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We Are All Creators

We Are All Creators

by | Oct 10, 2023 | Natural Lifemanship Events, Personal Growth

I have a close, yet at times conflicted relationship with the creative process, as I suppose many of us do.

My ambiguity goes way back to family dynamics, sibling rivalry, and all kinds of messages about my artistic ability that I internalized and then generalized to include all things creative.  Some of these messages were somewhat inevitable – I mean, my ability to do the things that people typically think of when they think of artistic ability is severely compromised and, if you will, underdeveloped. I mean, really, it’s bad. Even my stick figures could use some serious help.

In my twenties I had legitimate panic attacks related to the need to draw anything. Anything at all.  And if said drawing would result in any sort of assessment, the terror was even worse.

When I was getting my masters degree in counseling we were asked to draw a horse, a tree, and a person during an assessments class. In previous classes I had always managed to be absent on the “art therapy” day, but given that this was a summer class I could not exactly miss the entire day.  AND I didn’t know it was coming.

I found myself in the bathroom hyperventilating, and feeling ridiculously foolish. . . and shamed.  Later that evening, I told my roommate, who is absolutely the best artist I know (in the traditional sense), about my “horse, tree, person meltdown.” With gusto, I explained to her that I am NOT creative!  She calmly and in a very matter of fact manner said something along these lines, “What do you mean you’re not creative? Of course you are. You are made in the image of a Creator – creativity is the very essence of the Divine.”

It’s been a process, but I believe now that in that moment with my sweet friend I began to find myself and embrace what I was created to do. I truly believe that we are ALL created TO CREATE – each of us in different ways. When we lose our ability to create, or when it is taken from us, we begin to lose our humanity.

The creative process is the process whereby we find life and meaning and purpose.  It is the process whereby an idea is born, grows, develops, gets squashed, gets repaired, changed, or reinvented, and then somewhere along the way comes to fruition through a progression of thoughts, feelings, and actions, and then ultimately it is something we let go of. We share it with others. Sometimes this process is quite personal, but most of the time it requires relationship and collaboration with others.

The creative process is inherently part of experiential therapy and learning.  The art of walking alongside people on their healing journey while holding space, holding the frame, gently guiding, supporting, and co-creating.  I am definitely an artist, and I get to work with all of you –  fellow artists, each of us refining our craft every day.

There are at least 5 key stages of the creative process:

  1. Preparation, Inspiration, or Brainstorming;
  2. Incubation, absorbing, or processing;
  3. Illumination – the “AHA moment” where it all comes together;
  4. Evaluation – deciding if it is worth doing;
  5. Elaboration – bringing your idea to life; and
  6. A step I added – share it, release it, let it go.

The depth to which I love this process is matched by the depth to which I hate it.  Truly.  I get to create a lot through Natural Lifemanship – webinars, websites, blogs, programs, etc.  BUT, my absolutely favorite creative endeavor is the NL Conferences.  It’s also the thing I hate the most, truth be told.  I think this community probably doesn’t need me to expand on this much, but the creative process can be just gut-wrenching at times.  Those of us with a drive and passion to make a difference in the world, know all about the blood, sweat, and tears that go into our work.  The labor of birthing anything is, at times, painful – pain beyond what we ever thought possible.  Of course, the elation, connection, and love deeper than you ever imagined is what makes it all worth it.

Creativity is not just the work of artists, musicians, writers and designers. It’s an inherent part of the human experience, one that manifests in our daily lives as well as our work with clients and horses. At its core, creativity is our ability to envision new possibilities and create meaningful experiences that deeply resonate, which is exactly what we got to do when creating the Sunrise Summit and Sacred Landscapes conferences for you.

Here’s a deeper look at the creative process that went into designing this year’s NL Conferences and how we have infused every aspect of the conferences with meaningful experiences that you can’t get anywhere else.

Phase 1:  Brainstorming

I LOVE brainstorming and dreaming. I have learned that some people in my life really enjoy this too, and others are annoyed because VERY little in the brainstorming phase ever really comes to fruition.  I have learned that some people want to move straight into the evaluation stage, and so I feel like they are poopooing on my ideas, so it’s best to engage these types when I’m ready to evaluate if the idea is really worth doing.

This phase requires absolutely no commitment, so it’s my comfort zone for sure.  Also, it’s a very important part of the creative process because it is where we find inspiration.  During the planning for our upcoming conference we found inspiration in the natural world and in the many ways that we are nature.  We found so much inspiration as we explored ideas about inner and outer landscapes, and how our horse and human herds live within these spaces.

Mary Reyolds Thompson has explored many of these concepts for much of her life – I almost cried when she agreed to do the online keynote for Sunrise Summit, opening our entire conference.  By the way, if you missed the Sunrise Summit, you can still access recordings.

However, I gain the most inspiration for our conferences from relationship with our students – there always seems to be something we are collectively grappling with.  NL has brainstorming documents planning themes, presentations, and flow for many more conferences to come. Have I mentioned how much I love this stage?

Phase 2:  Incubation

This is the phase where you just set it all aside, and don’t purposely think about your idea. I do my best incubating during the rhythm of making dinner for my family.  I have to keep my computer in the kitchen for this very reason, because it’s when my thoughts are incubating that my best ideas come. I take notes, I keep brainstorming, and it is inevitable that during one of my periods of incubation, it will magically all just come together.  AHA  – that’s it!

The NL Headquarters has been under all kinds of construction, and like many construction projects it has taken way longer than planned.  This has given us a little forced incubation time.  Incubation is typically not my jam – that’s why it happens when cooking, folding laundry, or in the shower.  What I can say, without a doubt, is that unless I walk away and sit on it for a while, the next stage never really happens.

Phase 3:  Illumination

Usually, all the preparation, inspiration, and incubation sets the stage for a clear moment of illumination.  This moment happened during a call with one of our students as we were talking about feeling a bit lost and displaced as our digital community has grown.

I sense deep in my soul that our wider community is grappling with an innate desire for place.

Since 2020 our world has become more and more digital. It has allowed all of us to expand in powerful ways, but it is also the great paradox in the human services professions, because our field is one of connection, relationship, and hands-on experience.  In this digital landscape, especially one in which most of our students have trained only online with us, to have a place that our NL Family can call home is simply magical.  In this stage (which I circled back to later) I felt a strong sense that this conference would be all about introducing our community to their home with us.

Phase 4:  Evaluation

Very few ideas actually make it past the evaluation stage.  This isn’t always my favorite part because I feel like some of my best ideas die here because of practical things like money.  Damn!

This is where we put pen to paper, do surveys, collaborate more, and try really hard not to get defensive when others think our idea isn’t worth doing. It’s here that you decide if you are going to forge ahead or go back to the drawing board.

Stage 5:  Elaboration

Elaboration is all about bringing your idea to life.  The active work of creating, destroying because you hate what you created, starting over, making mistakes, crying, cussing, and all the feels. Sometimes LOTS of cussing, but once we’re into this stage we don’t quit, because we know that it matters.  It is important and worth doing.  Even when we begin to doubt that it was the right decision we remind ourselves of the journey we went on to get here.

Stage 5.5:  Illumination Take Two During Elaboration

The blood, sweat, and tears happen in the elaboration phase, and sometimes the thing you are creating takes on a life of its own.  I love when this happens because it means I get an extra dose of illumination!  Illumination feeds my soul and keeps me going when we’re in the trenches of the thing that matters.  This also helps me prepare to let it go, because I begin to realize that it was never really mine.

This year as we were planning Sacred Landscapes, I found myself focusing on the experience we are creating more than ever – the experience continued to draw my attention and my heart.  This conference is all about the EXPERIENCE!

We have planned how we will walk together (we discussed this a bit in this webinar), how we will move together, and how we will transition from one thing to the next.  How we will be together has become of the utmost importance as we plan. I have attached the NL Principle of the Circle which will guide our time.

You will get to explore and move throughout our NL Home to find all kinds of treasures – literally, we’ve been shopping for and planning a treasure hunt for you.  Walking, moving, exploring, and finding little gifts left just for you.  We have thought deeply about how you might spend your time between sessions.

