Therapy Trails

Welcome to Therapy Trails Equine Assisted Group Therapy. Equine Assisted Therapy can have the following benefits:

Emotional Regulation – Interacting with horses can help clients regulate their emotions. Horses are highly
sensitive to human emotions and respond accordingly, which encourages clients to become more aware of their emotional states and learn to manage them effectively.

Non-Verbal Communication – Horses communicate largely through body language. Engaging with a horse can provide a way to practice non-verbal communication and develop a sense of trust and safety.
Building Trust – Developing a relationship with a horse requires trust and patience. The process of bonding with a horse can help rebuild trust in a safe, controlled environment.

Awareness and Being Present – Horses live in the present moment and react to current stimuli. They soon regulate their nervous system if there is no danger. Observing this assists clients with grounding, being in the presence and determining danger.

Self Esteem and Confidence – Successfully managing and caring for a large animal can boost a client’s self-esteem and confidence. This sense of accomplishment can translate into other areas of life increasing confidence.

Social Skills – Interacting with horses and participating in equine-assisted activities often involve working with others, which can help clients improve their social skills.

The program covers:

Regulation– let the horses teach you all about calm, having a regulated nervous system.

Awareness – of the here and now, of what is happening for you inside your body, your mind and outside your body.

Boundaries – your “yes” and your “no”, what feels okay for you and what is not okay for you in each moment – spatial, touch and verbal.

Relationships – connecting safely and in trust, listening, understanding boundaries.

Feelings – as information about what is happening for you and how to notice, tolerate and express feelings respectfully.

Thinking – noticing and bringing into awareness what you think and what you say to yourself about self, others, life.

Facing Life’s Challenges – identifying the skills needed to face challenges and learning to respond healthfully in the moment.

We offer individualised and group sessions. The group sessions run over six weeks. No prior
experience with horses is required as the program is conducted from the ground, no riding
will be involved.

Please contact Bronwen on 021 942 262 or email therapytrails0@gmail.com if you would
like to attend a course or one-to-one sessions.

Once a referral has been received, Bronwen will make contact to discuss consents and the group
process.

ACC codes for six-week group:

• 1 hour – SCGT – In-person triage for Group-based Therapy.
• 18 hours – SCGW – Group-based Therapy in-person session

South Coast Psychology GO9884
Bronwen Wood 23AHUF
We are based in Taiharuru Whangarei