This is an interactive therapy program involving an equine specialist and a licensed mental health counselor (who are each specially certified in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy), along with the client and the horse. The client engages in activities with the horses and is given an opportunity to explore and process evolving thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Clients experience the full spectrum of human emotions and try out more successful behavioral responses, relating them directly back to experiences in their everyday life.
The "HEALTHY MINDS | HEALTHY BODIES" program is not a replacement for your current counseling, but is conducted as an enhancement to other therapies and care plans.
Learn actionable ways to enhance your self-esteem and confidence in this 4 week series. We each struggle with issues of esteem, obstacles to personal growth and finding how to heal decades of damage to our sense of self-worth. Through creative and thoughtful interaction with our horses, and guidance from our professional and licensed mental health therapist, "Planting Seeds of Self Worth" is a workshop series that will help you find your voice, your self-esteem and your sense of value.
There is something special about a horse that brings about a sense of peace when nothing else can. During these intensive retreats, participants living with anxiety and depression from eating disorders will develop skills such as creating healthy connections with food, increasing self confidence and improving social and family relationships. You'll engage in activities with the horses and explore evolving thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
In this team-approach therapy, clients work with horses inside the safety of a quiet arena, and all activity is done on the ground with the horses who are each intentionally 'at liberty' without halters or reins, and not ridden. The horses are allowed to interact with the client as they choose.
This freedom of choice creates a nonjudgmental space for the client to reflect, project, and discover meaningful solutions for themselves.
These sessions bring a refreshing change and help you find restorative relaxation from a too-busy world. We help you carve out time and space where you can reflect, connect and experience physical and emotional renewal.
We combine modified relaxation techniques in a peaceful setting that brings the beauty and self-awareness of horses into the peace-finding process. Our horses teach us by example how to live in the moment we inhabit. You can attend one or several of our sessions.
Copyright © 2023 Pastures of Hope - All Rights Reserved.
Julie Tucker Ponder - LCSW, CADC, President of Psychiatric Assoc. of Central Illinois, Founder of J. PONDER COUNSELING AND COACHING, AND Pastures of Hope, provided at Wholer Stables.