EFP/EFEL/EFHD
Windhorse Wisdom is a culmination of my personal journey, blending a passion for horses and cultivating consciousness. Based upon The Epona Approach, as described in Linda Kohanov's groundbreaking books, The Tao of Equus and Riding Between the Worlds, working with horses can develop skills that create a new level of personal and social awareness. This awareness can transfer into daily life as a profound sensitivity to and deeper understanding of non-verbal communication, body sensations as information and guidance, emotional congruence, and your authentic self. Additionally, horses are masters of authentic community, and can help you learn the skills necessary to build healthy relationships: mutual respect, non-judgmental acceptance, boundary setting, and shared leadership.
In her book Walking the Way of the Horse, Leif Hallberg draws distinctions among equine-facilitated psychotherapy (EFP), equine-facilitated experiential-learning (EFEL), and equine-facilitated human-development (EFHD). In EFP, the horse serves as co-facilitator, promoting insight and self-awareness, providing reflective feedback, allowing reenactments and corrective emotional experiences. In EFEL, life skills, social, and communication skills can be explored and developed through experiential exercises. In EFHD, goals expand to include leadership skills, intuition training, increased creativity, and advanced communication skills.
These sessions do not require riding or any previous horse experience and there are a range of possible goals from the practical to the esoteric. As one learns to halter, lead, groom, and eventually influence the horse at a distance as in free lungeing, some seek objective behavioral improvements in confidence, body awareness, breathing, or practicing healthy relationship skills. For people who want to learn to manage their anxiety through graduated tasks paired with relaxation techniques, horses are living biofeedback mechanisms. Others may explore the rich emotional landscape evoked by working in close proximity with the paradox of these powerful, yet sensitive, beings. Still others may discover this work can reveal unconscious patterns of behavior, previously unrecognized that can now be changed. To those veterans of personal growth and spiritual pilgrims "on the path", horses hold open a door to a deeper part of ourselves and the world.
Riding can, of course, be incorporated into this approach. Many seasoned and accomplished equestrians have found this work renewing and refreshing after many years of partnering with horses in a very different paradigm. Still others may have experienced a trauma, been injured, witnessed an accident, or find themselves anxious about being with horses for some other reason. In our commitment to the deeper processes of healing and transformation, we offer cutting-edge psychotherapy, as well as bio-feedback, utilizing the HeartMath technology and research.
Working with the horses can improve your emotional fitness, mentor you in improving your relationships, help you reconnect to the wisdom of embodied awareness, and assist in evolving your consciousness. We invite you to consider allowing our horses to nudge you awake -- in your body and in the moment -- whispering what just might be possible. We offer private sessions and group workshops. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have at 518-654-2398 or barijb@gmail.com.