We utilize raising foals, and helping them develop. Like foals, therapy clients may need emotional or physical support to enjoy an optimal life! I Am Me, Equine Therapy is unlike most programs out there today. Like foals, therapy clients may need emotional or physical support to grow into healthy individuals. They understand each other, which you will find the further down you read. By pairing a c
lient healing from trauma with a foal, we give them both something to live for, someone that needs them, and a reason to live and thrive. Right now I Am Me, Equine Therapy is in the foundation stages of creating this beautiful program. Below you will find many details of the goals we'd like to accomplish once we are up and running, as well as donation needs. Currently we are relocating to Spencer Wisconsin, where we will be based. Our facility will be located on over 40 acres of land, including a natural stream that runs through it! THE FUTURE OF "I Am Me, Equine Therapy"
HEALING
Our equine assisted growth and learning program partners people in unforgettable interactive experiences with foals, or retired horses to foster emotional, social, educational, spiritual, and psychological growth. As a result of our programs, our clients develop greater self-esteem, confidence, resilience, communication skills, strengthened relationships and a deeper understanding of themselves and their world. OUR SERVICES
"Happy emotionally strong people through Equine Therapy and Learning…"
What if a horse could teach love, trust, communication, empathy, appropriate boundaries, healthy conflict resolution, teamwork, creativity, honesty, patience, and resilience? What if a horse could motivate and empower a person to be their best and happiest? Through "I Am Me, Equine Therapy" we hope to see clients of all ages and backgrounds motivated by the guidance, acceptance, and love of a horse to grow into happier, healthier, more peaceful, and more loving people. In Equine Assisted Learning the relationship between human and horse is used to promote exploration of feelings and behaviors, and to enhance and teach healthy life skills. Equine Assisted Learning includes life coaching and personal development, including team building and executive coaching. In partnership with horses these experiential opportunities are designed to improve self knowledge and skills in the areas of communication, confidence, healthy conflict resolution, teamwork and leadership skills, effective parenting and relationship building. In Equine Assisted Education our therapy horses are incorporated in activities intended to promote educational and vocational goals. EAE is open to students with emotional and behavioral issues that have impacted their learning needs but is also open to students who can simply benefit from an experiential component to traditional classroom based learning. Our Equine Therapy and Learning services are provided through:
Individual, Family and Group sessions
Therapeutic Summer & Holiday Programs for Youth
Therapeutic Respite
Family Reunification Intensives
Vocational Rehabilitation
Therapeutic Vaulting
Under the guidance of a coach, educator or horse professional with specialized training in the field of equine assisted growth and learning we will use proven interactive experiences with horses to foster emotional, social, spiritual, and psychological growth. Our program can provide clients with experiential opportunities to practice healthy life skills in a physically and emotionally safe environment, and the confidence to take those skills back into their family and life. Each client is treated as an individual: goals, and session plans are carefully matched to the needs, temperament, and emotional goals of the client. A special bond grows between our clients and their horses. Developing empathy for their horses and learning to support their equine partners creates an awareness of others’ feelings, interests and needs. Individuals who learn to treat a horse with kindness, respect, responsibility and loving discipline are empowered to be better parents, better partners, better students, employees and friends, both as children and adults. Learning to share power and develop partnership with a 1000 pound animal is a tremendous boost to self-esteem. The joy, confidence, and infectious sense of accomplishment gained from life skills learned at the barn transfer to a client’s life. WHO CAN BENEFIT
Our Equine Assisted Services can positively impact people that struggle with addiction, depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, grief/loss/divorce, abandonment, family of origin issues, and stress resulting from physical or sexual abuse or combat-related trauma. Individuals growing through a life or family transition – death, divorce, blending families, relocation – also benefit from our support. Many clients can courageously face these issues within our program; an equal number choose to engage in our program simply for self-improvement and the joy of connection with our horses. Our services can benefit everyone from individuals presenting with clinically diagnosed disorders to people who have no diagnosable problem, but feel within themselves an interest in growth and change. Our programs are open to all children, adults and families who are interested in becoming happier, healthier and more aware in their lives and relationships. Equine Assisted Psychotherapy & Learning can positively impact:
Self-esteem and confidence
Anger and anxiety management
Relationship building skills
Communication
Boundary-setting
Self-evaluation
Teamwork and cooperation
Leadership skills
Successful planning and completion of tasks
Increased self-discipline and responsibility
Empathy and respect for others
