The Art & Science of Connection
- September 13th
- October 11th
- November 15th
- December 13th
Time: 9:00-11:00 am
Who: Youth: ages 7-12 yrs.
Where: Equinimity: 3742 N Edith Blvd. Tucson, 85718
Equinimity is an ESA-approved vendor. Space is limited.
About the Series
Each month, we will explore the following topics:
Behavior = communication
Parents/adults: Cultivating attunement.
What is Conscious parenting? The paradigm shift explained. Decoding behavior as communication. Building meaningful relationships through the neuroscience lens.
Youth: Learn what some of the horses’ body language is, while observing their interaction with the other horses and humans. How DO horses communicate?
Navigating stress
Parents/adults: Working with presence. Navigating stress and relational ruptures. Identifying our needs, feelings and stories. Disrupting unhealthy patterns. Understanding co-regulation to increase capacity and tolerance.
Youth: Learn how to BE in the presence of horses. How do they respond when we are worried, anxious, excited, impatient, or any other emotional challenge we might face?
Healthy boundaries
Parents/adults: Identifying limits. Nurturing confidence and collaboration. Shifting away from control. Exploring boundaries, rules, values & agreements. Supporting needs and balancing discipline and natural consequences. Applying flexibility and compassion.
Youth: Start to communicate to the horse with tools to “speak” more clearly. Boundaries are very important with horses, both theirs and ours! How do we work out an agreement with a horse?
Compassionate communication
Parents/adults: Move with empathy. Reveal unconscious patterns and unlock empathy. Learn about compassionate communication, stoke sustainable influence, inner voice awareness and healing. Decipher maladaptive strategies and core emotional needs.
Youth: Imagine what we can do to help a horse be IN the conversation with us. Learn how to become a great dance partner…with a horse!
About the Facilitators
Jeanie Shepherd
A lifetime of experience with horses for me adds up to over 60 years. Beginning with training my first horse at the age of 12, and proceeding to breed and train my own horses, until the age of 37 when I developed a business breeding and training for other people.
During the last 35-plus years, I've dedicated myself to learning as much as possible about holistic health care.
I became certified not only as a Parelli InStructor, but as an Equine Touch Practitioner. From 2010 through 2013, I dedicated my life to learning more about foal development, mentally, emotionally and physically.
When I moved to southern Arizona in late 2013, I worked as the Equine Specialist for a Hippotherapy Facility until I moved into Tucson. It was then that I met Barbara Collier, and became involved in partnering with her and our horses Blue and Freedom to assist our clients on their Healing Journeys.
Emile McCrae
Emily McCrea has been working with children and families for over 25 years. She is a TEACH through Love certified conscious parent educator and coach, a certified Inner Child Journey and Resilient Heart trauma sensitive practitioner. She is a long time progressive educator and classroom teacher, school founder, consultant, Speaker, group facilitator and an LGBT youth ally. She is a self proclaimed emotional interpreter and fierce advocate of children's rights. She works with schools, families, organizations and in tandem with therapists. She is a mom of 2 kids, 15 and 21
"I teach caring adults how to identify what drives behavior and decipher and decode troubling and confusing behaviors and build compassionate communication skills and regulation tools that sustain relationships without punitive measures. I am focused on interpretation of core stored emotions and core developmental needs, somatic regulation techniques, healthy boundaries and relationship repair for our important relationships."
