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Equine-Facilitated
Psychotherapy & Learning (EFPL)
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Winter 2013
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 Welcome Solstice and Happy New Year!
Up here in the Northwest corner of the US we are glad when the days lengthen, the shifting rhythm awakening brain and body. Snow was falling, but I did manage to fit in a New Year's trail ride, solo in the quiet forest with Beau, our Arabian gelding. David couldn't go and you'll read why in his Nickers column below. If you love trail riding too, or simply love good writing, you'll want to check out As Long as I am Alive, along with other goodies in our Good Reads section.
Are you expecting news about our soon-to-publish book The Listening Heart? You'll find it here... we are waiting on the edge of our seats for it to be produced! I know, the wait is excruciating, but at least you'll also find another excerpt in this issue!
We are happy to feature an invitation to our new workshop The Keys to Connection. It's a 3-day personal growth workshop sure to help shift your life in positive ways. Readers who are interested in advanced HEAL Facilitator Training should check the short article below for further information about this exceptional program. We are proud of our graduates - like Drea Bergquist Bowen whose program was recently featured in a regional newspaper - you'll find that link in good reads too.
I hope your winter is warm and connected. We hope that you'll connect with us in the coming year!
Peace and blessings,
Leigh
Human-Equine Alliances for Learning (HEAL)
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The Keys to Connection at the HEAL Ranch
April 5-7, 2013
Start your season of renewal with a gift to yourself - a HEAL personal growth workshop. We have been offering EFPL workshops for over a decade and we have heard from our customers that the experience is priceless, an investment that keeps rippling forward. In April we feature our newest workshop The Keys to Connection. This is a hands-on experiential workshop is intended to help participants build templates for quiet authority, for self care and for conscious deep connection with others. The HEAL herd is eager to assist you in finding your power to 'be the change'! Let your sense of discovery come alive as you learn to selectively let go of old patterns that no longer serve, and create new pathways to greater fulfillment. Learning objectives include practical techniques for increased balance, clarity, and loving communication with others, and support for developing and trusting your intuition. Come join us!
Dates: April 5-7, 2013
Location: HEAL Ranch - Chehalis, WA
Cost: $540 - lunch is provided
CEU's available for counselors and therapists thru NASW and CA-BBS.
Click here for the brochure or email HEAL Operations Manager Ricki Martin at ricki@humanequinealliance.org for more information.
"Thank you very much for another wonderfully powerful and magical weekend. (...) Nothing has been so changing/life giving as these workshop weekends. The horses take the place within ourselves that little else can accomplish. And you bring the most amazing gifts of being present in a loving, supportive and non-judgmental way." ~C.A.
"I have never felt more welcomed and at home at a workshop. The generosity of spirit of Leigh, David and the HEAL staff was contagious." ~B.P.
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Nickers from David Young begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting
 What a year! Medical issues, affecting my heart and brain, took up much of my attention all year long. When I first got interested in biofeedback through the horse work, I never guessed it would lead me to these new frontiers.
If you place your fingers on the inside of your wrist and feel your pulse for several minutes you might occasionally feel a missing beat, which separates a special beat from the normal rhythmical beats you usually experience. That special beat is a Premature Atrial Complex or PAC. To have some PAC's is pretty normal. A high number of PAC's is 100 per day. I was having over 30,000 in a day- seriously impairing my heart's ability to do its job.
In researching my condition I learned that too many PACs can cause Atrial Fibrillation, or even a stroke* (and I actually had a mild stroke because I had too many PACs). I also found that a very new procedure called catheter ablation, used to treat A-Fib, could possibly help to control PAC's. It was an adventure in medical system self-advocacy to find the doctor with the training, equipment and willingness to perform this procedure for my unusual condition. We were fortunate to find the right doctor, in Portland OR.
The operation was a success! Ablating that faulty heart tissue provided a 106 to 1 ratio of PAC reduction improvement. Dramatic pre-ablation and post-ablation graphs are shown below. The lower half of the graph, post-ablation, shows a normal, elderly Heart Rate Variability [HRV] with one PAC on the right side, the kind of beat you might find missing if you felt your wrist.
106 PACs in 5 minutes Before Ablation, no way to determine HRV
1 PAC in 5 minutes After Ablation, using target breathing for HRV
30,528 PACs in 24 hours Before Ablation
288 PACs in 24 hours After Ablation
Ratio of Improvement: 30,528/288 ~ over 100x reduction in PAC's!
HRV magnitude, a comprehensive measure of resilience, is high in young people and decreases with age. In this presentation the vertical axis is time between beats in seconds, and the horizontal axis is elapsed time (ranging from zero to 300 seconds, i.e. a 5 minute measure). HRV is consistently reduced by stress as well (in animals as well as humans). This is why we use biofeedback with many clients who learn to increase their HRV through healthy, natural breathing.
