HEAL FACILITATOR TRAINING PROGRAM 2010
December 31, 2009 by Kathleen
Magic, Leigh, Kathleen & Gem in Washington
HEAL- Human Equine Alliance for Learning
May 3- 9, 2010
October 11-17, 2010
Facilitator Training Program for Equine-Facilitated Learning (EFL)
The Facilitator Training Program of 2009 completed on October 17 with 9 amazing women. Profiles and information about the graduates can be found under the Event page of this website.The HEAL staff (Khrista and Ricki) and the addition of David Young with his scientific mind and his gentle teaching with the horses have added more support and validity to our program. To apply for 2010 or for more information, please contact Kathleen Ingram kathygram@cox.net Program begins on Monday, May 3 through Sunday, May 9: Week 2 begins on Monday, October 11 through Sunday, October 17,2010
This program is designed as Post Graduate training for individuals who have at least a Master’s degree or equivalent study and experience in the Human Development field. We are accepting applications for the 2010 program from qualified individuals who are looking for practical training and guidance in starting their own programs in Equine Facilitated Learning The HEAL program is taught by two leaders in the field-Kathleen Barry Ingram, MA (co-creator of the Epona Approach TM and Leigh Shambo, MSW (of Human-Equine Alliances for Learning). This year we have added David Young to the staff and consider his expertise in scientific rigor, and years of experience practicing natural horsemanship as the next step for the HEAL Model TM of EFL
HEAL 2009 GRADUATION
Cost: $6,800 Please contact Kathleen at kathygram@cox.net or Ricki at ricki@humanequinealliance.org for more information.
Attached is a full program description heal-ftp-2010-pdf
The Power of Horses- Dusseldorf, Germany June 18,19,20 2010
November 29, 2009 by Kathleen
Germany workshop Friday, June 18 through Sunday, June 20, 2010
“The Power of Horses”, a workshop in Mettmann (near Dusseldorf), is being hosted by Eva Balzer. Eva completed the HEAL Facilitator Training Program with Kathleen and Leigh Shambo in October 2009. This will be the first opportunity for the German audience to hear the latest psychological and scientifc research which backs up the experiential findings of the work with horses. Kathleen is very excited to introduce this and to share her experience and expertise with the German people.
Contact: Eva Balzer, www.evabalzer.de email: kontakt@evabalzer.de
phone: +49-1722320836
address: Eitelstrasse 47
40472 Duesseldorf
COST: 495€
Eva & Jola at home in Germany
Equine Facilitated Learning, Psychotherapy, & Coaching: A Comparison
March 1, 2009 by Kathleen
EQUINE FACILITATED LEARNING, PSYCHOTHERAPY, COACHING: A COMPARISON
The field of Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) has undergone a lot of changes in the recent years. There has been quite a controversy about how to name what we, who co-facilitate with horses in advanced personal development work, actually call ourselves and how we identify what we are doing. The Epona Approach™ and the work I am currently engaged in with Leigh Shambo at Human Equine Alliances for Learning (HEAL) both agree that the horses are our full partners in this endeavor. Their innate knowledge, wisdom, and accurate intuition guide us as human facilitators when we follow their lead and learn from these consummate teachers. Some practitioners/facilitators identify themselves as practicing Equine Experiential Learning (EEL); Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning (EFEL); Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning (FEEL); Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP) Equine Therapeutic Learning (ETL); Equine Assisted Coaching (EAC), however I refer to what I practice as Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL). The following information is presented to shed some light on the various ways of working, and on what I feel are some of the most important principles and guidelines to follow as we continue this important partnership with the horse.
Psychotherapy Coaching
• Therapy is about uncovering & More about Discovering
Recovering
• Based on the Medical Model Not about disease but about
of dis-ease and diagnosis optimum health
• Examining the past Being in the present
• Looking to therapist for solutions Mutual examination
for emotional concerns
• Helping clients move from a state Assisting people who are highly
of dysfunction to one of being functional but may not be achieving
functional their full personal or professional
potential
• More of a doctor/patient relationship Partnering with clients in a creative
process
Equine Facilitated Learning and the lessons we acquire from interactions with the horses is based on mutual understanding and respect. As professionals in this field we do need to be aware of the clients’ projections and transference involving ourselves and the horses, and our own counter-transference issues. Much of the information in the coaching profession as well as experiential learning has come from traditional psychotherapeutic principles and dynamics.