Mary Oliver and I have spent an enormous amount of time in prayer, meditation, and thought as we plan the community property blessing that will take place the first night, and as we prepare for how we will come together as a community in preparation for each day and as we integrate all we have learned at the day’s end.

Each evening two food trucks will arrive so that you can linger on property for a bit longer.  One ice cream truck and a taco truck called “The Raging Taco” who tells us to “Surround yourself with tacos, not negativity.”  Yes please and thank you I say!  Thank you NL Conference for telling us what you need!  Of course you needed tacos and ice cream!

The Darling Daughters will play their folk music rife with sweet harmonies and healing stories during our Family Dinner the first night and at our opening and closing ceremonies for the online conference.  Terri Schanen with the Darling Daughters is a NL certification student and she reached out to us because she has written songs inspired by previous conferences.  Experience, experience, experience!  Yep, this conference has taken on a life of its own.

Each evening you can go home and rest or you can pick your flavor. . . at the ice cream truck and then from among a litany of activities to quiet your mind and your body, or energize it in a way that intentionally creates space for incubation and integration.  There will be sound healing, drumming, meditation, story telling, and cowboy poetry, allowing us to connect with each other in new ways.

The teaching at this conference will be mind-blowingly good.  We’ve told you all about the presentations on Facebook, and you can see the detailed schedule for Sacred Landscapes here, complete with all presentation descriptions.  We know they’ll be good, which is why this year we are allowing NL certification students to apply conference attendance toward parts of Basic and Advanced NL Certification requirements (details can be found in your email).

This conference is about experience in every single sense of the word – even the tacos matter!

Jonathan Stalls beautifully (and unknowingly) summed up the purpose of this year’s conference in his book WALK: Slow Down, Wake Up, and Connect at 1-3 Miles per Hour when he wrote:

“It’s a practice of giving oneself to what can be learned or gained through experience and not just ideas of the mind.  Once this embodiment takes shape and begins to live within you, the mind often has no choice but to let go and to adapt.  You move with, cry with, and laugh with the story and the song of who you walk with.  There is no turning back to what were only ideas.”

This, my friends and my NL family, is what our conference is all about.  It’s a practice that we engage in together.  I promise you it will be worth your very precious resources – all of them.

Stage 6:  Share it, Release it, Let it go

I added this stage because this one is often the hardest for me.  To officially be finished and share it with the world can feel so vulnerable.  I have been frozen by perfection many a time at this stage – I’m ready to let it move from my hands to yours, but have just one more thing to change. . . and then another. . . and then another. . . and on and on.  I must admit that solid deadlines do wonders for this struggle.  The conference is coming y’all!

This conference will soon be yours.  It will belong to all of us.  We will create together.  I have butterflies in my stomach as I adjust just one more thing and trust that what the NL team has created will be exactly what it is supposed to be.  Registration closes on Thursday, October 19th, and we come together on November 8th.  I hope you can join us!  

 

 

 

Sacred Landscapes – The FULL Conference Schedule with Session Descriptions

Sacred Landscapes – The FULL Conference Schedule with Session Descriptions

by | Oct 10, 2023 | Natural Lifemanship Events

Curious what our Sacred Landscapes conference workshops, keynotes, and other activities are about? We’ve included the entire conference schedule below with descriptions of each session! Please note that times are subject to change.

Please also view the schedule and session descriptions for the Sunrise Summit Online Conference, which takes place Oct 13-14, 2023, and is included with Sacred Landscapes registration! Sunrise Summit may also be purchased separately.

****************** 

WEDNESDAY, NOV 8, 2023 [For ROOTS Pass Holders]

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM – Check-in for Roots Pass Holders

2:00 – 4:00 PM – My Relationship to Pressure: Exploring a key principle to better understand the Natural Lifemanship process – with Bettina Shultz-Jobe, Tim Jobe,  Kate Naylor, and Tanner Jobe

We all have a reaction to the word “pressure” – many of us have a complicated, sometimes even negative relationship with the word.  So why does The Natural Lifemanship Institute insist on using it? 

Whether you are brand new to the NL approach, or a seasoned veteran, this presentation serves as an important exploratory introduction to the principles of Natural Lifemanship for those just getting to know NL, as well as a deepening into the concept of pressure, for those already familiar. 

Join Founders Tim Jobe and Bettina Shultz-Jobe, as well as trainers Tanner Jobe and Kate Naylor as we guide you in an exploration of your own personal relationship with pressure through interactive exercises – and how that relationship impacts your world both in and out of the round pen.

5:00 – 7:00 PM – Property Blessing for Roots Pass Holders and Speakers – with Bettina Shultz-Jobe, Tim Jobe, and Tanner Jobe

The brand new Natural Lifemanship Headquarters is the landscape that inspired our first in-person conference in years. Our dream is that this land, already sacred, will support the NL community in growing even more connected.

Please join us as we walk the new property and invite several community members to bless the land in their own cultural traditions. Your participation is valued, as this sacred landscape is meant for each and every one of you.

7:00 – 8:30 PM – NL Family Dinner and Live Music for Roots Pass Holders and Speakers

Roots Pass Holders and Invited guests will enjoy a family-style meal with the Natural Lifemanship Staff and Volunteers for the Sacred Landscapes Conference. 

Live Music provided by the Darling Daughters!

THURSDAY, NOV 9, 2023

7:30 – 8:30 AM – Check-In for Community Pass Holders

8:30 – 8:50 AM – Welcome Opening Community Circle

Gather in the arena pasture, surrounded by tall trees and the open sky, as Bettina and Mary officially open the conference through rhythm, music, and movement – setting the tone for the rest of the weekend.

9:00 – 10:30 AM  – Healing Relationships with Space and Place: Engaging with the environment to foster transformation – Keynote presentation with Kate Naylor

Our interdependence with the natural world around us is evident. Remembering this, from our head to our toes, is deeply healing. When we consciously explore both space and place in our work, we remind our clients, and ourselves, of the connection being offered in everything we do.

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM [Choose one of the following 6 workshops]

Exploring a Relationship to Self, Country, and Other – with Jane Faulkner

How can we strengthen our capacity for cultivating healthy relationships with ourselves, the land we call home, and fellow beings? Our minds constantly seek stability and connection in a rapidly evolving world, yet it is our bodies that possess innate abilities for true connection and healing.

In this experiential workshop, we will immerse ourselves in the world of somatic practices to explore diverse avenues for forging connections with our inner selves, the natural environment that surrounds us, and the intricate web of life that binds us together.

Throughout our journey, we will uncover the unique role of horses in supporting and enhancing this transformative process.

Exploring the Inner Landscape with Embodied Practices: Discernment and the Enneagram  (Part 1 of 2) – with Kathleen Choe and Laura McFarland

Discernment comes in layers. It is a search for our innermost truth when we find ourselves in new territory, both familiar and unfamiliar. After all, we bring our familiar inner landscape to every new encounter and so navigating the new requires awareness of the familiar.

Without this awareness, we are limited by the defenses and fears of our personality structures and we perceive and act within the new landscape in the same ways we’ve perceived and acted within the old. Thus change becomes impossible and truth remains hidden.

Using the Enneagram as a tool for mapping out our personal roadblocks (limiting beliefs, defenses, fundamental fears) together with embodied practices* with and without horses, we will each explore and construct our unique paths of discernment.

Part 1 of this two-part workshop will entail teaching and discussion, while Part 2 will be mostly experiential. You may choose to attend Part 1 only, or Part 1 and Part 2 (but not Part 2 without Part 1).

Birds Eye View and Wise Mind: Where Ecotherapy, Animal Assisted Therapy, and Mindfulness Intersect – with Dr. Christine Strayer

This presentation is designed to teach clinicians how to combine Ecotherapy, Animal Assisted Therapy and Mindfulness to benefit clients with a variety of diagnosis. Natural Lifemanship principles are interwoven throughout the presentation to demonstrate how they are the guide for Ecotherapy and AAT.

Objectives:

  1. Identify the hypothesis linking AAT and Ecotherapy.
  2. Recognize how nature and animals can be mediums in therapy.
  3. Utilize Natural Lifemanship Principles within AAT and Ecotherapy with a variety of clients.
  4. Understand how to practice and teach metacognition (Birds Eye View) for perspective taking, interdependence and more.

