Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP)

Equine Assisted Life Coaching holds a variety of opportunities in connecting with your inner child, your inner playfulness and innocence, increasing your own self awareness, and learning to enhance your communication in relationships. Equine is a great therapeutic activity for those who have low self esteem, have relationship issues, have difficulty communicating how they are feeling, have been engaging in substance use, or are interested in connecting to animals and nature as a coping skill.

I am trained in and practice Embodied Equine Psychotherapy™, which is an experiential, somatic and relational approach to working with clients and horses. I combine this approach with my knowledge of relationships, connection and trauma to create a unique and healing experience for my clients.

I am a Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, International Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor. I offer in-person equine-assisted psychotherapy in Pasadena, CA. I have over 40 years of experience with horses and believe they can teach us a great deal about ourselves. Equines are partners in my treatment and you will be outside and in nature which also adds to your healing.

I provide a somatic based approach to EAP. Horses can be powerful healing facilitators for clients. They are able to reflect back emotions to the people engaged with them whether the people are aware of their own emotions or not. This provides a great way to be able to externalize and work through various struggles in life. Horses are great with helping set boundaries, building self-awareness, developing healthy communication styles, and so much more.

Equine Assisted Life Coaching holds a variety of opportunities in connecting with your inner child, your inner playfulness and innocence, increasing your own self awareness, and learning to enhance your communication in relationships. Equine is a great therapeutic activity for those who have low self esteem, have relationship issues, have difficulty communicating how they are feeling, have been engaging in substance use, or are interested in connecting to animals and nature as a coping skill.

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy utilizes the horse as a tool in the therapeutic process. I am a PATH certified therapeutic horseback riding instructor as well as EAGALA trained in EAP.

I am a certified EAP Mental Health Professional with EAGALA

I offer Equine Assisted Psychotherapy at a facility nearby.

Porter's House Inc. is excited to be working in collaboration with Shepard Meadows Therapeutic Riding Center, located in Bristol, to offer Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) to our clients! EAP is the combined use of horses, a licensed therapist, and an equine specialist to support clients in making progress towards individual treatment goals. The client's relationship with the horse can be utilized as a tool to mirror real-life experiences and to explore patterns in their own relationships.

I partner with a local EAP barn to provide the wodner of healing trauma with horses.

Utilizing horses in the therapy session allows for a unique way to address internal feelings and communication. The horse(s) joins the session in a way that fits the specific needs of each client, whether it is building self-esteem, working through anger issues or developing healthier communication skills.

A horse is a beautiful majestic creature, and when one interacts with you there is a sense of awe. But horses can also be opinionated, stubborn, quirky, reluctant, many of the same things that might challenge you. Horses don't sit there worrying about these things, they just are who they are. And they can help us see ourselves for the rich beings we are too, strengths and flaws alike.

Professionals guide clients through activities with horses. There are different kinds of equine programs, and they have different goals for the people involved. Some programs are part of mental health treatment. In other cases, clients ride horses as part of a physical or occupational therapy regimen. Equine therapy programs can help treat: behavioral problems, relationship issues, grief, anxiety, depression, ADHA, addiction, eating disorders, and more.