The Equus Effect™
Somatic Engagement with Horses
Mission
To provide veterans, first responders and people from all walks of life with tools to build healthy, authentic relationships through purposeful engagement with horses.
Vision
A nation where the men and women who serve our country and communities — our guardians — and those who support them have the opportunity to unwind and recover from past events and meet ongoing challenges at work and home.
Values
Since we offer programs to guardians at no cost to them, we rely on the generosity of donors and foundations to support our mission.
We also offer fee-based programs to other populations. We conduct group and individual sessions for those who want to gain insight and mental clarity as they make the transition from one phase of life to another, raise their children or simply want the time and space for renewal. Anyone who wants to hone their personal and professional relationship skills is welcome tojoin us and our horses.
These fee-based programs help sustain and support our primary mission.
The Work
We offer the men and women who serve our country and communities — our guardians a curriculum built around full engagement with horses and body-based tools to offset cumulative stress — at no cost to them.
Experts in the field of neurobiology know that everyone and anyone’s nervous system carries experiences of life-threatening situations until they are metabolized and discharged.
We agree.
When participants react with fight, flight or freeze to people and situations long after the danger has occurred — we and the horses get to work to help them settle down … and move on.
Reactions among guardians include:
• Quick startle reflex
• Hypervigilance
• Disengagement
• Cynicism
When this happens, it’s hard to have healthy, authentic relationships.
What Makes Us Unique?
NON-MEDICAL APPROACH
Rather than using a diagnosis or treatment plan to determine our approach, the principles and practices we use are designed to meet people where ever they are.
TRANSPARENCY AND TOOLS
We offer insights into what’s behind reactions to people and situations by making distinctions among emotions and providing body-based tools that help participants turn reactions into appropriate responses.
A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
We act as guides — rather than as teachers or therapists. We do our own work to stay grounded and clear because to horses — we are all in the same field.
NO HORSE EXPERIENCE NECESSARY — NO RIDING INVOLVED
Key Elements of the Program
GROUND-BASED HORSEMANSHIP SKILLS
The hands-on horsemanship practices we teach are derived from a deep understanding of how horses operate as large, non-predatory animals. How they think, feel and behave provides the foundation for the ground-based skills we teach over the course of the sixteen-hour curriculum.
We are fortunate to have encountered Buck Brannaman and Warwick Schiller — two world class horse trainers whose sound approaches to working with equines inform our philosophy. Many participants are coming to know horses for the first time, so The Equus Effect team of facilitators and horse handlers ensure that both horses and humans are in very capable hands.
SOMATIC EXPERIENCING®
Developed by Peter Levine, Ph.D., Somatic Experiencing (SE™) is derived from the studies of stress physiology, psychology, neuroscience and indigenous healing practices. After more than 50 years of success among those who have been or remain in high stress situations, this body-based approach to the restoration of well-being to the nervous system has gained recognition by leaders in the fields of psychology and medicine.
EMOTIONAL ENERGY MANAGEMENT
The Equus Effect program includes an engaging presentation that uses Hollywood movie clips to illustrate various emotions and provides specific tools for ways to respond vs. react to people and situations that trigger us. We call this Emotional Agility. These insights and tools help participants regain agency and discover that we all have more choices than we think.
We use all three of these key elements to engage the body, heart and mind to reset and rebuild participants’ capacity for healthy, authentic relationships.
We work from the bottom up & inside out.
We translate insights directly into action.
Sources & Resources
• Horsemanship Skills – Buck Brannaman, Warwick Schiller
• Self Awareness, Emotional Agility – Linda Kohanov, Karla McLaren
• Body-Based Awareness and Tools – Dr. Peter Levine
• Resonance & Attunement – Bessel van der Kolk, Ph.D
These pioneers and professionals also know that positive change comes from taking deliberate, positive action — rather than talking about one’s life.
Statistics
Programs
Fee-based Workshop
Facilitator Certification
Are you interested in helping us?
The Equus Effect™ is a registered 501(c)(3) corporation. All contributions are 100% tax deductible.
DIRECTIONS
IMPORTANT!
Navigation apps do not work to our street address!!!
SET GPS to Sharon Town Beach, Mudge Pond Rd., Sharon, CT.
Drum Road is a Y-intersection directly across from entrance to the beach.
The facility is about 3/4 mile on the left.
Park in front of the red barn on the left or on the far side of the red cottage on the left.
NOTE: Please do not park or turn around in driveways on the right side of the road.
The Equus Effect
Address
37 Drum Road, Sharon, CT 06069
For general information:
Kelly Hitt
Communications &
Outreach Director
Kelly@TheEquusEffect.org
(203) 613-1107
Jane Strong, SEP, IFS Trained
Executive Director
Co-founder, Lead Facilitator
(860) 364-9985
David Sonatore, LCSW
Program Director
Co-founder, Lead Facilitator
(347) 439-1777