Connected Nutrition: The Gut is our “Second Brain” – with Gabby Remole

The goal of this presentation is to give an overview of our brain-gut connection, the gut as our “second brain”, and how nutrition can affect our mental health (for better or worse).

Food can be such a wonderful connector.

This presentation will explore how food can help improve mood and can assist in addressing depression and anxiety. Food samples will be provided as well as some take home recipes. The presentation will also touch on assisting those who have limited access to healthy produce and foods (a more macro approach).

The idea is nutrition connected with self, others (family and clients) and community.

We Hold it All: Sacred Root (Part 1 of 2) – with Jessica Benton

The root of our spine – our pelvis is a sacred world of emotion’s, history, belief system and important function. Typically, we give it little thought unless dysfunction takes over.

No matter which end of this spectrum we are on, this space deserves time, mindful connection and healing. From tension to atrophy, we will explore the relationship that our lives have on this powerhouse of stability and regulation.

Working thoroughly with our pelvis and posture blends beautifully on or off of a horse as our belief of self meets the physical world and holds no place for denying that – that we are sacred, we take up space and we hold a truth.

Creating a Holistic Wellness Program for your Horses: Incorporating Energy and Body Work (Part 1 of 2) – with Michelle Holling-Brooks

Recent breakthroughs in science are confirming what the ancient healing arts have always known: Our health is influenced by more than just the physical world and our body has an innate ability to heal and restore itself to balance if we can look at health on more than just one plane. 

We now know that our mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies also play a HUGE part in our overall health and wellbeing. The concept of approaching health with a holistic wellness program is not just for humans, but for all beings, including our horses. 

During this breakout session you will explore looking beyond the basic nutritional and traditional training needs of our horses.The session will dive into what are the different components of a truly holistic approach to working with and caring for our equine partners’ body, mind, and soul.

You will also have the opportunity to learn and practice balancing your own energies as well, often the missing but key component.

12:30 – 2:00 PM – LUNCH

2:00 – 3:30 PM [Choose one of the following 6 workshops]

How to Stop Hating Detachment – with Tim Jobe and Tanner Jobe

Do you cringe at the thought of asking for, what NL calls, detachment? (distance, space, boundaries. . .)

Does it, at times, seem mean, pointless, and arbitrary?

Detachment doesn’t necessarily mean disconnection, but try telling that to the feeling in your body. 

Tanner Jobe and Tim Jobe will talk about and demonstrate how to harness the power of connected detachment to enhance relational development and reveal fun and exciting pathways for growth and even greater intimacy.

Expanding our Internal Landscape through Relational Consciousness with IFS Equine Engaged Psychotherapy  (Part 1 of 2) – with Jenn Pagone and Jenn McPeak

Relational consciousness converges connection with Self and another in a deeply embodied way when applying the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model to equine engaged psychotherapy.

This presentation will provide participants with a foundational understanding of IFS and specific steps to deepen trauma-focused processing.

Equine professionals will be offered a distinct lens for recognizing parts and attachment patterns in equine partners during sessions. Natural Lifemanship principles will be highlighted as an important standard of practice of constant consent and permission both internally and externally.

The team approach will be explored as an important component of relational consciousness and emphasize the Self-to-part relationship.

Upon conclusion of presentation, participants will have gained a foundational understanding of IFS and practice skills to safely use with their clients.

Exploring Inner Landscape with Embodied Practices: Discernment and the Enneagram (Part 2 of 2) – with Kathleen Choe and Laura McFarland

See full description in morning workshop block. 

During Part 2 of this two-part workshop, participants will be invited to explore embodied enneagram-informed discernment practices with a horse. You must have attended Part 1 to attend Part 2.

The SEEN Keystones: How a Facilitator Mindset can Enhance You and Your Sessions – with Lynn Thomas and Amanda Graham

How can we continue increasing psychological safety and deepening the work we do as facilitators?

This presentation will provide a facilitation mindset, incorporating story, that can inform, impact, and guide how you engage with your clients and horses, and provide a thought process in choosing your interventions.

The SEEN Keystones; Sense of Self, Empowering Mindset, Externalizing Story, and Natural Flow, provide a set of questions facilitators can ask themselves that will have a positive impact on your sessions while honoring your authentic self and style of practice.

The workshop will share the SEEN Keystone questions, theoretical foundations and the effect on psychological safety, and demonstrate application during a session incorporating horses. There will be discussion on how a facilitator mindset and the SEEN Keystones can be applied with and benefit your approach and interventions.

We Hold it All: Sacred Root (Part 2 of 2) – with Jessica Benton

The root of our spine – our pelvis is a sacred world of emotion’s, history, belief system and important function. Typically, we give it little thought unless dysfunction takes over.

No matter which end of this spectrum we are on, this space deserves time, mindful connection and healing. From tension to atrophy, we will explore the relationship that our lives have on this powerhouse of stability and regulation.

Working thoroughly with our pelvis and posture blends beautifully on or off of a horse as our belief of self meets the physical world and holds no place for denying that – that we are sacred, we take up space and we hold a truth.

Creating a Holistic Wellness Program for your Horses: Incorporating Energy and Body Work (Part 2 of 2) – with Michelle Holling-Brooks

Recent breakthroughs in science are confirming what the ancient healing arts have always known: Our health is influenced by more than just the physical world and our body has an innate ability to heal and restore itself to balance if we can look at health on more than just one plane. 

We now know that our mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies also play a HUGE part in our overall health and wellbeing. The concept of approaching health with a holistic wellness program is not just for humans, but for all beings, including our horses. 

During this breakout session you will explore looking beyond the basic nutritional and traditional training needs of our horses.The session will dive into what are the different components of a truly holistic approach to working with and caring for our equine partners’ body, mind, and soul.

You will also have the opportunity to learn and practice balancing your own energies as well, often the missing but key component.

4:00 – 4:15 PM Closing Community Circle

At the end of each day, we will gather together again in our circle, to process the day through embodied practices.

4:30 – 6:00 PM – Food Trucks and Enjoy the Space! Treasure Hunt, Decorate Walking Sticks

Raging Bull Tacos and an Ice Cream/Dessert Truck will be available from 4:30-7:30p to anyone who would like to enjoy dinner on the property and stay on-site for evening activities!

“Surround yourself with tacos, not negativity” 

6:00 – 7:30 PM [Choose one of the 4 evening activities]

Drum Circle – with Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver will be leading a drum circle to celebrate our collective rhythm – which is a testament to the heartbeat of our community. Come join the circle with us!

Horse Centered Meditation and Prayer Circle – with Rebecca Boger

This workshop will cultivate conversation and connection with the Sacred Wild for those who love horses and being in nature and are curious about their own spirituality!

This un-mounted, contemplative, nature-based experience will allow participants to explore a horse-centered way to communicate with all of creation by becoming more present and attuned.

Becky has been offering this monthly 90 minute program to the public since 2017. She weaves meditation and mindfulness, somatic awareness, the expressive arts and self reflection practices into the circle time to help participants come into the present moment and become more aware and integrated in their bodies, minds and spirits.

Healing Stories – with Bill Woodburn

Using psychodramatic techniques, we will enact our own stories in a safe and supportive space to directly experience how they interact with our calling as healers.

By doing this, we bring our own powerful, healing stories home and live them fully as we go forward. This is a great way to learn the techniques of psychodrama by experiencing them firsthand.

Participants will be offered space to share and enact the stories which support or limit their journey as healers.

Cowboy Poetry – with the Jobes and NL Team

Cowboy Poetry is not just about words — it’s a journey through time, a celebration of our heritage, and a reminder of the timeless bond we share with nature, our equine partners and one another.

Gather round for Cowboy Poetry under a canopy of stars. Listen to the fire crackle and hear the messages unfold.

Tim, Tanner and Reccia Jobe, recite poetry they’ve written as well as some from other cowboy poets – including members of our NL community. Even Cooper and Mabel Jobe will join in the fun, as well as our very own Jenn Pagone and Rebecca Hubbard.

Grab a chair and join us around the campfire for an unforgettable night.

