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Why Movement Matters: The Body’s Role in Equine-Assisted Healing

Why Movement Matters: The Body’s Role in Equine-Assisted Healing

by | Jun 26, 2025 | Basics of Natural Lifemanship, Case Studies, Equine Assisted Trainings, Personal Growth

When it comes to equine-assisted services, we often focus on the profound emotional and psychological breakthroughs that happen when humans and horses connect. We celebrate the moments when a client finds their voice, builds confidence, or processes trauma through their relationship with these magnificent equine partners. But there’s something fundamental we’re missing in many conversations about this work—something that determines whether these breakthroughs happen at all.

Your body is speaking, whether you realize it or not, and the horses are listening.

The Language Horses Understand Best

When we engage with a horse, we enter a conversation that precedes spoken language. Horses are hardwired to read the subtle communications of movement, posture, and energy that reveal intention, emotional state, and even past experiences. They don’t care about your credentials, your therapeutic techniques, or your carefully crafted treatment plans. They care about what your body is telling them at this moment.

This creates both an incredible opportunity and a significant challenge for those of us working in equine-assisted services. The opportunity lies in the immediate, honest feedback horses provide about our internal states. The challenge is that most of us have never been trained to understand what our bodies are actually communicating.

We live in a culture that has taught us to separate the mind from the body, to treat physical wellness as distinct from mental health. But here’s what science tells us: our brain, body, and nervous system develop together from the very beginning.

In utero, it’s not that the brain develops first and then tells the body to move. Rather, the body begins moving in reflexive patterns, and it’s through this movement that neural pathways form.

Movement builds the brain. And trauma, by altering our movement patterns, reshapes our neural landscape in ways that affect how we think, feel, and relate to the world.

Trauma Changes the Way We Move

When trauma occurs, the body adapts. These adaptations are often protective, and they are usually unconscious.

We see this played out in the bodies of trauma survivors—shoulders turned inward, eyes cast downward, feet turned inward with toes curled toward the midline. This particular posture, interestingly, mirrors one of our earliest intrauterine movements, when a developing baby moves into the protective fetal position.

When someone lives in this contracted, protective posture consistently, they’re not just physically small—they’re emotionally and energetically small too. They’ve learned to make themselves quiet, invisible, safe. And horses, with their exquisite sensitivity to body language and energy, respond to this communication immediately.

A Story of Change

One of our clients, a woman in her 40s, came to us with a history of early and repeated trauma. Her body moved in a way that reflected her past. She walked with her head down, her shoulders rounded, and her toes curled slightly inward. She carried herself as if trying to disappear.

When she made requests of the horses, they ignored her. Some even pushed her out of their space.

Rather than focusing on what she was saying, we focused on how she was moving. We worked with developmental movement patterns—specifically, the push and reach patterns that help restore a sense of agency. These patterns are part of what we teach in the Embodied Developmental Movement Series.

This wasn’t about telling her how to stand. Instead, we invited her to explore “push” in her body – her ability to push into the earth for support, and her experience of pushing on an object, or another person, to rediscover her internal strength. In exploring “push”, we also explore the felt sense of “I am here”.

As she practiced these movements, her nervous system began to shift. Her stance changed. Her energy became more organized.

We didn’t ask her to stand a certain way, we helped her find what she needed to hold herself tall.

Eventually, the horses started to respond to her differently. They began to listen, to connect, and to willingly choose to cooperate with her requests.

The change was not just physical, it was emotional and relational. And it began in the body.

Subtle Adjustments Make a Big Impact

Another client, an executive with a high level of anxiety, presented a different movement pattern. On the surface she appeared confident, straight-backed with her head up. But her movement told a more complex story.

When she reached toward her horse, her weight shifted backward. Her knees were locked, and she stood heavily on her heels. She believed she was grounded. In truth, she was leaning away.

With gentle guidance, she softened her knees and allowed her full foot to meet the ground. For the first time, she felt her toes. This simple change brought her into a more neutral and balanced position. Her horse responded with a deep breath and moved toward her.

