"Happiness is never too far away when you have a horse."
Individually Designed Sessions
Here is what a typical session may include:
1. Check-In and Goal Setting We will begin by assessing mood, current stressors, and progress toward treatment goals.
2. Ground-Based Horse Interaction This may include grooming, leading, obstacle or pattern work, boundary-setting exercises, mindfulness and breathing alongside the horse.
3. Experiential Processing The therapist guides reflection throughout the activity,
4. Integration and Clinical Application The session concludes with discussion connecting the experience to real-life relationships, coping skills or trauma responses. Clients identify practical takeaways and strategies to apply outside of session.
Therapeutic Approaches
We provide trauma-informed, evidence-based mental health care integrating equine-assisted psychotherapy with traditional clinical practices. Sessions are facilitated by a licensed mental health professional and incorporate cognitive-behavioral, attachment-based, and somatic principles to support emotional regulation, self-awareness and relational growth.
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Our work is experiential, relational, and clinically grounded- designed to foster resilience, confidence, and lasting change.
Why Horses?
Horses are highly attuned to human emotion and body language. Their responses provide immediate, honest feedback, allowing clients to observe how their internal emotional state influences external outcomes.
The Heart Behind Cornerstone Equine Therapy
My journey to opening Cornerstone Therapeutic Horsemanship is a long one. It began with being a self-contained special education teacher and adopting a 3 year old with mental health needs. He eventually was diagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder. Once I began living with my son, my eyes were opened to the mental health needs of not only my son, but also my students. Too often, I was told that my son and my students were not "appropriate" candidates for different modalities of treatment. I became very frustrated with the mental health maze and lack of services.
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After several years of muddling through, I found the healing power of horses with my son through therapeutic horseback riding. I began to seek a way for my son and others in my classroom to be able to access these services. In 2014, I became certified as a therapeutic horseback riding instructor. I began working part-time at a local center. However, I began to realize that the horseback riding component alone was leaving out an important piece- mental health! The horses offered so many opportunties for empathy, social skills, mindfulness, attention, and self-growth!
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I made the decsion to leave the classroom and pursue a clincial social work degree. I knew that I could forever complain about the problems my son and my former students faced OR I could do something about it! I believed that I had found the way to help these kids!
Another pivotal event occured while I was getting my degree; I worked as a homebound teacher. I worked with students with life threatening diseases, as well as several students who were unable to attend school due to either mental health and/or behaviorial concerns. This experience also taught me how resistant youth can be to "therapy," but when I mentioned that I had horses.. ALL the students were excited and wanted to come see them. I realized that for many of these students the horses were a window into their soul, creating a safe way to get them to lower their guard and be "real". After 6 years of school and supervision, I began Cornerstone Therapeutic Horsemanship.
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I believe that horses are a gift in so many ways. They help create a safe space for sharing emotions, challenges, and creating true connections. They are huge, majestic creatures yet have a gentle, forgiving, loving soul.
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All of my life experiences led me to this point and caused me to be committed to helping my clients grow in ways that they never thought possible.
