleen 

Grace in Presence and Flow in Movement.

This 2 day workshop is an advanced workshop for those already familiar with the Epona Approach™ which is not a method of training or working the horse.  Kathleen Ingram, as the co-creator of the Epona Approach™ with Linda Kohanov (author of the “Tao of Equus”), along with Eva and her magnificent herd will encourage the participants to follow their hearts in a respectful relationship. This workshop will help participants to maintain connection with respect and afford opportunities to take this into movement with the horse.   Each individual’s intuitive gifts and the horses true essence is honored and encouraged.

Daniel Siegel, author of “Mindsight“, uses the description of this honoring of self with others and calls this “feeling felt”.  In order for this to take place both the horse and the person must feel and experience the soul and essence of each other.  As facilitators, we hope to help others to be open to their unique gifts and challenges.  We will assist them in this integration for following the original “blueprint of their souls”.  To do this the person must be present to what is happening and look for collaboration in stillness and movement, essentially what Kathleen has called the “Yin and Yang of It”

Cost:  395€ with snacks and Vegetarian lunches.

This workshop will be held in English – German translation possible if required.

Please contact Eva Balzer, Stockweg 143, 45481 Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany

www.zentaura.de

Email: kontakt@evabalzer.de

Mobile phone: +49 (0)172-2320836

Relationship in Motion (RIM)

December 11, 2011 by Kathleen 

2011 has sure been an eventful year with many challenges and opportunities for all of us.  If you are like me, you are ready to see what 2012 is all about!  I see this as a time of expanded conscious awareness for all of us.  Certainly, my work with the horses all over the world supports this.  Recently I was asked, “What do you see and feel is the common denominator with horses and people in your travels?”  As always, my answer was “horses are helping us to wake up.”

My colleagues and I have been working on a concept which we call Relationship in Motion or RIM.  Over the years in my work in Equine Facilitated Learning, as well as work with families and corporations, I have noticed that much of a relationship is lost or put aside when a goal, deadline, or time constraint is present.  In EFL I notice that people may love connecting with the horses on the ground through grooming, reflective round pen work (one in which there is no goal but to be in relationship), or just standing and being with the herd in the field.

However, because we are human, and many times goal oriented and constrained by time limits, I see people dropping the feeling of connection to get “the job done.”  RIM is a process we are developing that assists the person to be in relationship- or limbic connection- with the horse and get motion or movement with collaboration.  This may seem simple but those of us working with horses, children, spouses or employees know this is not always the case.  What parent hasn’t temporarily “lost it” when asking their child for the 100^th time to clean up their room?  When you are going to get your horse for an activity with a client, do you remember to tell them what you would like?

We know that maintaining a limbic connection and asking for movement involves the heart, intention from the brain, and pressure (or direction) from the belly or power center of the body.  When one is predominant (or lost) the horse will often stand stock still or be overcome with confusion.  Active round pen work, as opposed to the traditional lunging the horse, can offer the opportunity to stay in connection and get movement and collaboration.  What I have seen more often, however, is that people get into the goal of the activity and the horse – who has learned to “obey” the signals- performs the activities mindlessly but is disconnected.  This disconnect, of course, will often translate into peoples’ lives outside the round pen. I have seen many times the person who wants to stay in their heart be unable to get any kind of forward movement.

As a facilitator of EFL I want the client and the horse to have the best possible experience – an experience which will help the client’s body to remember what it feels like in connection and with movement.  I recall a man who experienced post traumatic stress disorder and had limited his life to the degree that even benign opportunities for change frightened him and kept him isolated and alone.  We had introduced the concept of emotions as information, and especially the differentiation of fear versus vulnerability.  It was his turn to get the horse (with some assistance from the equine professional) and see if he could have an experience of movement in the round pen.   At the beginning of the workshop he had told part of his story and informed us that he was terrified of horses.  By the time we got to this activity he had been with the horse in a safe place and was open to the challenge of taking the horse for a walk.  The facilitator let this man take the time to connect with the horse, by putting on her halter and beginning the walk to the round pen.  By the time the man and horse entered the round pen so much had happened within the man that he wanted to just be with the horse.  Was this a success?  You bet it was.

When he came out of the experience and shared with the group he said, “Kathleen when you first introduced the difference between fear (outright physical or emotional threat) and vulnerability (inside change or opportunity), I was not sure I would be able to tell the difference.  I had spent so many years reacting to the feeling of fear that I had not allowed myself any opportunities for change.” When asked for one word at the end of the workshop to sum up his experience with the horse, his word was “Courage.”  The smile on his face when he faced the challenge of connection and movement with the horse is one that will remain with me for a long time. 

Another example of Relationship in Motion (RIM) involved a horse trainer and a reluctant horse.  The woman went to get the horse and, after checking in with her body, got the message to go slowly.  Later that message would have a lot of significance for her in her personal life.  As we watched the exchange between woman and horse we noticed how slowly and deliberately she took each step.  Now this woman is a horse trainer so she certainly knows how to get a horse to move.  However, she took the time to listen to herself – and what the horse needed – to get to the round pen.  I have to admit I had to let go of my idea of what might be happening to support what was happening between them.  It took her 40 minutes step by step.

When she got to the round pen I asked her what she wanted to do.  Her response was priceless, “I told him the goal was to walk to the round pen and that I would take the time he needed to do this.  Once that happened I learned what I needed from the experience.” This horse had a problem with people pushing him beyond his limits.  The trainer could feel in her body that the opportunity for him to create a new memory of pressure and release was more important than any goal.  As a goal oriented person, this lesson translated to her life and allowed her to feel what it would be like to have forward movement and to maintain connection with herself and loved ones.

We have had many opportunities to see and observe this connection and movement, or Relationship in Motion, with people and horses.  It is the “dance of relationship” with collaboration, full intention and respect that the body remembers when working with horses or people the next time a challenge and opportunity is presented.

I have mentioned just two examples of the work with horses and people from this year.  I have traveled over the world this year and seen many more.  For this opportunity, I would like to thank the horses and my colleagues; Wendy and Andre at Horse Spirit Connections in Canada (www.HorseSpiritConnections.com); Sun Tui and her herd in England (www.ifeal.me); Eva Balzer and her herd in Germany (www.Zentaura.de); Drea Bowen in Washington state at the Equine Empowerment Center (drea.b.bowen@gmail.com); Lisa Murrell in New York (www.EquineAlchemy.com); Susan Castaneda in New Mexico (www.EquineAlchemy-Southwest.com); and Eve Lee and her horses at Loghaven in Illinois (www.EquineMagic.com).

Many Blessings,
Kathleen

 

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