That moment marked a turning point. By learning to move in a more integrated way, she experienced a deeper sense of connection—with herself and with her horse.  A shift she couldn’t help but take into the rest of her relationships.

Retained Reflexes and Incomplete Patterns

We also see clients who carry reflexes that were never fully integrated during development. (Sometimes it is just a part of themselves who carries the reflex.) The Moro reflex, for example, is a startle response that should complete in infancy. When it remains active, it can show up in adult clients as sudden backward movement, difficulty recovering from surprise, or heightened reactivity.

In equine sessions, this often becomes visible during mounted work. If a horse makes a sudden stop or shift, the client may flinch backward and struggle to return to center. These reactions are not about the horse. They are rooted in the body’s unprocessed history.

By working with these reflexes in an intentional manner, we help clients build the capacity to stay present. We help them complete movements that were never allowed to finish.

A Change the Horses Can See

The people we work with often begin to feel change in their bodies before they see it reflected in their lives. In traditional relationships, others may take time to notice or trust a person’s transformation.

But horses notice right away.

When a client stands more grounded, breathes more deeply, or moves with intention, the horse responds immediately. That response builds trust. It reinforces the change. It gives the client something to hold onto when the outside world is slower to catch up.

This is one of the reasons equine-assisted work is so powerful. It allows clients to experience the impact of their healing as it happens.

The Role of the Practitioner

To do this work well, we must become students of movement. We need to understand how the body was designed to move, how trauma alters that movement, and how we can guide clients in regaining patterns that support regulation and connection.

This is what the Embodied Developmental Movement Series teaches.

Across four progressive trainings, we explore the motor patterns and reflexes that shape human development. We practice observing the body with care and clarity. And we learn how to support small, intentional shifts that lead to meaningful transformation.

The work of developmental movement is about connecting with our most basic, and pervasive, way of experiencing the world.  As a facilitator, we can observe gesture, posture, gait, breath, patterns of tension and collapse, and so much more.

We can lean into the subtle nuances of how our clients move through their world, and rebuild patterns from the ground up that support health and harmony.

When you become more fluent in the language of movement, you gain new tools for healing. And you help your clients discover what it means to be fully present in their own bodies—and in their relationships.

Healing rooted in the body

When we help someone move differently, we help them live and connect differently. That is the heart of this work.

If you already practice a somatic lens with your clients, these trainings will add to your toolbox and enrich your skills. See more in your client’s subtleties, get to the root of the issue faster, and have more ways to creatively bring integration and clarity to your sessions.

If you are new to somatic work, or are unsure about your scope of practice, these trainings can offer you what you need to have a solid foundation to offer clients.  By attending all four trainings, you create your somatic movement scope of practice.

If you are ready to deepen your practice and explore the intelligence of movement, we invite you to explore the Embodied Developmental Movement Series with Mark Taylor and Bettina Shultz-Jobe and join us.

 

 

 

Connection Without Projection: Why Healing Begins With What’s Real

Connection Without Projection: Why Healing Begins With What’s Real

by | Apr 23, 2025 | Applied Principles, Basics of Natural Lifemanship, Personal Growth

There’s a moment many of us recognize—quiet but profound—when something clicks in session. A client gently touches a horse’s mane, or pauses mid-sentence in conversation, and you feel it.

A shift. A softening. Something real is happening.

But just as often, that moment slips away.  It begins to represent something else – something in “real life,” something outside of the present moment.   Maybe the horse becomes “Dad” or “my husband,” and the silence turns into something else.

Many of us start drawing lines and meaning before the experience can fully unfold. We turn to symbolism far too early and far too often.

But this is only projection. It might feel profound, but it isn’t presence.

In Natural Lifemanship, we say the relationship is the work. That means we meet our clients (and our equine partners) right where they are. Not as symbols. Not as metaphors. Not as stand-ins for the people or patterns we’ve carried. Just as they are.

