Equine-Assisted Coaching (EAC) Workshops
What is EAC?
Collaborative + Experiential
Equine-Assisted Coaching is a collaborative, experiential training method using horses as partners for personal and professional growth and development. Working with horses, clients engage in ground exercises targeted toward achieving client-defined goals. Our workshops serve the corporate client, veterans and their families, as well as at-risk populations such as human trafficking survivors and at-risk adolescents and their families.
Immediate Feedback + Client-Defined
The advantage of EAC is its immediacy, its client-driven nature, and the profound awareness and behavior changes clients experience. There is no riding involved, nor is any horse experience necessary. We individually design our workshops to meet client goals, and also provide pre-set workshops focusing on communication skills, leadership, and teamwork. The work involves ground-based activities that offer opportunities to develop:
Authenticity and Empowerment
Productive communication skills
Trust and Self-Awareness
Team cohesion
Assertiveness and confidence
Creative thinking and problem-solving skills
Leadership skills
Productive personal and workplace relationships
Collaboration across vertical and horizontal organizational boundaries
Why use horses?
“There is a paradigm shift in our midst. It’s typified by a shift in our ways of
attending— from ego to empathy, from ‘power over’ to ‘power with,’
from separation to synchronicity, from fear to courage.”
Horses are much like us—they live in social communities, they need leadership, they look out for the collective and individual welfare. But unlike us, they don’t operate through a cultural “filter” so they respond to us with complete honesty. And because they’re prey animals, they’ve spent millennia honing sensitivity, alertness, and survival skills--they’re non-verbal experts and will pick up any dissonance you bring to interactions with them, even inconsistencies you’re not aware you’re expressing.
They’re also experts at responding in the moment so you’ll get immediate feedback about whether what you’re actually saying—in body language, words, and actions—is what you intend to say, or think you’re saying. Partnering with horses in our workshop exercises allows you to refine your emotional responses, attitudes, non-verbal messages, and actions. You’ll get on-the-spot opportunities to change non-productive attitudes and behaviors into productive ones. Taking these into your personal life or the workplace will make you more effective and productive.
Our Workshops
Our workshops are designed to foster self-awareness, confidence, authenticity, and empowerment through individually designed workshops.
We know there’s no “one size fits all” when it comes to individual and group progress. After an initial assessment and interview, we'll design a proprietary workshop to meet your specific needs and goals -one tailored to address your concerns and issues.
Workshop Gains
Contact Us for More Information
Authenticity + Empowerment
Through exercises focused on building somatic intelligence, we help clients reclaim an authentic self. Then we build on that, developing a higher emotional intelligence IQ, allowing clients to gain a sense of self-efficacy--a positive, optimistic understanding that, whatever the challenge before them, they are equipped to meet it.
Self-Confidence + Communication Skills
Hidden agendas, false confidence, insecurity, incongruities in what we think we’re saying and what our body language actually says are ultimately ineffective. Over and over, we can undercut our own progress and success, and the root of the issue is that we really aren’t in touch with who we are. Getting to know our authentic selves empowers us naturally, and being self-aware is the first step. Our horses are experts at helping clients uncover roadblocks to self-discovery and self-actualization, and overcoming them. Then clients send clear messages and the horses provide immediate reinforcement. You’ll end up feeling centered and empowered and conveying exactly what you mean to others.
Leadership Skills
Leadership is not the same as management. We explore the differences and provide opportunities to tap into traits of effective leadership. You’ll also exercise and improve your “Emotional Intelligence” - a key component to success. Increasing your skill set means you’ll be better able to lead diverse sorts of employees, groups, and teams, no matter what sort of "team" you're leading. This is especially important in the corporate world, where organizations have increasingly flattened corporate structures.
Team Cohesion
Our workshops target team member autonomy, contribution, and recognition. Establishing a climate of trust, productively managing goal and process tasks, promoting flexibility and creative problem solving all contribute to team cohesion. Our exercises promote buy-in on team identity, and that translates into successful teams and successful projects, whether the team you're on is an athletic, personal, educational, or corporate one.