The pioneering work of Adler and Jung is noted by Patrick Williams, a psychologist for 28 years who moved into the coaching profession and in 1990 helped in the formation of the International Coaching Federation, (ICF). Williams says: “Adler and Jung saw individuals as the creators and artists of their lives and frequently involved their clients in goal setting, life planning, and inventing their future —- all tenets in today’s coaching.” He also points to Carl Rogers work with client-centered therapy as a “significant precursor to coaching”. (Williams, “Counseling Today” December, 2008)
Edward Colozzi, a career development expert and author of the book Creating Careers with Confidence says; “Although coaching has its limitations, its practice harkens back to the times in many cultures when spiritual leaders, shamans, mentors or others in the community offered informational guidance. It is, in a way, a back-to-the-future paradigm shift. A life coach is a mentor—a person who joins us on a journey. Many people have performed that role in the past. But in a society such as ours that starts to have rules and regulations—that may be where counseling was born. Now, perhaps, we are seeing a return to something more basic.” (Colozzi, “Counseling Today” December,2008)
Irvin Yalom, MD, considered by many as the “Father of Group Therapy”, says that with the current crisis in psychotherapy, there will not be enough trained individuals to do the work. “Psychiatry is on the verge of abandoning the field of psychotherapy. Young psychiatrists are forced to specialize in psychopharmacology because third party payers now reimburse for psychotherapy only if it is delivered by low fee (in other words, minimally) trained practitioners.” Even though Yalom is concerned about the current state of affairs, he is confident that a “cohort of therapists coming from a variety of educational disciplines will continue to pursue rigorous post graduate training.
Equine Facilitated Learning can fill some of what is missing in the health care system . Individuals seeking change from old dysfunctional patterns of behavior and automatic responses based on unconscious motivations can find help and assistance through the Way of The Horse. Yalom says, “At its very core, the flow of therapy should be spontaneous, forever following unanticipated river beds” Therapy following a managed care protocol does not allow for spontaneity and reflection. The horses, as our teachers, and co-facilitators demand that we “go with the flow” and therefore, keep the interaction dynamic and in the present moment.
Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, an area I studied extensively in post graduate work with one of my mentors, Dr Paul Rosenberg, works with the unconscious forces (the dynamics) of inner conflict by holding a supportive container for clients to experience in the present moment emotions and memories from the past. Much of the material and teaching I developed for educating students of EFL came from the theories behind this approach and the clinical experience of my clients. What I got to see for myself as I engaged more with the horses was that this dynamic was present in many of the sessions I conducted with a client and a horse. The challenge was how to develop a process in experiential learning that held the container present in a psychotherapeutic session. The container suggested in the phrase I call holding the sacred space of possibility was essential in establishing safety for both the client and the horse. Without suspension of judgment and personal desire for an expected outcome, a reflective round pen and any active or passive engagement with the horse becomes more of repeat of old behaviors and attitudes. “I am the expert and thus you and the horse should do this my way.” The facilitator’s understanding of their own unconscious forces or dynamics underlying their thoughts, feelings, actions and behaviors is absolutely necessary for the client and the horse to have a truly creative and innovative equine experience. The Johari Window, the Karpman Trauma/Drama triangle and the thorough study of projection, transference, introjection and countertransference are ways to enhance and support students participating in an EFL training program. If the student is interested, engaged and encouraged to explore these dynamics themselves, they will be far ahead of many who practice equine facilitated learning, equine experiential learning, psychotherapy and/or coaching.
My own personal opinion around the discussion and controversy of whether to use the designation of equine facilitated learning, equine facilitated psychotherapy or equine assisted coaching when describing your practice is simply this, “Know thyself”. I believe if you know your personal style, understand your thought processes and emotions, and are actively and enthusiastically engaged in a relationship with any sentient being, the likelihood of a mutual and successful partnership is possible. The excellent facilitator is a mentor, a truth seeker, a challenger, and most of all someone who guides each person towards personal accountability, integrity, ease, and fulfillment.
Our teachers, mentors, friends and co-facilitators, the horses say “Thanks for listening”.