Because true transformation happens not in what we imagine the relationship to be—but in how we experience it, moment to moment.

The Illusion of Insight

Projection can feel like insight. A client might say, “This horse reminds me of my mother,” and suddenly it all seems to make sense—the resistance, the anger, the longing. After all, the brain loves a neat narrative.

But insight without presence is a detour.

When we assign roles too soon, we bypass the discomfort of simply being in a relationship. We give ourselves a way out—a story to hold onto instead of a truth to stay with, to be with, to sense into. . . In doing so, we trade connection for clarity. And clarity, when it arrives prematurely, can actually prevent the deeper work from happening.

Presence is the Practice

Working in a trauma-informed way means we resist the urge to label too soon. We stay curious. We slow down. We let the nervous system settle before the story takes shape.

That’s hard. Especially for those of us trained in traditional modalities where naming things is seen as progress. But healing doesn’t come from labeling—it comes from relating.

In our Fundamentals training, we return to this again and again: presence is not passive. It’s active engagement. It’s showing up with our whole selves—body, breath, attention—and choosing to stay with what’s actually happening, not what we think it means.

It’s the foundation of secure attachment. And it’s the soil from which transformation grows.

Why We Work With What Is

So why does this matter? Because when we work with what is—the actual being in front of us, the feelings in our own bodies, the relational dynamics that arise organically—we begin to shift from symbolic healing to somatic healing.

Symbolic healing may provide insight. But somatic healing provides integration.

This doesn’t mean metaphor is useless. In fact, meaning-making can be beautiful and powerful. But only when it comes after presence—not in place of it.

We can’t build real relationships with a projection. But we can build relationships with a living, breathing being. And that relationship, when approached with curiosity and care, guides us to insight far more honest than anything we could manufacture.

A Personal Reflection

I remember a session with a client who kept referring to a particular horse as “my ex.” She meant it half-jokingly, but the dynamics were clear—she was guarded, reactive, mistrustful. It made sense, given her history.

Rather than following the metaphor, I asked her to focus on the actual interaction. How was the horse moving? What was she feeling in her body? Where did she notice tension? Could she stay with that?

It wasn’t instant. But slowly, something softened. She stopped narrating and started noticing. The story faded. Presence returned.

And in that space, a different kind of truth emerged—less about her past and more about her capacity to be in the present, in this relationship, with this horse, and this capable and beautiful self.

That’s the kind of shift that sticks.

Moving From Story to Self

Projection is a way our brains try to make sense of the world. It’s not inherently bad.  But when we hold too tightly to the stories we project, we miss the opportunity to be changed by real connection.

And that’s the heart of this work: to offer experiences that don’t just explain our patterns but transform them.

When we stop projecting and start relating, healing becomes possible—not because we named it, but because we felt it. Lived it. Practiced it.

In the body. In the breath. In the space between two beings, neither of whom is trying to be anything other than who and what they are.

Join Us for the Conversation

If this resonates with you—if you’re ready to explore how to move from projection to presence—we invite you to join us.

On April 28 at 5 PM Central, I will host a free webinar on “Connection Without Projection.” It’s a powerful opportunity to deepen your understanding of why presence matters more than metaphor—and how this shift can change your practice, your relationships, and your life.

And if you’re ready to go further, consider enrolling in our Fundamentals of Natural Lifemanship training. It’s where the work begins—where we build the roots that allow everything else to grow.

Because healing doesn’t start with metaphor.

It starts with what’s real.

Register for the Webinar
Join NL Fundamentals

Big T True: Finding Power in Kindness

Big T True: Finding Power in Kindness

by | Oct 29, 2024 | Basics of Natural Lifemanship

On September 27th, the day Hurricane Helene devastated Florida, North Carolina, and several other states, I was supposed  to be traveling to Asheville for a Fundamentals Practicum at Horse Sense of the Carolinas. I have family in Florida, who evacuated to Texas and some who braved both hurricanes.  Having lived over 10 years in Central Florida with hurricanes and 10 years as a young child in the Panhandle of Texas with tornadoes, my heart and body ache for those whose lives will never be the same.  