FRIDAY, NOV 10, 2023

8:30 – 8:50 AM – Welcome Opening Community Circle

Mark Taylor will guide us to “embody the ocean” as we prepare our minds and bodies for his keynote address.  Join us in circle today to wake up our bodies and prepare for a fulfilling day of learning, experiencing, and connecting.

9:00  – 10:30 AM – Moving Through Space: What We Can Learn from Observing Movement in Session – Keynote presentation with Mark Taylor and Bettina Shultz-Jobe

Mark will introduce the sixteen land-based patterns that allow us to move on land: variations on spinal, symmetrical, asymmetrical, and contralateral organization.

Each participant will then be invited to experience those patterns within themselves before observing him facilitate Bettina in a session with a horse, utilizing the movement patterns to support both functional and relational dynamics.

Participants will be invited to train their eyes to begin to see the patterns in play.

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM [Choose one of the following 6 workshops]

The Human-Equine Relational Landscape: How Practitioner Treatment and Interactions with Equines Impact the Healing Landscape (Part 1 of 2) – with Rebecca Hubbard and Reccia Jobe

The equine-human relationship is a foundational concept in equine assisted services. How equines are treated inside and outside of sessions forms the bedrock of clients’ experiences in equine assisted services whether you provide psychotherapy, coaching, physical therapy or occupational therapy.

Relational strengths and weaknesses between equines and service providers inevitably appear in sessions and can impact the client experience in any number of ways from harmful to supportive, degrading to empowering, and more.

In this workshop we will explore how our inner and outer experiences with our equine partners impact the healing landscape.

Moving in Three Dimensions: A Simple Framework for Using Your Body to Establish, Maintain, and Nurture Connection While Working with Clients and Horses (Part 1 of 2) – with Kathy Taylor

Relationship is the core of therapeutic work with both clients and with horses.

In this workshop, we will explore an embodied approach to the skill of healthy relating. This framework offers a top-down/bottom-up way to work with clients and horses.

Beginning with an experiential overview of the framework, I’ll demonstrate how working with dimensions supports our inner experience and self-agency, and how we can cultivate connection with others, and, ultimately, create a meaningful collaboration. We will also explore how this dimensional framework presents in horses.

Next, I’ll demonstrate how sharing this framework with clients can provide them with increased awareness of their own embodiment and better access to their felt senses. The dimension framework offers the client and therapist a common language to talk about their experiences.

I’ll share practical examples and case studies and will demonstrate live, with a horse, how to use the framework to create and build a healthy relationship. This will include principles for practitioners for maintaining attunement in sessions with horses and their clients using this new lens.

While the presentation will focus on working therapeutically with horses, this approach can be applied and practiced in many different contexts and relationships.

Expanding our Internal Landscape through Relational Consciousness with IFS Equine Engaged Psychotherapy (Part 2 of 2) – with Jenn Pagone and Jenn McPeak

Relational consciousness converges connection with Self and another in a deeply embodied way when applying the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model to equine engaged psychotherapy.

This presentation will provide participants with a foundational understanding of IFS and specific steps to deepen trauma-focused processing.

Equine professionals will be offered a distinct lens for recognizing parts and attachment patterns in equine partners during sessions. Natural Lifemanship principles will be highlighted as an important standard of practice of constant consent and permission both internally and externally.

The team approach will be explored as an important component of relational consciousness and emphasize the Self-to-part relationship.

Upon conclusion of presentation, participants will have gained a foundational understanding of IFS and practice skills to safely use with their clients.

Processing Traumatic Memories: A Principle-Based Introduction to an Embodied and Multi-Modal Approach (Part 1 of 2) – with Bettina Shultz-Jobe, Kathleen Choe, and Kate Naylor

What is it that really helps a person process a traumatic memory? With a variety of modalities in the field of trauma it can be difficult to know which to choose – however, underlying all of these modalities are a shared set of principles that guide the work.

In this presentation, led by our Co-Founder and CEO, Bettina Shultz-Jobe, along with NL trainers and leaders Kathleen Choe and Kate Naylor, we will explore common trauma processing principles; not just techniques, but the principles that fuel their effectiveness. 

Drawing from approaches like SE, EMDR, IFS, TIR, Somatic Movement and Psychodrama – the presenters will offer an introductory look at NL’s revolutionary and embodied multi-modal approach to the healing of trauma.

Learning will be didactic and experiential. 

Come prepared to learn both personally and professionally!

Psychodrama – Healing Stories in Action (Part 1 of 2) – with Bill Woodburn

Join us in exploring the concepts and structures behind what makes a story healing and how to gently guide unfolding stories toward positive change.

We will challenge seeing stories as just distractions and explore practical counseling skills to transform repetitive, closed stories, into healing moments.

Developing the First Stages of Building a Secure Attachment for All (Including Horses) – Trust, Respect, and Willingness (Part 1 of 2) – with Michelle Holling-Brooks

The benefits of helping our clients develop a healthy secure attachment style are numerous. Learning how to cultivate a secure attachment style allows us the ability to step into resonance with our amazing, beautiful, and empowered authentic self!

Having healthy connections, to ourselves and others, also unlocks the ability for us to heal and grow.

However, the “how-to” part of changing or healing our attachment style can be difficult to maneuver.

Dr. Lisa Firestone states, “One of the proven ways to change our attachment style is by forming an attachment with someone who had a more secure attachment style than what we’ve experienced. We can also talk to a therapist, as the therapeutic relationship can help create a more secure attachment. We can continue to get to know ourselves through understanding our past experiences, allowing ourselves to make sense and feel the full pain of our stories, then moving forward as separate, differentiated adults. In doing this, we move through the world with an internal sense of security that helps us better withstand the natural hurts that life can bring.”

For us the therapeutic or coaching relationship also includes an additional relationship – the horses. This breakout workshop will focus on exploring the different “skills” and components that set-up the first foundation skills needed to support our clients and horses in how to actually start building a healthy connection.

Michelle Holling-Brooks will introduce the participants to the first three pillars of what she calls the “Bridge of Connection” – building trust, respect, and willingness for ALL beings; horses and humans.

Participants will have an opportunity to explore, practice, and ask questions about the very same concepts and activities that she utilizes in her practice to help start every horse and human off on the track of learning the essential skills for developing an earned secure attachment for all.

12:30 – 2:00 PM – LUNCH

2:00 – 3:30 PM [Choose one of the following 6 workshops]

The Human-Equine Relational Landscape: How Practitioner Treatment and Interactions with Equines Impact the Healing Landscape (Part 2 of 2) – with Rebecca Hubbard and Reccia Jobe

The equine-human relationship is a foundational concept in equine assisted services.

How equines are treated inside and outside of sessions forms the bedrock of clients’ experiences in equine assisted services whether you provide psychotherapy, coaching, physical therapy or occupational therapy. 

Relational strengths and weaknesses between equines and service providers inevitably appear in sessions and can impact the client experience in any number of ways from harmful to supportive, degrading to empowering and more.

In this workshop we will explore how our inner and outer experiences with our equine partners impact the healing landscape.

Mindfulness with Horses: Not Just for Calming Down! – with Jennifer Harper

Many people hear the word mindfulness and think about calming down. Slowing the breath, slowing the body, and finding stillness in the mind. While these can be powerful aspects of a mindfulness practice, they are only a small part of the story.

Mindfulness supports our capacity to be present and embodied at ANY energy level. It offers us practices to stay regulated while accessing our power.

Stay curious while increasing body energy. Stay grounded during big movement. It’s wonderful to have the tools to calm our body and nervous system when we need them. But it’s also important that we can power up without losing our capacity to attune to ourselves and others. 

Join Jennifer Harper, founder of Mindfulness with Horses, for this interactive workshop exploring ways to increase your energy without escalating emotion, supporting your ability to communicate clearly and powerfully with both horses and humans.

Moving in Three Dimensions: A Simple Framework for Using Your Body to Establish, Maintain, and Nurture Connection While Working with Clients and Horses (Part 2 of 2) – with Kathy Taylor

Relationship is the core of therapeutic work with both clients and with horses.

In this workshop, we will explore an embodied approach to the skill of healthy relating. This framework offers a top-down/bottom-up way to work with clients and horses.

Beginning with an experiential overview of the framework, I’ll demonstrate how working with dimensions supports our inner experience and self-agency, and how we can cultivate connection with others, and, ultimately, create a meaningful collaboration. We will also explore how this dimensional framework presents in horses.

