Explore our Equine-Assisted Therapy services offering a unique approach to healing and personal growth. At Mosaic Counseling we use the Eagala Model, a distinctive experiential framework designed to provide clients the latitude to discover, learn, and grow from the horse-human relationship.

Beyond Words

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Horses never speak, but they're always communicating.

Many people find the idea of talking about their struggles challenging, but unspoken  pain, anxiety, fear, stress, and trauma often seep through us in unintended, subconscious ways.​ How can we begin to share what we're going through when we can't even find the words?

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Research of body language found that communication is 55% nonverbal, 38% vocal, and 7% words only.  

If actions speak louder than words, horses make great translators - They interpret body language quite fluently!

Horse Sense

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The sheer size and strength of a horse can make it easy to forget they’re prey animals. Their very survival depends on an almost unfathomable level of data analysis and reflexive decision-making. Much of the information we’re either oblivious to, or subconsciously dismiss, is valued as a matter of life or death to the horse. In the wild, their lives depend on them recognizing and responding to inconsistencies in their environment. 

Equines use their innate ability to notice subtle nuances in humans too. The way we shift our weight, tilt our head, bend our knee, hold our breath…our gait, our gaze, our cadence - none of it escapes them. ​​

Fully Seen & “Herd”

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You can’t lie to a horse: they can see what we hide, even from ourselves. Horses can sense our stress, often before we do. They not only look for subtle signs, they can smell it!

Equines have approximately 300 million olfactory receptors (humans have 5-6 million). In horses, the chemo-signals of human fear and happiness induce sympathetic and parasympathetic changes that activate emotions (Lanata et al., 2018). The nose knows!

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Horses' keen senses allow them to monitor heart rates from several feet away, providing more data as to the stress level of those nearby, and they respond accordingly.​​​​​​​

Restoring Balance

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When stress signals are perceived, equines evaluate the environment. If no looming threat is recognized, horses offer comfort by gathering around the stressed herd-mate in an effort to restore balance. A deep sigh or "contagious" yawn activates the Vagus Nerve and prompts a release of tension. That signals the nervous system to shift from sympathetic mode (fight, flight or freeze) and prompts the  parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) to kick in. Then the magic happens!

Research reveals horses have an innate ability to synchronize heartbeats, not only with one another, but also with humans. (Callara et al., 2024) ​​​​​​​​​​​​

Release, Find Peace

And just like that,​​ you release tension you didn’t even realize you were holding in your shoulders, neck, glutes... The air reserved in your lungs, just in case, evaporates with theirs. In a moment, the worries and fears you held so tightly are gone with the wind.

Suddenly, you see what the horse sees - the possibility of a purer, truer, lighter, more balanced version of yourself. And you just want to stay found in that moment forever.

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That's the art and science of  connection in action. That's the power of the herd. Once you're invited into that space, that's where real introspection is spurred and true healing can begin!​​​​​​​​

Harnessing Horsepower 

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For thousands of years, horses have helped people carry heavy loads faster and farther than humanly possible.  Now we’re harnessing horsepower to help us lay our burdens down.

If you want to become more reflective and less reactive, if you want to unpack some of load you've been carrying, but you don't know where to begin, equine-assisted therapy might be a great place to start. There's nothing like a 1,000 pound bio-feedback tool to jump-start self awareness.​​ You can read all about it, but nothing comes close to discovering the power of equine-assisted therapy for yourself. It's truly an experience that's BEYOND WORDS!​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Who is Equine-Assisted Therapy for? 

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Although equine-assisted therapy initially began as a treatment for physical disabilities in 1969, recently there has been a growing use of equine-assisted therapies as an adjunctive integrative health modality in treating individuals who are experiencing a wide variety of mental health needs such as fear, depression, anger, anxiety, and autism (Burton et al., 2019; Masini, 2010).

Equine-assisted therapy has emerged as a powerful treatment for PTSD, as it allows participants to practice mindfulness, emotional regulation, and self-mastery of self-esteem building skills (Sylvia et al., 2020).  ​​​​​​​​

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What happens in sessions?

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- Mindfulness/Grounding 

-Grooming a horse

-Leading a horse

-Navigating obstacles 

-Observing the horses interactions, noticing connections, projecting and processing emotions.

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Recognizing patterns in the herd members' non-verbal communication can be extremely enlightening, often eliciting revelations about the participant's interactions with members of their own "herd".

Participants learn how modulating the intensity of their own energy influences equine behavior.  This knowledge can then be generalized and applied to interactions with other people.​​​​​