I feel it.  My body remembers, which is a powerful, and sometimes painful, path to empathy.    

This is a hard time. . . I think there is likely a much more eloquent way to communicate just how hard it really is right now, but, without simply adding cuss words to the front of “hard time,” this is all I’ve got at the moment. 

I know. . .it’s heavy.  

With elections looming, fires raging, and hurricanes wreaking absolute havoc, there are moments that I feel like the world is spinning out of control. 

As healers and helpers, this feeling of overwhelm can hit even harder—because we’re not only trying to manage our own emotions, we’re also holding space for others and for ourselves in unique ways.  We helpers are often particularly sensitive and empathetic, and we seek day by day to be present and to deeply feel with others – to stay in it.  All of it. 

 I regularly fight the urge to just put my head down and pretend none of it is happening, but I know this isn’t what the world needs from me, and when I choose to check out I know it goes against everything that we teach and everything that we, at NL, stand for.  

Healing is found in the present moment.  Period.  And sometimes the present moment is painful.    

Our world needs people like us, who are deeply attuned to it all, so we can decide how to truly help.  (Right now, as I write, I find the need to take a deep breath.  I invite you to pause and take a deep breath with a slow exhale with me.) 

Finding Power in Kindness

How do we stay in it and keep feeling without getting swept up in the enormity of it all?  When everything seems out of control, what is within our power?  What can we possibly do to make things better? 

I love this quote, which is on a magnet on the refrigerator in our kitchen, from Rebecca Hubbard’s book, Kindness in a Scary World, one of my favorite children’s books:  “Every small thing a person does is just as important as every big thing a person does.  If we all do a little, then those little kindnesses add up to a huge amount of help.”

I have come to realize that many of the things in this world that are true – Big  T True  –  have a tendency to also sound trite.  They can sound trite until they’ve trudged through the fire and flood and drought (both literally and figuratively), and come out on the other side as a Truth etched into every inch of our being.  This, my friend, is how a mission, worth making major sacrifices for, maybe even worth dying for, is formed.      

“Every small thing a person does is just as important as every big thing a person does.  If we all do a little, then those little kindnesses add up to a huge amount of help.” 

This is Big T True.   

Kindness, to ourselves and to others, becomes our power.  Dare I say,  SUPER POWER. 

Rebecca Hubbard’s book, Kindness in a Scary World, was originally written to empower children when facing scary news events. But, like many children’s books,  it offers wisdom that applies to all of us—adults, too. 

Children see things on the news or experience fear directly, and they start to wonder, What can I do? What could happen? These same questions are on our minds as adults. The answer is simple: we can each do something kind.

Kindness Toward Self and Others

As therapists and healers, we are accustomed to being the support system for our clients. But now, more than ever, we need to ensure we’re taking care of ourselves as well, because the stronger we are, the more we can offer to others.  Listen to your body, and take time to pause so you can repair from the stress of the day or the moment.  Walk, stretch, sit in a rocking chair, talk with a friend, and then mobilize again. 

Move, act. . .REST.

Move, act. . .REST.

Move, act. . . REST.  

Allow time for your nervous system to repair and strengthen.  Be kind to your body.  

Can we, as a community, commit to doing at least one kind thing for ourselves each day and then – not only for the sake of others, but for our sense of purpose and power – do one kind thing for someone else each day?  Kindness with a slightly different intention – kindness to help others and to empower ourselves.

As we all know, acts of kindness can take many forms: eye contact with the person checking us out at the grocery store, a deep breath in a group setting, a kind prayer for the person who cuts us off in traffic, for we know that each of us is fighting, an often unseen, battle.  

Connect with others.  We can even donate our time or money to a cause that aligns with our values. These acts help us remember that we are not powerless, and when we are empowered, trauma is less likely to become embodied, so that we can continue to do the life-giving and life-changing work we have been called to.   