Next, I’ll demonstrate how sharing this framework with clients can provide them with increased awareness of their own embodiment and better access to their felt senses. The dimension framework offers the client and therapist a common language to talk about their experiences.

I’ll share practical examples and case studies and will demonstrate live, with a horse, how to use the framework to create and build a healthy relationship. This will include principles for practitioners for maintaining attunement in sessions with horses and their clients using this new lens.

While the presentation will focus on working therapeutically with horses, this approach can be applied and practiced in many different contexts and relationships.

Processing Traumatic Memories: A Principle-Based Introduction to an Embodied and Multi-Modal Approach (Part 2 of 2) – with Bettina Shultz-Jobe, Kathleen Choe, and Kate Naylor

What is it that really helps a person process a traumatic memory? With a variety of modalities in the field of trauma it can be difficult to know which to choose – however, underlying all of these modalities are a shared set of principles that guide the work.

In this presentation, led by our Co-Founder and CEO, Bettina Shultz-Jobe, along with NL trainers and leaders Kathleen Choe and Kate Naylor, we will explore common trauma processing principles; not just techniques, but the principles that fuel their effectiveness. 

Drawing from approaches like SE, EMDR, IFS, TIR, Somatic Movement and Psychodrama – the presenters will offer an introductory look at NL’s revolutionary and embodied multi-modal approach to the healing of trauma.

Learning will be didactic and experiential. 

Come prepared to learn both personally and professionally!

Psychodrama – Healing Stories in Action (Part 2 of 2) – with Bill Woodburn

Join us in exploring the concepts and structures behind what makes a story healing and how to gently guide unfolding stories toward positive change.

We will challenge seeing stories as just distractions and explore practical counseling skills to transform repetitive, closed stories, into healing moments.

Developing the First Stages of Building a Secure Attachment for All (Including Horses) – Trust, Respect, and Willingness (Part 2 of 2) – with Michelle Holling-Brooks

The benefits of helping our clients develop a healthy secure attachment style are numerous. Learning how to cultivate a secure attachment style allows us the ability to step into resonance with our amazing, beautiful, and empowered authentic self!

Having healthy connections, to ourselves and others, also unlocks the ability for us to heal and grow.

However, the “how-to” part of changing or healing our attachment style can be difficult to maneuver.

Dr. Lisa Firestone states, “One of the proven ways to change our attachment style is by forming an attachment with someone who had a more secure attachment style than what we’ve experienced. We can also talk to a therapist, as the therapeutic relationship can help create a more secure attachment. We can continue to get to know ourselves through understanding our past experiences, allowing ourselves to make sense and feel the full pain of our stories, then moving forward as separate, differentiated adults. In doing this, we move through the world with an internal sense of security that helps us better withstand the natural hurts that life can bring.”

For us the therapeutic or coaching relationship also includes an additional relationship; the horses. This breakout workshop will focus on exploring the different “skills” and components that set-up the first foundation skills needed to support our clients and horses in how to actually start building a healthy connection.

Michelle Holling-Brooks will introduce the participants to the first three pillars of what she calls the “Bridge of Connection” – building trust, respect, and willingness for ALL beings; horses and humans.

Participants will have an opportunity to explore, practice, and ask questions about the very same concepts and activities that she utilizes in her practice to help start every horse and human off on the track of learning the essential skills for developing an earned secure attachment for all.

4:00 – 4:15 PM Closing Community Circle

To close Day 2, Mary Oliver offers the circle an experience of rhythm to regulate our bodies and ready our minds to move into the evening.

4:30 – 6:00 PM – Food Trucks and Enjoy the Space! Treasure Hunt, Decorate Walking Sticks

Raging Bull Tacos and an Ice Cream/Dessert truck will be available from 4:30-7:30 PM to anyone who would like to enjoy dinner on the property and stay on-site for evening activities!

“Surround yourself with tacos, not negativity” 

6:00 – 7:30 PM [Choose one of 3 evening activities]

Sound Healing – with Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver will be leading a sound healing session to help balance our energies and give us rest.

Come ready to sink deep and be nurtured by the music.

Labyrinth – with Shannon Knapp

A labyrinth is not just a path, but a sacred journey that guides us to our center, and back out into the world.

Shannon Knapp will invite us to step into the labyrinth and allow the winding path to clear our minds and enhance our focus. It’s a journey within, to find stillness amidst the chaos, clarity amidst the confusion, and answers amidst the questions.

Come walk with us.

Cowboy Poetry with the Jobes and NL Team

Cowboy Poetry is not just about words — it’s a journey through time, a celebration of our heritage, and a reminder of the timeless bond we share with nature, our equine partners and one another.

Gather round for Cowboy Poetry under a canopy of stars. Listen to the fire crackle and hear the messages unfold.

Tim, Tanner and Reccia Jobe, recite poetry they’ve written as well as some from other cowboy poets – including members of our NL community. Even Cooper and Mabel Jobe will join in the fun, as well as our very own Jenn Pagone and Rebecca Hubbard.

Grab a chair and join us around the campfire for an unforgettable night.

SATURDAY, NOV 11, 2023

8:30 – 8:50 AM – Final Opening Community Circle

Opening our final day, we will come to the circle to ready our minds and bodies for another exciting and engaging day of learning.  We will also begin the process of saying good-bye.

9:00 – 10:30 AM – Thin Places and Relationships in a Thick World: Cultivating Places and Relationships that Transcend – Keynote presentation with Tim Jobe and Bettina Shultz-Jobe

Have you ever heard someone talk about a “thin place?” A thin place is a place in which the perceived distance between our day-to-day and the Sacred is exceptionally narrow; a place where our encounter with something other-wordly pierces our soul and captures our heart.

Tim and Bettina Jobe will be exploring how we can create and nurture not only places, but moments and relationships that transcend, transform and heal – sacred pauses in everyday life. (And, of course, the NL horse herd will help Tim and Bettina present.)

11:00 – 12:30 PM [Choose one of the following 5 workshops]

Nature Connected Play Therapy: The Implementation of Play while Honoring the Power of Natural Setting with Animal Connections – with Emily Schmidt

Both research and experience has shown those in the helping fields that nature enhances the well-being of children.

From regulation to expression, engagement in the natural world provides tangible benefits. Equally proven is the power of play.

Those who bravely work with the youngest of clients have for decades leaned on clinically proven modalities that comprise what is commonly called “play therapy”.

What can lead to a challenge, however, is the effective implementation of play while honoring the power of a natural setting. How does one successfully allow the benefits of both nature and play to enhance rather than distract from each other? 

In my presentation I hope to offer connected and experiential insights into the blending of play therapy into settings such as outdoors, with horses and other natural places.

Topics include the inclusion of unplanned connections (frogs, the barn cat, insects etc.), planned connections (horses, ponies etc.), non-directed play and directed play activities.

I also hope to help equip professionals to gain confidence in working with parents, documentation, case conceptualization and treatment planning. This includes an overview of the use of play, how to use principles of non-directed play in nature/with horses, directed play activities that help with specific therapy goals and ways to include the whole family into the process.

My hope is that participants will gain an increased awareness of ways to use the power of natural surroundings to enhance the healing process of play.

Mindfulness with Horses: Not Just for Calming Down! – with Jennifer Harper

Many people hear the word mindfulness and think about calming down. Slowing the breath, slowing the body, and finding stillness in the mind.

While these can be powerful aspects of a mindfulness practice, they are only a small part of the story. Mindfulness supports our capacity to be present and embodied at ANY energy level. It offers us practices to stay regulated while accessing our power.

Stay curious while increasing body energy. Stay grounded during big movement.

It’s wonderful to have the tools to calm our body and nervous system when we need them. But it’s also important that we can power up without losing our capacity to attune to ourselves and others.

Join Jennifer Harper, founder of Mindfulness with Horses, for this interactive workshop exploring ways to increase your energy without escalating emotion, supporting your ability to communicate clearly and powerfully with both horses and humans.

Getting Along: Facilitating Healthy Relationships within your (Horse) Herd – with Tim Jobe and Tanner Jobe

We talk a lot about the relationship between horses and humans. But it doesn’t end there.