Horse Wisdom: photo by Larney Otis
Kathleen Barry Ingram, MA
Excerpt from “Unexpected Grace: How Horses Changed my Life”
Copyright, 2009
Unexpected Grace: How Horses Changed My Life
December 13, 2008 by Kathleen
The working title for a memoir I am writing is, “Unexpected Grace: How Horses Changed My Life” so this is the beginning of the story. I believe it is in those spaces in-between what I call “holding the sacred space of possibility” that grace and guidance happens. I follow what Robert Johnson calls, “the slender threads” in his book, “Balancing Heaven and Earth” and at this stage of my life look back on people, circumstances, and experiences that have guided me, I know the nudges I followed were many times where the most significant changes occurred. As a child and young adult I remember riding horses across fallow corn fields in Indiana with my cousins and feeling the wind in my hair and the pure joy of being in sync with these magnificent beings. When I was older and had children every family vacation included at least one horse ride. My youngest daughter, Meghan, tried many times to covince her Father and me to get her a horse but eventually had to settle for riding her friends’ horses or the horses at my sister’s ranch in Colorado. I loved it all and have to admit I took much of it in stride until grace entered in and changed my life.
My grandmother, Frances Shea Klein, probably wasn’t doing anything extraordinary on the day this picture was taken. This image of my grandmother, placed on my mantel with other family pictures, was one of many in an old photo album I found of hers. Grace is why I believe this particular image was the one I decided to take and reprint for my sisters, children and Aunt. My grandmother, gone many years, was such an important part of my early childhood and I love to think about her in this innocent, beautiful scene with the black and white working horses. What was she thinking about? Her whole life was ahead of her and I imagine she was out on a morning stroll and stopped to commune with the horses and maybe have a long chat. Equine Facilitated Learning is a name for a new field of working with horses in human development but somehow I believe my grandmother already knew this. Barbara Rector came to see me for some consulting and noticed this picture and asked “Are you a horse person, Kathleen?”. Little did I know then where that question and her observation would eventually lead me.
Frances Shea Klein Wisconsin 1908
Cisco at Yvonne Monahan's in Ireland
HEAL’S 2008 GRADUATION CLASS
December 8, 2008 by Kathleen
HEAL Graduation 2008
HEAL and instructors, Leigh Shambo and Kathleen Barry Ingram, are proud to announce the premier class of graduates from the Facilitator Training Program. Jean Ryan Brothman, Ella Bloomfield, Gina Cook, Samantha Heath-Lange, and Judith Kay successfully completed the program on October 25, 2008.
Leigh and I wanted to create, design, and implement a program which would encourage talented people to take the HEAL principles, teachings and philosophy to a wider audience of horses and humans. These five individuals, with varied backgrounds and life stories, rigorously undertook the challenge to uncover hidden truths and gifts, thereby discovering their own unique way of presenting and teaching equine facilitated learning.
We learned a lot this year ourselves, and we are confident that these individuals and others can take this paradigm shifting concept to horses and humans. It is time to change and influence how we all relate to each other and we gratefully acknowledge the guidance and wisdom our four legged companions give us on a daily basis.
Here are the graduates in their Own Words:
Ella Bloomfield
“Horses have certainly been the healers in my life, but what began as a personal experience and an intuition that people and horses can heal together, has become for me, over the past year, a researched and abiding truth. The HEAL Facilitator Training Program taught me how to celebrate my individual strengths and bring them to a field that heals through the language of the heart. This approach to healing and personal development is a whole-istic experience for all involved – the client, the horse, the facilitator, and the larger circle surrounding each one. This year has been life changing, and I now find myself, all of myself, embarking on a career with horses and people that is both personally meaningful and of great consequence in the world.”
Gina Cook
Jean Brothman & Magic
Judith Kay at Graduation
Sam Lange Graduates
You can contact these facilitators:
Samantha Heath-Lange
12724 128th Ave NE
Lake Stevens, WA 98258
Tel: 360-658-8980
Cell: 206-979-5963
Judith Kay
2732 Ron Court
Colorado Springs, CO 80909
Tel: 719-633-1979
Jean Ryan Brothman
2016 Boliver Rd.
Fort Valley, VA 22652
540 933-6225 Home
540 325-4900 (cell)
Ella Bloomfield
Nash Dom
Hartley Bridge Hill
Horsley
Gloucestershire
England, GL6 0QB
Tel: 01453 835825
Gina Cook
1812 Allen Rd. SE
Olympia, WA 98501
Tel: 360-507-2314
www.serenityfarmequestriancenter.com
Equine Facilitated Learning Opportunities in Tucson
December 8, 2008 by Kathleen
Kathleen invites you to experience EFL for yourself
Kathleen, Cutter and Rebecca Paradies
in Tucson. I work at the Ranch on River Road with Rebecca Paradies, www.paintinghorses.net and her horses, Peppy and Cutter. We can work with you individually and also set up other possibilities with families, groups and working teams. Kathleen can arrange for Indiviual and Family intensives for up to 3 days at the Ranch. Contact her for more information and for other venues.