When we each do a little, we are participating in something much larger than ourselves. Imagine if every therapist, healer, and helper in our community committed to one kind act toward themselves and toward others, each day.  Imagine the energy and the momentum that would build. 

We can find solace in knowing that our individual actions, when combined with others, can shift the energy of an entire community. It’s a ripple effect of kindness that can grow and grow. 

We may not be able to stop hurricanes or fires, or even heal the wounds of a divided society overnight, but we can start by extending kindness. 

Final Thoughts: Turning Powerlessness into Action

No matter how overwhelming the world feels right now, remember that you are not alone and you are not powerless. 

As EAS practitioners, we are uniquely positioned to create positive change, both for ourselves and for our clients. By committing to kindness, we can take small steps toward healing—both personally and collectively.

In the coming days, let’s come together as a community and commit to doing one kind thing for ourselves and  for someone else each day. And let’s remember Rebecca Hubbard’s words: “Every small thing a person does is just as important as every big thing a person does.”

Kindness isn’t just an antidote to fear—it’s a powerful force for good. Let’s wield it well.

It’s important to remember that we have the power to make a difference, no matter how small it may seem.

Consider donating to Heart of Horse Sense, where your contribution will go directly to supporting those who have been affected by Hurricane Helene in Asheville and the surrounding areas.   Natural Lifemanship will match donations up to $2,000, doubling the impact of your generosity.  Simply mention Natural Lifemanship when you donate.

To purchase Rebecca Hubbard’s Kindness in a Scary World or to donate to Heart of Horse Sense, please visit the links below. Together, we can make a difference.

 

The Benefits and Challenges of Doing Experiential Work

The Benefits and Challenges of Doing Experiential Work

by | Oct 22, 2024 | Basics of Natural Lifemanship

By Bettina Shultz-Jobe and Kate Naylor

As a therapist or other healing practitioner interested in expanding their repertoire to include Equine Assisted Services, there are a handful of things to consider. Depending on prior training or experience, the transition into equine work may feel quite easy, or drastically different!

At Natural Lifemanship we hope to support those seeking this change in having a clearer vision of what is required for offering quality and ethical equine assisted services. In this blog we will address the move to experiential work – a shift that is often challenging.

This is an excerpt from a chapter called Considerations for the therapist wanting to incorporate equines that Kate Naylor and I contributed to Shannon Knapp’s most recent edition of Horse Sense Business Sense.

Moving from Talk Therapy to Experiential Work

The process of equine assisted services can feel fairly different for conventional therapists or coaches moving out of an office setting. Much of what is practiced in office is “talk” therapy, or a more cognitive approach to healing. This approach, centered around the discussion of life events, being curious about thoughts and assumptions, and planning for making changes outside of session can be very helpful for some clients, however it is an approach that focuses on a single way of functioning (cognitive, or primarily thought-focused), which can be limiting.

Expanding Our Understanding of Healing

In the last 50 years or more, research focused on mental health continues to deepen its understanding on what is effective and best supports long lasting change. One significant shift in thinking that has occurred due to this research is the understanding that cognitive processes are only one way of approaching mental health, and often operate at a more surface level of functioning.

In order for us, as therapists, to facilitate deep change we have to also go below the level of verbal processing. Typically, experiential therapies do just that.

Why Experiential Work in Equine Assisted Services is Different

In Equine Assisted Services there are a multitude of opportunities to engage with a client on the level of sensation, emotion, movement, and relational connection that do not require verbal processing, and when paired with the addition of verbal processing of thoughts and beliefs, we impact the brain and body in a more holistic manner.

For example, a client in an EAS session will not only be affected by what he and the therapist say, but also by the natural world that influences their senses, the movements their body is able to make while moving around the natural space, and the connections that are offered from the horse as well as the therapy team.  If a practitioner also offers mounted work as a part of the therapy, then even more sensorimotor impact is available to the client.

