Equine-Assisted Coaching and Learning Workshops
Customizable Team & Leadership Building for Families & Groups
Grow Emotionally Resilient & Relationally Strong Together
The equine-assisted coaching and learning workshops facilitated by Lisa Pulliam provide a unique and memorable opportunity to grow emotionally resilient and relationally strong individually and as a group.
Lisa simplifies the brain-body-relationship connection aspect that is foundational to building strong relationships and experiencing sustainable growth.
Utilizing a trauma-informed developmental neuroscience model and the relationship principles found effective in helping humans and horses connect in ways that heal and transform both.
Through this kind of unique experience, participants will learn and gain:
- how relationships can be sabotaged by interactions (great for customer service industries, leadership teams, and families)
- what the brain and body do in the fear state
- steps to reduce the fear response
- anxiety reduction techniques
- sensitivity to those suffering from trauma
- what to do when facing resistance
- how to respond when being ignored
- noticing window of tolerance
- expanding frustration tolerance capabilities
- observing body language
- raising and lowering energy levels
- emotional refueling
- intellectual stimulation
- delight at learning together
- life-skill applications
This is just the beginning of what can be learned and applied!
2-Hour Workshop
Ideal for learning about the brain-body-relationship connection to help improve group dynamics, increase empathy, and improve communication.
Half-Day Workshop
Discover how the brain-body-relationship connection impacts group dynamics while exploring new ways to make requests of one another, respond to needs, and support the growth process.
Full-Day Workshop
Invest deeply in a memorable team bonding and leadership development experience through learning how the brain-body-relationship connection impacts group dynamics. Together, you'll uncover new ways of making requests of one another, how to respond to needs with less force and more confidence, and begin to identify relational styles that support the overall growth process both personally and as a team.
The A.R.I.S.E. Method
The equine-assisted coaching and learning experiences facilitated by Lisa Pulliam focus on gaining life skills from a trauma-informed perspective, utilizing a developmental neuroscience model and the relationship principles found effective in helping humans and horses connect in ways that heal and transform both.
To help unpack these principles and skills, Lisa devised the A.R.I.S.E. Method as a way to guide clients not only in a session with horses but also to integrate into everyday life, outside of the round pen.
A.R.I.S.E. provides the framework for the insights and skills gained through our coaching and learning programs leading to emotional resilience and relational growth in the face of life's challenges.
A - AWARENESS
How did you get to this moment? Notice what is happening in your body.
Learning how to identify sensations is helpful for regulation and is an excellent life skill as well as essential for being around and on a horse.
R - REFLECT
What are you feeling? Sad, Mad, Glad, or Afraid?
Noticing our emotions is essential because they influence our thoughts and the choices we make.
I - IDENTIFY
What are your beliefs about yourself, others, and this situation?
Learning how to identify helpful versus harmful beliefs about your situation, yourself, others is necessary for choosing the next best step.
S - STRATEGIZE
What are your options, opportunities, and solutions?
Not every challenge needs to become a debilitating crisis or obstacle to moving forward. Learning how to assess the situation and the options is an essential life skill that leads to resiliency.
E - ENGAGE
What is your next step? Be specific and realistic.
Engaging in the process of growth requires taking action with purpose and intentionality through setting S.M.A.R.T. goals and having the accountability provided through coaching to move forward.
Ready to get started?
Book a 15-minute Consultation Session to find if an equine-assisted coaching and learning workshop is ideal for your family or group.
FAQs
Equine-Assisted Coaching and Learning provides a unique way to explore growth because horses are willing to engage in connection and also resist it if they don't feel safe. They are created with a brain and body response system that works for their survival. As herd animals, they rely on their senses and one another for protection and also the provision of needs. By entering into an experience with a horse, we can explore what we bring into a relationship as well as what we can get out of it. As a result, we learn about ourselves and the needs of others in a fresh new way.
Natural Lifemanship principles utilized in equine-assisted coaching and learning sessions are built upon the concepts of healthy attachment and building attuned, connected relationships. The principles applied between the horse-and-human relationship equally apply to our human-to-human relationships.
Neuroscience research demonstrates that our brains can change through new and healthy experiences. In our sessions, we explore the cultivation of new thinking patterns (neuropathways) to move toward healing, growth, and transformation.
The way to change old patterns that no longer serve us is to practice something new. The learning is accomplished in our sessions, utilizing principles we put into practice in all of our relationships. The goal is to learn how to have connected and attuned relationships, which leads to healthy development, contributes to healing at any age and enhances well-being.
Although most people believe that trauma needs to be a big life event, anything that causes you to experience fear of harm can result in a traumatic experience and hinder the way you see yourself, others, God (if faith is part of your life), and your place in this world. For example, all these events can be categorized as trauma:
- intrauterine and birth trauma
- abuse and neglect
- domestic violence
- grief and loss
- car accident
- flooding and fires
- natural disaster
- divorce
- family separation
- combat
- detainment/deportation
- incarceration/imprisonment
- homelessness
- poverty
- community violence and civil unrest
- sudden changes in relationships
- sudden and unexpected moves
- individuals eager to gain self-awareness and heal
- mothers ready to discover a new way to relate to their children
- families seeking to cultivate new ways of connecting and communicating
- couples longing for a deeper understanding of each other
- young adults looking for the courage to embrace their college and career endeavors
- leaders and teams ready to find unity in their vision and discover how to work together more effectively
The farm sessions are held in heart of Pennsylvania horse country at Honey Brook Stables, in Honey Brook. If you are from out of town, we will schedule your sessions on back-to-back days or the same day. Feel free to request a list of local accommodations.
You don't need any horse experience at all. Actually, the less you know about horses, the more remarkable your experience can be because you'll show up teachable and without any preconceived notions about what to do. This is all unmounted work. If you would like riding lessons, we can put you in touch with a fabulous instructor at the farm.
You'll want to wear closed-toe shoes and comfortable clothing that you don't mind getting muddy.
When it comes to caring for horses, the expense can quickly add up in order to provide quality veterinary care, food, pasture space, grooming supplies, and board. As a professional working with horses, there is also the matter of liability insurance. As such, the cost of an equine-assisted experience will be more than an online coaching experience. However, what you learn in one session with a horse may take multiple sessions online, depending upon your level of awareness.
Lisa Pulliam
Meet Your Workshop Creator & Facilitator
Elisa Pulliam, the founder of StableMinded.us, is passionate about helping youth, adults, and groups arise, stabilize, and thrive. Lisa's goal is to equip clients and workshop participants with practical skills to navigate through anxiety, fear, insecurity, hurt, shame, mental blocks, leadership challenges, and relational conflict as she simplifies the brain-body-relationship connection that shapes mindset and habits.
Lisa is a certified Natural Lifemanship Trauma-Informed Equine-Assisted Specialist and Coach, Life Breakthrough Coach, Highlands Ability Battery Consultant, and is pursuing an MA in Clinical Counseling with a trauma concentration at Eastern University.
She has been riding horses since she was a little girl and discovered that competing at the college level was not as much fun as simply hanging out with the horses and her barn friends. She returned to riding as an adult and is learning dressage as well as how to jump again, with a balanced seat, under the excellent training of Kaitlyn McGarvey at Honey Brook Stables.
When she’s not at the stables, she savors the time with her husband of 25 years, nearly all-grown-up children, and being entertained by her beloved Golden Retrievers.