Equine Faciliated Learning: Implicit Knowing versus Explicit Knowledge
November 26, 2008 by Kathleen
EQUINE FACILITATED LEARNING And Implicit Knowing versus Explicit Knowledge
There is, then, both a moral and practical obligation for each of us to look beyond the surface of events…to feel the ground swell underneath the events and perceive the direction they are taking: to perceive the evolutionary trend as it drives social change in our word. “The Choice” by Ervin Laszlo
What does Equine Facilitated Learning have to do with what is called the “Great Turning”? Joanna Macy sees this as “the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial-growth society to a life-sustaining society” which takes into account all of life and nature. Research on how we learn and how much we retain supports what the horses have been teaching us all along. Implicit Knowing which comes from actual experience supports experiential learning, in this case the work with horses. Explicit knowledge, while necessary and important, is not experienced directly but rather through study, education and the experiences of others. If we can take this time to bring forth new dimensions of human intelligence and solidarity among all sentient beings, way beyond anything we now know, then perhaps we can see this as a time of optimism. A time where we can “hold” both the collective nightmare and the collective awakening, the shadow and the light described by James O’Dea, president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Peter Russell calls this time a place of integrated “trans-egoic” consciousness.
My experience with horses has demonstrated, without question, these adept facilitators can teach us more about us as sentient beings and also how to traverse the obstacles and challenges we are facing as a species today. Christopher Bache, in “Dark Night, Early Dawn” calls this the “dark night of the species-soul”. Maybe it is time for other species, in this case the horses, to teach us how to live and respect all of nature.
The 3 brain theory: Brain in the head; brain in the heart; and brain in the gut supports the work with horses who have a much larger heart field and gut than humans. In fact, too much thinking and remembering can take us out of the moment without enough brain activity for feeling and experiencing. We now know that intelligence is distributed throughout the body. When you have a direct experience it does not go directly to the brain in the head. The first place it goes is to the neurological networks of the intestinal tract (brain in the gut) and the heart (brain in the heart). If we do not feel our values and or goals, we cannot live them. The brain in the heart actually seeks out new experiences and is open to new possibilities which will intuitively matter to you in your life and work. The brain in your heart “reads” what others feel and measures the coherence and congruence of the other’s feeling state and checks it against its own inner state of coherent values, beliefs, and passions. This is why horses, as prey animals, are so good at measuring the inner state of people, checking them out for any incongruence’s, and responding from their guts and hearts and not from the brain in the head where language can distort and deny what is actually happening.
Many of the people talking about the changes inherent in the shift refer to the heart as the change agent essential to this new paradigm. The Institute of Heartmath, a research organization, has measured the heart’s electromagnetic field which is 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain. Some of their research has involved horses because of their large hearts. Love is at the heart of evolution and the healing source. Spiritual resonance is an energetic resonance coming from the heart and the limbic brain which connects with others in a “unified field” so that when one person sheds the layers of illusion it encourages others to find their true voice and authentic self. It has been found that clarified states of consciousness have a contagious quality. A psychiatrist, Elio Fratterolli, coined the term “affect contagion” where emotions both positive and negative can be “caught” by another person or persons.
Research on the brain in the head and how events, emotions and learning are stored in neural pathways (starting with the brain in the heart and gut) supports the efficacy of Equine Facilitated Learning. The triune brain (in the head) consists of three distinct sub-brains that have separate functions, properties and chemistries. All three of these brains developed in evolutionary history in separate ages. The reptilian brain handles basic bodily functions such as: breathing, heartbeat and swallowing and some animals, snakes for instance, operate singularly from this part of the brain. The limbic brain, the one we will discuss in this essay in length, functions in all mammals to assist them in birthing and caring for their young. The limbic area of the brain is where our ability to relate is felt and stored. The last, but not the most advanced, part of the brain in the neocortical brain which functions in humans and to a lesser extent in mammals to assist in reasoning, writing, language and planning.