Subjective report: I feel good!! Hope to see you in 2013.
Ask Seek Knock & Understand Your Heart
Wishing you health and wellness,
David Young
*contact me, or visit my website, www.HRVresearch.com for article reference
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2013 HEAL Facilitator Training Program
for Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy & Learning (EFPL)
 The HEAL FTP is a clinically-oriented, small group (up to 10 individuals), intensive training program for professionals wishing to incorporate EFPL into their practice or business. It is a post-graduate program requiring a Masters degree or equivalent education and experience, and is also open to practitioner teams consisting of helping professional + horse specialist. This is a certificate program open to candidates on an application basis.
Only a few spots are left in the 2013 class! If you are interested in joining us for this career enhancing program, please contact HEAL Operations Manager Ricki Martin at ricki@humanequinealliance.org.
"This training program is amazing. I feel well prepared to get started in this work." ~Donna Martino, CO, USA
On-Site Instruction Weeks: May 06-12, 2013 & Oct 07-13, 2013 Location: HEAL Ranch - Chehalis, WA $7200 *discount for practitioner teams available * apply for partial scholarship* Application Fee: $75 non-refundable
Deposit: $600 non-refundable Program includes distance learning and & individualized consultation. CEU's for counselors and therapists through NASW-WA and CA-BBS. Click here for the brochure!
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My 180 YearAn Excerpt from The Listening Heart
I call 1988 the year of my 180. I was 30 years old and my goals at the time were simple: build my skills and reputation as a horse trainer and riding instructor. I was willing to work hard to succeed in an equestrian career. I loved horses and they had been my refuge, a resilience factor for a lonely youth. When I embarked on a career as a horseperson, horses also became a stage on which my abilities, and vulnerabilities, were displayed. And that was not always easy.
In the spring of that turnaround year, I went to evaluate a small sorrel mare as a potential lesson horse for the riding stable I managed in Issaquah, Washington. A lifelong horsewoman, I knew what to look for and what questions to ask. Noting the irregular muscle development in her neck I asked, "Does she have any problems-head tossing, for instance?"
"No, nothing like that." The young woman didn't meet my eyes. When I asked her to ride the mare before I tried her myself, she sat passively on the horse, with no contact from her legs or reins, allowing the horse to wander at will. There was something suspicious about her actions and what came out of her mouth. It didn't add up.
Irritated by the waste of time, my mind rushed to judgment: She can't even ride. The longer I watched the more obvious the problem appeared to me. I knew what good horsemanship looked like and she didn't have it. Though my instincts told me the mare wouldn't be a good fit for our lesson barn I wanted to make a point. "Let me ride her."
If I knew then what I know now about emotion and behavior as it exists in all mammals, (starting with myself) I'd have never gotten on that mare. But I was a tough cowgirl, confident that I could impose my will on the horse and the situation. It took only moments for a contest of wills to become a wreck-the horseman's term for a dangerous accident. The mare reared high, flinging herself backward and falling on top of me. In a flash I went from confident horse trainer to hospital patient.
Click here to read more - www.humanequinealliance.org/blog
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Pre-Order Your Very Own Copy of
The Listening Heart by Leigh Shambo
 Have you ever wondered what The HEAL Model™ is all about? Well now's your chance to bring The HEAL Model home with you!
The Listening Heart: The Limbic Path Beyond Office Therapy by Leigh Shambo with David Young & Catherine Madera is an in depth look at The HEAL Model and how it can be applied in practice.
Pre-order your copy today by sending a request to ricki@humanequinealliance.org. For those of you joining us for the HEAL Facilitator Training Program, a copy of The Listening Heart is included with your registration!
Cost per copy is $17.99 + $5.99 S&H
Expected release date is January 2013
*Please accept our apologies for the delay in the expected release date.*
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Read more About...
Good Reads...
Francis Crick Memorial Conference 2012
www.fcmconference.org
Includes a list of selected video sessions from the conference, including two of our heros, Dr. Jaak Panksepp and Dr. Irene Pepperberg! Special thanks goes to Linda Kohanov of Epona Equestrian Services for alerting us to this link in her newsletter.
North Kitsap Herald newspaper article about HEAL Graduate Drea Bergquist-Bowen and her program Horses Heal Hearts. http://www.northkitsapherald.com/lifestyle/185573541.html Catherine Madera's blog
As Long as I am Alive Happy Seeking!
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All content is (c) 2011 Leigh Shambo, MSW, LMHC unless otherwise noted.
Thank you!
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