At Natural Lifemanship, we believe in nurturing the bonds within the herd itself.

Don’t miss this important conversation (and demonstration within the herd of course!) with Tim and Tanner Jobe about the important relational development within your horse herd.

Chiropractic Demonstration: How to Assess your Horse’s Physical Discomfort to Help Them Thrive – with Dr. Amanda Massey

How does stress impact our equine partners?

Dr. Amanda Massey is an AVCA certified animal chiropractor specializing in treating sports injuries with fascial distortion model. She will be giving demonstrations and sharing her experiences as an equine chiropractor to tell if your equine partner is experiencing discomfort from past traumas and how to improve their adaptation to environmental stressors with bodywork and chiropractic care.

Deepening the Satisfaction Cycle – with Mark Taylor

This will be an opportunity for participants to increase their sensory awareness of movement; to embody the Basic Neurological Patterns; and to explore their personal relationship to the elements of the Satisfaction Cycle (yield, push, reach, grasp, pull).

This will be an all-abilities movement workshop, and loose and comfortable clothing is recommended.

12:30 – 2:00 PM – LUNCH

2:00 – 4:00 PM – Closing Ceremony – with Bettina Shultz-Jobe and Mary Oliver

Join Bettina and Mary one last time, to wrap up the day, to wrap up the conference, and say farewell to the circle.

The community circle of Natural Lifemanship is not just the one we see when we are together, but also the one we carry in each of our hearts – say goodbye to the conference circle, and take the connection of NL with you.

 

Waiting on the Drive

Waiting on the Drive

by | Sep 26, 2023 | Applied Principles, Natural Lifemanship Events

If you’re not familiar with the term Waiting on the Drive it’s probably because you have never helped gather cattle in a very large, very rough pasture. It is a term I learned in my early teens. In just four words, it encompasses some of the best characteristics of a good cowboy or even just a good person.

There is so much of the unwritten, unspoken code of being a cowboy wrapped up in this term. It was never explained to me – only modeled by countless good cowboys (the word cowboy is certainly not gender specific) that I have had the good fortune to get to work with in the course of my life.

Let’s start with the literal meaning. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was running a very large cow ranch in New Mexico. One of the pastures on that ranch was around 8,000 acres.  There was only me and two other men working on the ranch.

Many of the ranches in that area were large, with only a few men working each one. When it came time to gather and work the cattle, none of the ranches had enough men or women to do that on their own so all of the cowboys on the neighboring ranches would help each other.  It was called “neighboring”.

Neighboring

Usually when we were gathering and working the 8,000 acre pasture there would be me and my two guys plus 10-15 neighbors. We would meet at the working pens and get our horses saddled and ready for the day. We would ride out before sunup to make the two mile ride to the start of the 8,000 acre pasture.  Then we’d ride to the backside of that pasture to start gathering the cattle about the time the sun came up.

As we were heading to the back of the pasture I would drop cowboys off at strategically planned out places to make sure the entire pasture was covered. The cowboys that were dropped off first, and each one after that, did not start gathering cattle immediately. They had to wait until everyone was in position to start the “drive.”

In an 8,000 acre pasture with 15 cowboys there is no way to see what anyone else is doing because they are so far apart.  So the first ones dropped off had to wait until they judged that everyone had time to get in position to start the drive.  Usually if everything was timed right, the drive would start about the time it got light enough to see.  The first ones dropped off would spend more time waiting on the drive than the ones dropped off further along in the pasture.

Good timing doesn’t happen by chance

The goal of the drive was to arrive at the gate out of the pasture with all of the cattle that were in that pasture and all of the cowboys accounted for.  Timing was critical. If one cowboy got his cattle to the gate ahead of the herd it was almost impossible to just hold them there until the others arrived.

These were not gentle cattle that were regularly handled.  On these large ranches they were only gathered twice a year, once in the spring to work the calves and once in the fall to wean the calves.  They were usually pretty wild and not easily handled. They were easiest to handle when they could be in one big herd.  So anyone that didn’t merge their cattle with the other cattle as they were moving in the direction of the gate would cause problems for everyone.  Ideally all of the cattle would come together simultaneously in the vicinity of the gate. None of this happened by chance.

When you are waiting on the drive, you have several responsibilities that contribute to the success or failure of the drive.  It is a time when you can relax a little and take in the wonder of a new day beginning and the world starting to wake up. This was always my favorite part of the work, alone with just my horse, watching the sun start its fight to drive away the darkness, completely devoid of any man-made sights or sounds.

But that feeling of peace didn’t exist in a vacuum.  You had to be keenly aware of any sign that the drive had started.  You didn’t want to be ahead of the drive but you also didn’t want to be behind it.  That sign might be the first hint of a cow bawling for its calf, or a herd of deer moving out in front of the moving herd of cattle.  It might be a slim wisp of dust circling above a distant hill.  Sometimes it was just a gentle nudge coming from somewhere inside, saying “It’s time now”.

If you are not fully attuned to yourself and all that is around you it is easy to miss the sign.  If you miss the sign it makes everything harder for you and for everyone in the drive.  It makes things harder for your horse and for the cattle.  It makes everyone have to work harder.

The time that you spend waiting on the drive can be the most rewarding part of the day, but it is also the most critical.  Great, important things are about to happen but you have to be prepared and ready to do your part.

It’s nearly time

Our upcoming online conference, Sunrise Summit, reminds me of Waiting on the Drive in so many ways. It’s an opportunity to get in the right position and settle in for the magic that’s about to happen. It reminds me that being in the moment and enjoying what’s happening right now is just as important as anticipating what’s to come at Sacred Landscapes, our in-person conference that will be happening in November.

Waiting on the Drive isn’t passive. It’s not something that happens to you – it’s a condition you create by attuning to the present moment and focusing on what’s to come while connecting with other cowboys who are preparing for the journey, too.

We invite you to join us for Sunrise Summit October 13-14 and do some neighboring with us. Grab your ticket here: naturallifemanship.com/sunrise-summit.

 

 

 

Creating Sacred Space Through Ceremony

Creating Sacred Space Through Ceremony

by | Jul 24, 2023 | Natural Lifemanship Events

By Bettina Shultz-Jobe and Mary Oliver

We walked. 

Mary carried a bag with a mixture of corn meal and tobacco leaves that each of us sprinkled along the entire perimeter of the property. Cooper played the drum and recited scripture that was meaningful to him.  Mabel sang songs. I carried essential oils and anointed every door and every entrance as we said, “May all who enter here be blessed.”  We were sweaty and at peace –  covered in oil, cornmeal, and tobacco.  We felt a sense of interconnectedness deep in our bones, as the mystery of a property blessing unfolded step by step.    

Several months ago we decided that it was time to perform an intimate ceremony to help us to connect with our new place in the world.  We did it for the land, for ourselves, for our family, and for every single living being who will ever find themselves on the land we inhabit. 

We came together to bless the land 

Mary Oliver was our guide. 

She spent time in meditation and prayer and allowed her intuition, life experiences, cultural history, spirituality, and creativity to guide our experience. She encouraged us to do the same, to be spontaneous, trust our intuition, and do what felt right.  Mary has ancestors who are Shawnee, Cherokee, and Powhatan, and she is a member of the Southeast Kentucky Shawnee.  This heritage is very important to her.  

Most of my ancestors come from Germany, and my Christian Faith and my relationship with my Creator is what feeds my soul and nurtures my intuition.  All that we collectively hold sacred came together in a ceremony to set aside this land, that was gifted to us, as sacred land – a space dedicated to healing, growth, love, and peace for the people, the critters, the trees and plants, the water, and even the rocks that support our foundation.  

It is my hope that when people come through the gates of our property, they feel something right away.  They feel the veil lifted between the mundane day-to-day and the Divine.  When people step foot on our property I pray that a healing energy penetrates their feet, spirals up their legs and pulses through their body – an energy that prepares.  An energy that pierces the soul and prompts the heart to say, “I am safe here.  I am protected.  I am ready –  to heal and to transform.”  It is my desire that this place prepares the way – for profound growth that begins when people arrive and even extends to those whose feet never tread this land.  It is my deepest prayer that the land itself carries a healing legacy.

