Services
What Is Equine Assisted Learning?
Equine Assisted Learning is a form of experiential learning - where clients develop new insight and learn new skills via relational experiences with horses.
EAL can assist in personal development, professional development and developing leadership skills in teams and individuals.
EAL is a fast growing modality across Australia as well as internationally. National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) clients benefit greatly from EAL services as do children and adolescents and clients with trauma.
What Happens in an EAL Session
In EAL, clients are offered 'safe' (physically and emotionally) experiences with horses for the purpose of exploring self-experience in relationship, building self-awareness of patterns or habits that are no longer serving clients well, developing social and emotional skills and addressing learning goals clients have identified.
What does this look like?
Observation of horses
Meeting with horses at liberty
Lead-line experiences including touching, grooming and leading
Liberty leading - leading horses without a lead rope
Led mounted/ riding
Creative activities with horses
Why Horses?
Horses are beautiful, intelligent, sensitive and strong beings who can evoke strong feelings in clients or engage clients in the learning process. Calm and healthy horses can assist in co-regulating a client's nervous system, can model healthy living and expression of feelings as well as offering non-judgemental safety and trust. Horses can offer unique bio-feedback and hold clients in a way traditional learning environments cannot. The natural environment can also contribute positively to learning outcomes for clients.
"Horses can see the real you. Being seen is incredibly healing""
MEG KIRBY
Founder of the Equine Psychotherapy Intstitute, Australia.
Melita Gapes
Melita lives on a farm with her family just outside Lismore, in the beautiful Northern Rivers. She has been a primary school teacher for over 27 years and has been involved with horses most of her life. Melita made the decision to combine helping humans with horses in 2020 after her own life changing experience at a healing clinic with horses.
Melita trained with the EPI in 2022 and is committed to furthering her advanced training with the EPI: The Inner Critic, Working with Children; Trauma and Anxiety workshops.
Melita has extensive experience with children but also has a passion for teenage and adult clients as she believes in the benefits that anyone can explore through the experiential style of learning that horses help empower the human to experience and come to know about themselves. She enjoys working with NDIS participants specialising in social and emotional skill development, working with individuals, and completing the Horse Wisdom program with school age small groups. Melita also combines with other local therapists offering camps in nature reserves and local beaches with her horses.
Melita’s herd consists of domesticated horses and rescued brumbies from the 2019 drought. Together and individually, they offer clients support and experiences that allow them to be themselves. Melita is qualified to offer both on-the-ground and mounted sessions.
Acknowledgement
Horses, Hands and Hearts acknowledges the Widjabul/Wia-bal people of the Bundjalung nation, traditional owners of the land on which we work. We acknowledge their continuing connection to the land, sea and community. We pay our respects to the Widjabul/Wia-bal people, their culture, their elders and community leaders past, present and emerging.
Get in Touch
Questions, comments or requests? Feel free to reach out, we’d love to hear from you.