Healing Through Equine Therapy
My Journey with Horses
As a young child, I remembered feeling a profound connection to horses. I felt connected, calm, grounded, and less stressed whenever I was around them. However, my fear kept me back from wanting to embark on the journey of riding a horse. It would be many years later that I would come to understand the neural circuit that caused me to balk anytime someone asked me to ‘hop on their horse,’ or take a lesson. It was the neural circuit, fear. While I understood neural circuits and the complexities of the brain as well as primary emotions; I did not find the language to help me connect and organize the mind/body approach until I was engaged with the actual horse.
In 2023, I was encouraged to begin horse riding lessons and began to truly connect how my emotions informed the horse and vice a versa. My body and my mind began to make informed decisions based on my inner compass. Often, this led me to take even deeper breathes, pauses, and further my research for answers, helping guide me to a lifelong bond. I soon became a horse owner and then, three months later, my horse passed of complications. Growing frustrations arose with what they call ‘the horse community’ and my search for another horse quickly began.
In 2024, I embarked on a transformational journey through the H.E.A.L. Model with Leigh Shambo, MSW, LPCC (https://humanequinealliance.com/the-heal-model/). With Leigh’s absolute love for equine facilitated psychotherapy learning, her passions for healing, and her encouraging words; I had dived into her course and soon became certified as a ‘Bronze EFPL Facilitator.’ Unraveling all the intricacies of the pathways, Leigh truly helped me combine my love for psychotherapy and my equal love towards the equine. I whole-heartedly began to communicate with my own POA (Pony of Americas) and found joy in helping clients understand just how informative Equine therapy can be. With instruction and direction, I am now able to help people develop distress tolerance skills by providing a safe environment to explore emotions and behaviors. Clients can now see how non-judgmental a horse truly is. How a horse does not care what you wear, how you look, or even understand the concept of “punishment.” My clients can now feel understood, which can help them process difficult emotions. To me, that was and is everything.
To learn more about Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy Learning (EFPL) and how you can incorporate this into your own healing, please reach out to MontanaTherapyForMoms.
Lital Diament MA LMFT #56973 offers individual sessions as well as intensives to help you further your healing journey and find meaningful connections with horses.
Written by: Lital Diament MA LMFT#56973