So, with all of this in our hearts we created a ceremony that was ours. 

What is Ceremony? 

I love ceremony and I love the rhythm that ritual brings.  We can do the ceremonies and rituals created by those who have come before us, connecting us through movement and similar practice, but anyone can create their own ceremony. What I love most about ceremony is that it often has a sensory component that allows us to do something physical and concrete to represent something more abstract or difficult to quantify.  For example, in many wedding ceremonies the couple exchanges rings to represent their commitment to one another.  

Ceremonies engage the body in matters of the soul.  In our case, the ceremony we created represented our commitment to gratitude, reverence, and the setting aside of our place to make this world a better place – recognizing the new NL Headquarters as sacred land.    

How did we create our ceremony?

We created a ceremony that was supported by our personal experiences and by those who have come before us.  

Corn and tobacco were two of the most important crops where Mary grew up in Kentucky.  Corn was important to feed the family and could be eaten year round.  Hominy, corn relish, cornbread in various forms. . . my mouth is watering now.  Corn was the main source of food for settlers and the First People.  When Mary was a teacher they learned a native song called “Follow Mother Corn who Brings Life,” so when her spirit guides showed her cornmeal for our ceremony, it made sense.  

For us and many of our ancestors, corn represented life – we used corn in our ceremony to represent new life for the land. 

As a child, Mary’s family raised tobacco.   She remembers getting a wasp sting and her granddaddy rubbing a tobacco leaf on it to pull out the pain.  They hung tobacco in the barn where she played. If she had an ear ache, they would blow smoke in her ear to stop the pain.  The First People honored tobacco as a medicine plant, so when she received the guidance to use the tobacco, it was a symbol for bringing back healing to the land. 

We mixed cornmeal and tobacco leaves together and sprinkled them along the perimeter of the property to create a boundary – that all the land within the boundary begin to heal and find new life so it can support the healing and growth of others.  Just like us, the land can only take others on a journey it is traveling. 

In many ancient cultures, including our family’s Christian culture, oil signified prosperity, blessings, and stability.  Oil was poured on people and inanimate objects to set them aside as blessed by the Divine – a sacred object or living being anointed to do healing work.  Various cultures have poured oil over people, animals and objects as part of the healing process.  

In our ceremony we set aside every doorway and every entrance as portals to fullness, purpose, and joy – “May all who enter here be blessed.”  Also, as we have built a herd in our new place and as I have come to know each horse, I have, when it felt right, anointed them with oil.  Simply an acknowledgment of their sacred and holy purpose in our family, as part of our business, and in our community.  A physical representation of a sense of purpose and gratitude I hold in my heart.    

We truly are preparing a place for you. 

The next ceremony is for all of us 

This first ceremony was mostly about us and the land.  This move was hard.  Our children have struggled.  Our horses and other animals have struggled. Prior to our arrival, the land and facilities were neglected and abused.  It’s always a long story, but so much loss and grief in the last year. 

The second ceremony will be mostly about you and our little community.  At our coming Sacred Landscapes conference, we will perform a ceremony similar to the first, but completely different  – because each of you will bring something unique.  

We are in the process of asking people from various cultures to contribute to and guide our time.  We will honor those who loved and cared for the land before us.  We have reached out to the Tonkawa Tribe, who inhabited this land. There are many immigrants who came before us here – such rich history.  Many cultures will guide our community experience, but we will ask each of you to trust your intuition, honor your beliefs, and do what feels right as we engage in a multi-cultural property blessing.  

Together, we will set aside this land for our larger community and for your larger communities.  You will learn how to create ceremony in your communities and on your land as well.  We invite you to (literally) walk with us as we reconnect with the land and all living creatures, and find a renewed sense of awe and wonder in our world.  The property blessing, a family dinner, and live music with The Darling Daughters (one of our own!), is open to all Roots Pass Holders.  

We invite you to walk with us. 

 

 

    

Sacred Landscapes: The Expanse That Can Be Seen

Sacred Landscapes: The Expanse That Can Be Seen

by | Jun 27, 2023 | Equine Assisted Trainings, Natural Lifemanship Events

I have been perusing this year’s Sacred Landscapes conference schedule that is under construction, and all I can say is WOW!

What a fantastic and eclectic group of presenters, not to mention thoughtfully curated material and experiences!! This is a lineup not to be missed.

Something really stood out to me as I was exploring the different presentations we have on the schedule – our theme of Sacred Landscapes has really drawn out presentations that use a wider lens to understand healing work.

It makes sense. The idea of landscape encompasses SO much.

 

It is the scenery that surrounds us, the view we see no matter where we are, the terrain we travel from one place to the next.

 

Even the definition of the word landscape – “The expanse that can be seen” – taps into a felt sense of what we are trying to offer. I love that word – EXPANSE. Can you feel your lungs fill with air when you read it? EXPANSE. To expand. To grow and stretch and ultimately, to CONNECT.

 

When we expand, we come into contact with all of life

 

What is so exciting about our Sacred Landscapes conference is that our lineup of presenters heard “landscape” and immediately understood the assignment.  We are talking about Space. Views. Presence. Experience. And we are hopefully expanding your view of what it means to do relational healing work.

Because of course, above all, connection and interconnectedness makes all the difference.

So what, exactly, do I mean when I say we are taking a landscape perspective when it comes to continuing education with Natural Lifemanship?

 

Spaces & Places

 

Of course, it means land, literally…the relationship we have with spaces and places where we do this work. Like my keynote, Healing Relationships with Space and Place: Engaging with the environment to foster transformation; and Jane Faulkner’s Exploring a Relationship to Self, Country, and Other. As well as Nature Connected Play Therapy: The Implementation of Play while Honoring the Power of a Natural Setting with Animal Connections by Emily Schmidt.

 

Inner Landscape

 

But also we will have presentations that explore inner landscapes – who you are and how you show up. Like this presentation by Jenn Pagone, Expanding our Internal Landscapes through Relational Consciousness with IFS Equine Engaged Psychotherapy, and this one by NL trainers Kathleen Choe and Laura McFarland, Exploring the Inner Landscape with Embodied Practices: Discernment and the Enneagram.

And then, we will explore how our bodies are a part of our internal landscape, like our keynote from Mark Taylor, Moving Through Space: What Can We Learn from Observing Movement in Session? and this presentation by Kathy Taylor (no relation!), Moving in Three Dimensions: A simple framework for using your body to establish, maintain and nurture connection while working with clients and horses. As well as this delicious presentation, Connected Nutrition:  The Gut is our “Second Brain” with NL Trainer Gabby Remole.

And, how do we impact the landscape of healing work, particularly through our horses? Here is a great one by NL Trainers Rebecca Hubbard and Reccia Jobe, The Human-Equine Relational Landscape: How practitioner treatment and interactions with equines impact the healing landscape, and another by Tim and Tanner Jobe, called Getting Along: Facilitating Healthy Relationships Within Your (Horse) Herd!

What I’ve mentioned here are just a few of the many, many speakers and topics we are so thrilled to share with you. Can you tell I am excited?

Sacred Landscapes aims to be a nourishing, grounding, collective experience that will shift you on both a higher and deeper level. We’re growing roots and spreading our branches.

This conference is not about task. It is about our internal and external connections – and we cannot wait to share it with you!

To register for Sacred Landscapes and view all themes, speakers and topics (32 topics thus far!), visit naturallifemanship.com/sacred-landscapes.

 

 

What are the Natural Lifemanship Connection Kits and are they for me?

What are the Natural Lifemanship Connection Kits and are they for me?

by | Nov 18, 2022 | Equine Assisted Trainings, Natural Lifemanship Events, The Latest in Equine Assisted Therapy and Learning

You may have heard of the Natural Lifemanship Connection Kits and you may be wondering what, exactly, they are, what purpose they serve, and for whom.

 

We created the Connection Kits to fill a need in our community of equine-assisted practitioners – a need that emerged again and again during the course of consultations. As is often the case with useful tools, our Connection Kits have been discovered by many folks outside of the EAS community as well, including school counselors, therapists who work in a more traditional setting, and even clients! 