New Demands for the Practitioner

What this all means, though, is that there are often new demands on the conventional therapist or helping professional.

To transition to EAS, but to continue doing straightforward “talk” or cognitive therapies disregards the unique benefits of an experiential approach, especially one including animals such as horses.  

Generally speaking, a therapist wanting to include equines in their work would benefit from at least a working understanding of the way somatics, human development, and attachment issues arise in a therapy session – as well as how to impact these areas to cultivate health.

Unique Challenges and Benefits of EAS

An EAS session can be a dramatically different experience than a talk therapy session held in an office because of the necessary inclusion of the environment, the sensorimotor, and the ongoing relationships that surround the client.  The environment is significantly less controlled, everyone in the system has freedom of movement, there are typically more beings present than in an office session, and equines present a level of the unexpected that requires flexibility and creativity.

How Uncontrollable Factors Facilitate Change

The uncontrollable factors can bring a small (or sometimes large) increase in stress for clients, pushing them out of their comfort zone.  This push is often very effective at bringing client issues to the surface – many EAS practitioners feel their clients uncover and address their difficulties more quickly in this experiential format than in talk therapy alone.  Manageable amounts of stress (called eustress) create an environment ripe for change.

The Importance of Spontaneity in Therapy and Learning

In these sorts of sessions, the best material for therapeutic processing is what arises in the moment, between client and horse, client and therapy team, horse and therapy team, or even client and the environment – this is something that cannot be strategically planned or prepared for.  What arises in the moment may be the result of current events or past traumas, or both – and can be explored through the body, the emotions, the relationships, or through thoughts and words…or ideally, all of the above.

There are some approaches to EAS that are more prescriptive (i.e. they offer prescribed activities for different situations) – however, even when doing planned activities, the richest material for therapy is what spontaneously arises in the felt experiences of each participant, including the relational dynamics that are present.

The Practitioner’s Role in Experiential Work

All of this flexibility, creativity, and spontaneity does place more burden on the therapist or practitioner to be well developed in their own way – not just in having a sufficient toolbox of interventions, but also in a personal practice of mental, physical, and emotional health.

Our Upcoming Conference: Rooted 2025

We have planned our 2025 Conference, Rooted, with all of this in mind.  I’m super excited about a workshop with Reccia Jobe in which she will specifically teach the skills needed to facilitate experiential work.  Reccia has spent the majority of her career honing this skill and talent.

There are also a variety of presentations on Somatic and Attachment Work, from experts on these topics.  These presentations will allow our community to continue to hone the skills needed to do the life-changing experiential work that so many of us have committed our lives to.

To name a few:

  • Embodying and Incorporating Somatic Work: Concret Toold for Your Practice and Your Live with Laura Hutler and Beth Burgmeyer.
  • Processing Trauma Through the Somatic Lense with Ateeka Contee and Mary Sue McCarthy
  • Bringing a Somatic/Yoga Blend of Grounding and Regulating Practice into Practical Application with Jessica BentonMind-Body Skills for Healing and Transformation with Meghan Bass-Petti
  • Understanding Attachment Protest Behavior in Clinical Work with Gina Staves
  • Navigating Distance:  Parental Self-Regulation During Detachment from Birth to Adulthood with Danielle Cotter
  • Attachment: Going Beyond the Interpersonal with Kate Naylor and Sara Sherman

Don’t miss the opportunity to deepen your understanding of experiential work and enhance your therapeutic practice by joining us at Rooted 2025. With workshops and presentations led by leading experts in somatics, attachment, and equine-assisted services, you’ll gain invaluable tools and insights to elevate your practice and support lasting change for your clients. Secure your spot today and be a part of this transformative event that will inspire and equip you for the life-changing work you’re passionate about. Get your tickets now!