The book, “A General Theory of Love” is an excellent source for much of the research on this subject. Some of the information contained in this book about how a therapist’s relationship with a client is the determining factor in long term healing can be applied to how and why equine facilitated learning works. Relationship does affect the revision of these pathways through the processes of limbic resonance, limbic regulation and limbic restructuring.
Look at some of the direct quotes from this book about limbic revision and see if you agree. “The first part of emotional healing is being limbically known [limbic resonance]—–having someone with a keen ear catch your melodic essence…………..a precise seer’s light can still split the night, illuminate treasures long lost, and dissolve many fearsome figures into shadows and dust. (pg. 170)
Limbic regulation happens through relationship. “But people do not learn emotional modulation as they do geometry or the names of state capitals. These concepts are stored in the neocortical brain. People and animals absorb the skill from living in the presence of an adept external modulator [the horses with congruent and authentic facilitators], and they learn it implicitly.”(pg. 171)
Can you see how Equine Facilitated Learning changes an individual’s implicit knowing rather than teaching or explaining a feeling or event through explicit knowledge and why this is more valuable for a lasting and long term change to occur?
“These novel pathways have the initial fragility of spring grass, but they take deep root within an environment that provides simple sustaining limbic nutrients. With enough repetition, the fledging circuits consolidate into novel Attractors. When that happens, identity has changed. The patient (person) is no longer the person he was.” (pg. 179)
Through this work with horses’ new neural pathways in the brain will develop which will eventually become a superhighway replacing the other highway which helped the person to survive but keeps them from thriving. The third stop for nerve impulses, after going to the other two brains (heart and gut), goes to the area of the brain in the head known as the medulla located in the limbic or feeling brain. The medulla is a vital link with the RAS, reticular activating system, which has evolved over millennia with an inherent tendency to magnify negative incoming messages, like fear, and minimize positive ones. Information coming through the RAS goes quickly up to the neocortical brain and assists in making the decision to fight, flee or freeze. This was needed in the Stone Age to protect us from danger which helped us to survive as a species. However, to thrive we need to be able to differentiate between actual outside fear and vulnerability. Vulnerability is an” inside feeling” which feels the same as fear, but has a very different message usually having to do with change or a challenge. Sometimes it is the more positive feelings which seem the most threatening. This work can offer an individual a “corrective emotional experience” when the stimulus (the feeling) is familiar but the response and outcome is different. It does take some time for a new neural pathway to develop; however, the good news is that adult human brains have enough plasticity to do this.
The neocortical brain collects facts: new facts and new paradigms can change existing facts quickly. The limbic brain does not change quickly; however, continued exposure to another mammal (us or the horse) can restructure the limbic brain of another person. I see this as evidence as to why “talk therapy”, self-help books, and traditional cognitive/behavioral techniques can only affect the part of the brain that reasons, plots, speaks, writes, plans and records. The neocortical brain is not the most advanced of the three brains but only the most recent. Again from a “General Theory of Love, “Evolution is a kaleidoscope, not a pyramid: the shapes and variety of species are constantly shifting, but there is no basis for assigning supremacy, no pinnacle toward which the system is moving……We are free to label ourselves the end product of evolution not because it is so, but because we exist now.” (pg. 31) They suggest that we expunge our temperocentrist bias. Our work with the horses demonstrates this. Our teachers are these magnificent mammals who have a much larger limbic systems and smaller neocortical brains.
Here is one of the best descriptions I have seen of what I call”holding the sacred space of possibility”: that space in-between words and doing where a container of support to be is created that is fully engaged, not tied to the story, and is open to “what is happening in the moment”. Horses and other animals do this naturally. “The therapist who cannot engage in this open adventure of exploration will fail to grasp the other’s essence. His every preconception about how a person should feel risks misleading him as to how a person does feel. When he stops sensing with his limbic brain, a therapist is fatally apt to substitute inference for resonance. Therapists prone to surrender limbic vision come from schools that offer cookie-cutter solutions.” (pg. 183, A General Theory of Love)
In conclusion, equine facilitated learning can and does transform the client’s limbic brain which takes much more repetition than does the “quick fix” of most brief therapies which address only the neocortical brain. The neocortical brain can rapidly change didactic information but without the whole body, the brain in the heart and the gut; only ones’ thoughts and information change. This, in my opinion, is why so many people “understand” why they might do “such and such” differently and still go about life unconsciously without full engagement and lasting results. When all 3 brains are in agreement and the person is living from a conscious place, life becomes a symphony with each day bringing new challenges, joys and sorrows. All of nature and the animals are calling us, reaching out to us, and saying: We are and have always been ready to teach, support and guide you with our innate wisdom.