HOW IT WORKS
Our clients bond with our horses and through that relationship learn to love, communicate, nurture and trust. For some, this is the first experience of true belonging they have ever had. Clients who have felt powerless, defeated, rejected or cast away can experience the feeling of being needed and loved. Clients who have been hurt in their relationships with people can rebuild their trust and sense of safety. Caring for a horse can be a means of learning how to give and receive nurturing for people raised in a home where nurturing was not present. Children, in particular, often turn to animals when seeking emotional support. Learning to trust their equine partner can be the beginning of renewing trust in people. Horses are nonjudgmental and listen without interrupting or offering advice. With them we feel accepted unconditionally, which is not always the case with people. They are a place we can go for support when we feel threatened by seeking encouragement from people. Often our clients just need to connect with the horses, grooming, and giving and receiving safe touch. For clients who are facing life challenges, the soothing effect of stroking a horse can be very healing in itself. WHY HORSES? No one who knows horses can deny that they have a full range of feelings, attitudes, preferences and personalities. It’s easy to assume that because they don’t hold board meetings, play the stock market, or score well on the SATs, that they are less intelligent than humans. However, horses display their intelligence, logic, and intuition in many ways that we don’t recognize because we speak a different language. Like us, horses feel fear, anger, grief, relaxation, happiness and affection. They play, fight and communicate in relationships which share many of the same dynamics of our own:
Trust
Respect
Boundaries
Affection
Family Structure
Mutual Support
Long term commitment
Far more than most people know, horses are social, emotional animals. They react and respond. A gelding in the field will call enthusiastically to an approaching friend, a mare whose foal dies will grieve, a horse abused by a human will develop fear and distrust. Like us, horses are motivated to seek relief from pain, fear and emotional pressure. They seek creative solutions to get their needs met, and like us, if they cannot find successful solutions they will express their pain outwardly. Horses too, can experience depression, anxiety attacks, attachment disorders, behavioral issues, post-traumatic stress, learned helplessness, and emotional shutdown. They can also demonstrate and teach such healthy behaviors as honest communication, trust, healthy boundaries, leadership, patience, assertiveness, play, affection, and nurturance. Pairing a person and a horse with similar backgrounds, feelings, and behaviors creates a powerful non-threatening relationship in which a client can see herself with compassion, understanding and objectivity. By relating her horse’s experiences with her own, a client is able to get in touch with her feelings, own her behaviors and beliefs, and explore new choices. Learning empathy for her horse is the beginning of looking on herself with the same acceptance and unconditional love. The relationship built between a client and a horse is a partnership in which both are empowered to learn, heal, and grow. A relationship with a horse requires a client to develop communication, patience, boundaries, and most of all, respect. To be trusted by a horse, you must be trustworthy; to be respected by a horse, you must first give respect. As prey animals, horses are brilliant observers of nonverbal communication, and like humans, react negatively to disrespect, impatience, and lack of self-control. Even our most veiled intentions are easily detected by horses, and responded to accordingly. The lesson learned by the client is that by taking responsibility and making new choices, the horse responds differently. Relationships take effort, communication, mutual respect and time to grow. A relationship with a horse can’t be forced, faked or manipulated. Through learning to treat a horse with respect – to be assertive without aggression, patient without giving in – the horse gives cooperation that cannot be gained through intimidation or force, impatience, or lack of control. A relationship with a horse cannot be forced or faked. As with any relationship, what we put into it determines what we get out of it. There are infinite possibilities of including horses for emotional growth. The greatest benefit is that through learning with the horses, positive behaviors are not only taught but experienced. It’s an encounter of change and new growth, and clients are able to integrate the learning they have directly experienced. The immense value of equine experiential learning and psychotherapy is that it promotes change through action –it’s not just talk. For all these reasons, and more, we have found that many of the best therapists have hooves! WHAT TO EXPECT