 

 

 

The Journey of True Mastery

The Journey of True Mastery

by | Sep 2, 2024 | Applied Principles, Basics of Natural Lifemanship

In every field, from athletics to the arts, from leadership to therapy, mastery is often viewed as being elusive—almost even mythical. It’s easy to believe that those who reach the pinnacle of their craft have tapped into some hidden well of knowledge or they have a natural talent that sets them apart.

While gifting and art and feel certainly contribute to greatness in any field, any master will tell you that mastery is built on a deep, intimate understanding of the fundamentals and a long-term commitment to doing them over and over again.

Excellence is the relentless pursuit of the basics

There is nothing more powerful than returning to the basics. No matter what you are learning, the road to mastery is paved with the consistent practice of foundational principles and practices.

I love the photo at the top of this blog because it represents one of my favorite stories from one of our Practicums.  This horse is named Ed, a very experienced and confident, well-trained equine. His owner says that he is “her rock.”  The person you see in the photo is Krystal Raley, a seasoned professional in this field, who later agreed to become an NL trainer.  The weekend this picture was taken, they both returned, again, to the basics, and then slowed it WAY down – the result was nothing short of beautiful.  I shared this story, and a few others, in our recent webinar, Slow Down & Do Less (Better).

The Fundamentals of NL is not a starting point to be left behind but a cornerstone to be revisited time and time again. Everything we do is an extension of basic principles, refined and expanded upon. This is true in every discipline. In martial arts, for example, the black belt is often seen not as the end of training but as a return to the beginning—a recognition that mastery is the result of perfecting the basic movements.

In therapy, coaching, and learning, and particularly in the context of Natural Lifemanship, the fundamentals involve keen listening and attunement, embodied regulation and co-regulation, skillful management of rhythm, body energy, and pressure, and a proficient navigation of the steps needed to build genuine connection through closeness and distance.

It’s in the repetition of these principles that true expertise is developed. A true master knows that their success lies in their willingness to return to the fundamentals, to practice them with the same diligence and attention as when they first began.

In our work with clients, it’s tempting to seek out the latest techniques or to focus on novel task-based approaches. While innovation has its place (certainly!), it should never come at the expense of the foundational elements that make our work effective.

More techniques will not make up for gaps we may have in our understanding and execution of the basics.  When we skip past the basics because they seem tedious or hard, the gap in our practice only becomes more glaring as we try to compensate by learning more tasks, more techniques, or more skills.

Our clients and equine partners benefit most when we are rooted in the basics, ensuring that every single interaction is grounded in the principles that foster genuine connection, healing, and  growth.

Committing to the Journey

Mastery is not a destination but a continuous journey—one that circles back to the basics time and time again.  Each time we circle back, while the truth may not fundamentally change, it does sink deeper and deeper into our soul.

Most of us agree, for example, that “connection heals” – at the beginning of a journey this belief might not carry much depth or texture. It may be mostly theory or might even seem trite. There was a time in my journey that this belief was, indeed, a bit trivial.

I knew it was true for sure, but today when I say “connection heals,” I mean something wildly different than I did even 5 years ago.  Further along a sustained and arduous healing journey of my own and with many others, “connection heals” is a belief worth fighting for.  For me, it is even a belief worth dying for.  THIS is the power of a pilgrimage, a lifelong journey in which we meander and quietly saunter back to the values we hold dear, over and over again.

In every field, those who achieve greatness are those who understand the power of this journey –  that there is nothing more powerful than returning to the Fundamentals. By embracing this truth in our own practices and in our own lives, we can guide our clients toward lasting change and deep, meaningful healing.

As we continue to grow and evolve in our work, let us never lose sight of the importance of the basics. For it is through the relentless execution of these fundamentals that we—and our clients—can achieve true excellence.

Whether this Fall will be your first time taking the Fundamentals of NL or you’re taking it for the third, fourth or fifth time, you’re making the right decision. We encourage our community to revisit the Fundamentals often to fully embody the principles and be able to call upon them when you need them. We hope to see you in the Fundamentals this Fall!

 

 

 

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