Excerpt from “Unexpected Grace”
Copyright, 2008
Kathleen Barry Ingram
Resources:
Institute of Heartmath www.heartmath.com
Institute of Noetic Sciences www.noetic.org
“Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain” Elio Frattarolli M.D.
“Dark Night, Early Dawn” Christopher M. Bache
“The Mystery of 2012” Sounds True, Inc.
“A General Theory of Love” Thomas Lewis, M.D., Fari Amini, M.D., and Richard Lannon, M.D.
“The Other 90%” Robert K. Cooper
“Quantum Shift in the Global Brain” Ervin Laszlo
“The Global Brain, Waking in Time” Peter Russell
“The Great Turning as Compass and Lens” Joanna Macy (The Mystery of 2012)
Equine Facilitated Learning
November 18, 2008 by Kathleen
What is Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL)?
Why Horses?
Magic happens when humans and horses come together. Horses are consummate facilitators in the work of human development. Their size alone inspires a heightened state of awareness. These intelligent, sensitive creatures respond to both positive and negative changes in the handler’s behavior, offering constant feedback and timely rewards or consequences for their actions.
Noche
Horses are social creatures who readily and honestly respond to the challenges inherent in forming and sustaining relationships. As animals preyed upon in nature, they have retained a highly developed ability to sense changes in the stance and arousal of other herd members; an ability they easily transfer to interactions with human beings. Horses see through the slight incongruities of emotion and intention, yet they are exceedingly patient and forgiving.
What is Equine Facilitated Learning?
Kathleen & Gem, Washington 2008
Kathleen & Gem, Washington 2008
Through a series of specially designed activities, participants in Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) deepen their awareness of personal issues, core feelings and areas of bodily tension that inhibit the ability to reach their true potential. A tremendous boost in self-esteem and confidence comes from learning how to establish boundaries and direct a thousand-pound creature through mental focus, creative visualization and clarity of intent.
These skills, which can be difficult to teach in a conventional classroom or counseling session, have far-ranging applications that are linked to increased success in personal, relationships, career and parenting. Horse-facilitated activities help people recognize and move beyond the coping strategies associated with surviving in a competitive world. Participants in EFL develop a thriving mind set capable of endless compassion, innovation, energy adaptability, and creativity.
Equine Facilitated Learning requires no previous experience with horses and involves working on the ground with the horse in a safe setting with an experience facilitator. EFL may or may not proceed to working on horseback. Just a single session can have life changing effects as participants open to their true potential.
HEAL FACILITATOR TRAINING PROGRAM 2010
Kathleen continues to teach and facilitate groups and individuals in this exciting healing modality with her equine and human colleagues in workshops, trainings and intensives worldwide. For more information on when and where look under Events and workshops. Leigh Shambo, Kathleen and David Young created the HEAL Model for EFL training and are offering an Equine Facilitated Learning program to teach, guide and support qualified individuals who want to begin their own practices in this exciting healing modality. The dates for 2010 are May 3-9 and October 11-17. See the attached pdf file for a full program description. heal-ftp-2010-pdf1
Kathleen,Beau, David Young & Leigh Shambo
Epona Equestrian Services
Linda Kohanov, Epona Equestrian Services, and Kathleen Barry Ingram began working together in 1998 creating workshops and individual intensives by incorporating their talents and expertise to develop an innovative and creative healing modality employing horses as equal partners. Linda wrote and completed “ The Tao of Equus”, “Riding Between the Worlds” and “ Way of the Horse: Equine Archetypes for Self-Discovery” with artist Kim McElroy which describe very well the magic and the gifts the horses bring. The development of the Epona Approach TM to working with people and horses advanced to the implementation of the Epona Apprenticeship program which was co-created, designed and taught by Linda and Kathleen through 2007 when the 9th class graduated and another group of talented and experienced individuals began their equine facilitated learning practices. Linda and her colleagues continue to teach apprentices and offer workshops and training at the Epona Center in Sonoita, Arizona www.taoofequus.com
Kathleen & Pappy January 2008 at Buffalo Woman Ranch