Horse Wisdom - Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Service Offering 
Emotional Intelligence & Fitness Paradigm relevant to relationships of all descriptions, both personal and professional. Individual, couple and group coaching.
Context
In the last decade or so the practice of employing horses to aid humans for emotional and psychological healing and personal development purposes grew exponentially. This has been given many different names including
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Equine Facilitated / Assisted Psychotherapy (EFP or EAP)
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Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning (EFEL), Equine Experiential Learning (EEL), Equine Assisted Learning (EAL)
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Equine Guided / Experiential Education (EGE or EEE)
These processes involve horse-human interaction, often no riding, to facilitate psychoanalysis, emotional healing, experiential learning or education, and personal development.
This field is constantly developing as people come to grips with the value of the prey animal herd model, or example, and also with the healing effect horses have on humans. And so the healing energy and power of the prey animal herd model, has been employed for
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company structure, value and leadership interventions
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teacher training (teaching teachers how to teach)
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supporting health care practitioners (both for their emotional well-being and to help them care for patients)
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inmate and drug abuse rehabilitation
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emotional/psychological disorders
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personal development coaching
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post traumatic stress disorder counselling (victims of violence, policemen and women, soldiers returning from war)
And so on. Yes, rather a vast spectrum of service.
Ilse’s Philosophy and Approach
As this world above unfolded, the world of employing horses in the human (emotional) healing process, associations were born to regulate the industry. A good thing on the one hand, to help protect innocent consumers from people who do not really know what they’re doing but are jumping on a bandwagon to make a buck.
On the other hand the conditions set by some organisations formed to monitor the industry often make participation exclusive, unaffordable for clients or unsustainable for practitioners. Or so rigid that it can prevent what needs to happen in the process, from happening. Teaching or following steps does not necessarily facilitate genuine development and growth.
As is usually the case with most things in life, everything has pros and cons. And over time I have learnt that it is not always possible to slot things nicely into neat categories, that more often than not white and black make way for many, many shades of grey.
I recently attended The Equine Experience™ with Drs Deborah and Adele McCormick on their ranch near San Antonio, Texas, USA. I had read their books (many times) and felt compelled to attend this programme. I will forever be grateful that I followed my instinct to do so. For more than 15 years I had been researching and investigating this new world around horses. Initially purely in terms of horsemanship ‘methods’ or approaches and eventually also in terms of psychological and spiritual healing/learning as I woke up to this component along the way. Here I found at last, something that worked on all of me!
Drs McCormick confirmed my supposition that the two worlds are inextricably linked. In other words, as we develop our horsemanship abilities we are also working on ourselves. Unless our agenda is one of self importance. Better than anyone, horses will let us know how authentic and effective (or not) we are at any given moment. And it will be evident in what they give us, or don't. Dr Deborah McCormick, psychotherapist and highly accomplished classical horsewoman, facilitated my transformation from trepidatious and over emotional, to specific, clear and unsentimental.
Thus my Horse Wisdom approach was born, a developmental approach facilitating personal and emotional growth. The process may include interaction with a horse or horses and may involve riding.
Pease contact Ilse for current rates, any further information or to make bookings.