 

Built with a purpose

Our co-founder, Bettina Shultz-Jobe, found herself describing the ways she incorporates rhythm to build regulation and relationship within and between humans and horses during sessions. She would refer to various tools she would use for that purpose as well as concrete activities, and she would always explain the science that supports the activities and, in fact, everything we do in NL. 

 

She came to realize that one of the biggest ways that we could support our community is by packaging these tools and resources into ready-made kits accompanied by instructional courses that explain how and why we use the tools to promote regulation, healing, growth, and connection for our clients and our horses, whether we are working inside or outdoors.

 

So, we created the kits! We incorporated our knowledge of science, healthy brain development, and the power of the horse-human relationship with easy-to-use tools that help organize, integrate, and regulate the brain and body and build deeper connections. We call these tools, the Natural Lifemanship Connection Kits – Tools Designed to Enhance Your Equine-Assisted Practice.

 

These kits provide you with the same tools our expert professionals use at Natural Lifemanship, and hours of guided education including video demonstrations with our beloved horses, to ensure the tools are used safely and effectively. Most tools can be used in a traditional office setting, outside in nature, and with or without horses.

 

Who uses the Connection Kits? How do I know if they are for me?

 

If you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, then the Connection Kits are for you!

 

Are you:

  • A professional who provides equine-assisted services?
  • A parent of school-aged children?
  • A teacher?
  • A mental health professional?
  • A helping professional who works with people who have experienced trauma?
  • Someone who works with youth?
  • Someone who works with seniors?
  • Interested in learning how to regulate your own nervous system and how to help others regulate theirs?
  • Interested in understanding the science behind the techniques?

 

Do you:

  • Appreciate having tools and concrete activities ready and available to use when working with others?
  • Appreciate the convenience of video instruction so you can learn on your own schedule?
  • Value the ability to earn CE credits (from NBCC)?
  • Know somebody who fits any of the descriptions listed here and want to give them an absolutely amazing, one-of-a-kind holiday gift – the kind of gift that keeps on giving?

 

If this sounds familiar, then NL’s Connection Kits are for you.

 

Which Kit is Right for Me?

Really, each kit has something unique to offer. It may be helpful to hear a little about how some of our customers have used the kits and for what purposes.

 

Essential Connection Kit

The Essential Connection Kits are the most inclusive, containing many different tools and activities to regulate each region of the brain and to promote connection. This kit comes with 16 hours of instructional videos delivered in a course that offers 11.5 CE Credits. 

 

The Essential Connection Kit is transportable, too! It comes neatly organized and packaged in a tote that you can take with you and use in an office, a school, and even outside. 

 

This kit has been most popular with the equine-assisted practitioners (both therapists and coaches) who use our model. It has also been very popular with school counselors. We’ve had several districts buy one for each of their counselors to use with their students. Some counselors have also shared their kits and their knowledge of how to use them with the teachers at their schools. One school counselor reported that she has used the kit for her therapy groups at school, teaching regulation skills throughout the year. 

 

The Essential Connection Kit activities can fit very easily into a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) program if teachers and counselors choose to use it this way, as it promotes knowledge and skills related to how the brain works and bottom-up regulation. 

 

Drum Connection Kit

The Drum Connection Kit comes with a Remo Bahia Buffalo Drum and nearly 5 hours of video instruction (and 4.5 CE credits) demonstrating ways to incorporate drumming to regulate the brain. 

 

If all you want is the drum, we encourage you to head on over to Remo to purchase it. However, if you want the drum AND the online course with CE credits, you’ll want to buy it from us. Lots of folks have purchased this kit, including equine professionals and coaches. If you want to incorporate drumming into your work, the NL Drum Connection Kit makes it super simple.

 

Rhythm Bell Connection Kit

The Rhythm Bell Connection Kit is, surprisingly, the number one kit that is purchased by clients because they love them so much. 

 

When therapists and other practitioners use the Rhythm Bells in sessions, clients fall in love with them because they are such a great regulation tool. They also really help people come into connection. For this reason, we’ve used them a lot in mounted work and have created multiple ways that these handcrafted bells can attach to the client’s clothing and the horse’s mane or saddle. 

 

Another surprising fact is how many of our therapists like to use the bells in an office setting. We even have one client who wears these while walking during telehealth sessions. The Rhythm Bell course offers 2.5 CE credits.

 

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Connection Kit

Finally, the Do-It-Yourself Connection Kit is also a great option, especially if you already have a collection of tools similar to the ones we package. The DIY Connection Kit gives you ALL of the downloadable instructions and resources you need to build your own Essential Kit. It includes the course and all the videos. It also includes the Drum Connection Kit course. It does not include any of the physical items that are demonstrated, but it gives you the information you need to purchase your own. 

 

Because it includes both the Essential and the Drum Kit courses, the DIY Kit offers a total of 16 CE credits. It also is available to NL Members at a very steep discount.

 

How much do our customers love these kits? We’ll let them tell you in their own words.

 

The drum kit absolutely drives home the concept of bottom up regulation. After this course, I feel like I can confidently take these activities into my work with clients. Thank you! 

– Ashley M Stavig

 

I love using the drum and bell kits with clients who have trauma. These are fundamental tools that give clients a ‘language’ (sound, movement) that makes sense of their world.  These tools help me see, without the pressure of words, the client’s trauma.  Essential for trauma work!! 

– Jan Stump, MSW PEACE Ranch

 

I was able to understand the science behind the tools in each box [of the Essential Connection Kit]. I was able to see how to practically use the tools in a therapeutic setting. 

– Christi Lundby, LPC-S, LCDC

 

Practicing walking with the bell and riding with the bell on me and my horse gave me an understanding of how my body is responding that is beyond anything I have ever felt before.  It is not the regulation that was most important; it is the integration.  Amazing. 

– Marilee Donovan Dual Certified in NL

 

The Drum Connection Kit Course was both educational and fun.  It was not only full of pertinent information, but it was easy to follow with demonstrations that I can use right away in my program. I loved learning how the progression of activities using the drum achieved full brain engagement.  It was easy to follow and fun to watch. 

– Claudia Alesi, Certified Equine Assisted Coach

 

It [essential connection kits] was all valuable.  I appreciated the raccoon circle because I have a family that is struggling and I believe this will help show how important it is to connect and work together. 

– Anonymous Customer

 

I have been a therapist for over ten years. Natural Lifemanship is the best therapeutic model that I have integrated into my practice. NL has provided me with the science and practical instruction to immediately improve my skills as a therapist with an equine partner or without. A sound principle is a sound principle resonates with me in all client/therapist relationships. 

– Christi Lundby, LPC-S, LCDC

 

I do not generally respond to music and drumming is sometimes annoying, so I was not prepared to be amazed by the benefits of the bells.  I wear a bell each morning when I go to turn the horses out and often I wear a bell when cleaning the barn and feeding.  It is a mindfulness practice above all others.  I had to work initially to have a rhythm but once found it is comforting and rewarding.  Riding my horse with the bells generates another level of connection and we have a great connection already.  Now when the horses hear me coming with the bell on they often come up and touch the bell on my clothing to say good morning.  I would recommend this to any NL professional to deepen their own understanding of their body and of connection and integration. 

– Marilee Donovan, Dual Certified in NL

 

I loved everything about the [Essential Connection Kit] course, very helpful and that it’s not just for psychologists but for teachers, parents, foster parents,  equine professionals,  etc. 

– Anonymous Customer

 

Natural Lifemanship never ceases to amaze me with their dedication to incorporating both the art and science of connection, and the way this leads to healing and growth! 

– Melissa McMullen, LSW, Equine Therapist at One Heart Stables with the Christian Children’s Home of Ohio

 

I am just beginning to learn about Natural Lifemanship, so everything [in the Essential Connection Kit] was valuable to me.  It was very educational.  I really love the demonstrations.  They are easy to follow and I can’t wait to use them in my program. 

– Claudia Alesi, Certified Equine Assisted Coach

 

We LOVE our Connection Kits and are so delighted that our community loves them, too. We love hearing about the creative ways people are putting these kits to use, and of course how they are working out. 

 

If you already own a Connection Kit, please join our Connection Kit forum in our community so you can share ideas and resources with other Connection Kit owners.

 

Have questions about the Connection Kits? Leave them below and our team will get back with you.

 

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