Carl Rogers once said, “If I can provide a certain type of relationship, the other person will discover within himself or herself the capacity to use that relationship for growth and change, and personal development will occur.” At "I Am Me, Equine Therapy," we will strive to promote that relationship between a client and a horse, and often encourage unique and extraordinary sessions. "I Am Me, Equine Therapy" is an experiential program, meaning that clients learn about themselves through taking part in activities. Sessions may include standard activities with horses such as grooming, feeding, riding and ground training, or equine experiential activities similar in nature to ropes-course work. Learning with the horses can also include games, journaling and art. Clients can take part in an equine assisted activity, and then discuss feelings, behaviors, and patterns. The horse sheds insight into the feelings and behaviors the client brings with them. Clients may lack language for how they are feeling or awareness of their emotions and behaviors. Learning with the horses gives them an opportunity to safely put words to their emotions and own their behavior. Within the interaction between a client and a horse, the client is provided opportunities to become more self-aware through understanding the metaphor of how the horse relates to them, their herd, and their environment, and how they relate to the horse. The opportunities for experiential metaphor are almost limitless. Almost anything found in our relationships with other people – our family dynamics, emotional reactions, behaviors, and choices – can be played out in an equine learning or therapy session. The horse’s response to the client can provide valuable insight into the client’s behavior, emotions and approach. By understanding how their behavior affects their horse a client can begin to see how their behavior affects other people, and ultimately, how that affects their response to them. Through exploring new ways to interact with a horse, you can begin to learn new constructive ways of interacting with the people in your life. The facilitator helps relate and apply this learning to the client’s own life and relationships beyond the barn environment by sharing insights and asking questions. While the facilitator makes every effort to remain non-directive, they may gently probe and ask questions to help the clients reach their own solutions. Sessions can be structured by the facilitators in order to address certain issues and goals or left unstructured. Unstructured sessions allow for the process to unfold, and the client and horse to direct where the session goes while the equine specialist and/or therapist facilitates the learning or therapeutic process. Unstructured sessions are a little like creating art – the equine assisted activities comprise a foundation of tools that can be used by the participants, and the facilitators improvise according to the needs of the client in that session rather than according to a set plan. The design of the session depends entirely upon the needs and goals of the client. Sessions will be strengths-based, process-oriented and solution-focused. Clients will take part in an equine assisted activity and then discuss feelings, behaviors and patterns. What matters isn't whether the client accomplishes the task, but how the clients approach the task and how they feel about the process and themselves as they participate. How does a mother who can’t get her son to get ready for school react when her horse refuses to step over an obstacle she attempts to lead him over? How does that relate to what she does at home? Here are several examples of real life experiences from equine therapy sessions around the world:
"A girl who has been sexually abused learn boundaries and experience safe touch through grooming a horse." "A boy with ADD/ADHD learn sequencing and planning of tasks and the ability to stay focused through an equine activity which requires these skills to be successful, such as grooming and preparing a horse to ride." "A group of mothers with small children take a morning trail ride to have social time away from their kids to relax and talk with other women about the experience of having children at home." "A pr***en improve his communication and social skills by playing a therapeutic game on horseback." "A group of young men learn to cooperate and work together in a team-building exercise." "A teen girl who is oppositional learn about how she impacts others through trying to clean the hoof of a challenging horse who refuses to cooperate." "A woman with anxiety learn the steps to take a horse over a scary object and relates that to breaking down her own fears." "A group of teens look at a picture of a horse or hears a horse’s story and discusses their interpretations and how it relates to them individually." "A timid girl learn assertiveness skills by directing a horse into and out of her space in a groundwork exercise." "A family tries to urge a horse over a jump without touching the horse and learns about their roles and communication patterns within the family system." These are only some of the impacts equine therapy has played in people's lives. As in art, there are limitless variations to any activity and no session is ever the same. We encourage you to please donate, as we are a non-profit facility that relies on you to keep pushing forward towards improving the lives of others! Currently, we are looking for quality registered mares for the purpose of
riding, grooming, companionship, or foaling, as we want our focus towards allowing our clients to help raise foals. Financial donations are ALWAYS very much appreciated, & we could utilize tack, saddles, medical supplies, fly sprays/masks, etc as well. Basically anything that can be used when we open in Spring 2023 (that is our goal). Each and every client, as well as horse, is very special to us. That being said, all horses donated to our facility will live out their lives with us, and never be sold or given away without prior approval from the previous owner. When "I Am Me, Equine Therapy" foals have reached maturity some may be kept as lifetime residents, and some may be sold/auctioned for the purpose of providing further funding of the facility. Venmo Donations- -Kowalski-87
Cash App Donations- $timjk87
Facebook Pay
PayPal- [email protected]
WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP, & LOOK FORWARD TO OPENING OUR DOORS!!!
