Being With Horses helps you be with yourself

Improve your emotional wellness through equine-facilitated therapy and coaching. We offer expert guidance, personalised support and compassionate care for lasting resilience.

About Being With Horses

Develop the resources for resilience, self-compassion and wellness at Being With Horses. Experience our innovative evidence-based approach to nurturing mental health and wellbeing.

Based near Thaxted in Essex, Being With Horses is easily accessible from London and Cambridge via the M11.

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Qualified Equine Facilitated Therapist and Coach

I’m Lucy and I provide equine-facilitated therapy and coaching. I am a qualified Equine Facilitated Psychotherapist, specialising in trauma recovery and healng. As a coach, I can help you on your journey towards transformational change. I am an experienced facilitator, coach and teacher and a full member of the National Council of Integrative Psychotherapists (NCIP).

I have many decades experience with horses, as well as 30+ years experience in coaching, facilitating and directing in the performing arts and executive sector. Being With Horses combines my life-long bond with horses with my professional expertise in supporting and guiding others through supported and empathetic practices.

I hope to help you be with yourself in a kinder, more sustainable and be-friended way through being with horses. While accessible to all, Being With Horses is also committed to supporting those working or training in the performing arts and creative industires. I have embodied experience of the stresses and challenges of the profession and its pressure on work/life balance and the impact on mental health of imposter syndrome, negative self-beliefs, overwhelm and anxiety that are common in the performance and creative industries (and many others).

There’s more about me in the Our Promise to You section below and you can find me on the NCIP register via this QR code:

How being with horses helps humans

With evidence-based therapies and personalised treatment plans supporting improved mental health and well-being through ethical practices.

Being with horses has a physiological and neurobiological effect on our nervous system, and can reduce cortisol (stress hormone) and release endorphins and seratonin (making us feel better). Our heart rate and blood pressure lower, we experience reduced anxiety levels and can feel calmer. Horses live in the present moment and reflect back to us how we are feeling in a non-judgemental way. They help us become more in tune with our feelings by recognising what is happening in our bodies and emotions. And they co-regulate with our nervous systems (as herd animals). We can learn to self-regulate through experiencing a more regulated nervous system. We may build trust in ourselves through building trusting connections with horses.

Equine-facilitated therapy at Being With Horses enables you to develop safety and stabilisation techniques, establish healthy boundaries, become more understanding of your emotions, reconfigure habitual patterns of behaviour, re-programme neural pathways, process trauma and develop strategies for lasting management of anxiety and stress as you build resources for ongoing self-compassion, resilience and wellness.

At Being With Horses, the horses live out in a herd with 24/7 access to freedom, forage and friends. This is important for horses as equine facilitators – they need to be able to express and fulfil their needs as much as we need to be able to express and fulfil ours. We have a commitment to empowered horses through ethical practices, equine choice and providing a Good Life that meets the highest welfare standards for the horses in our care. This means they are best able to choose to support you in your transformative journey.

Experienced Qualified Practitioner Offering Empathy and Support

At Being With Horses, we provide reflective, cognitive and embodied therapeutic approaches for integrated mental wellness.

Developing Resources for Emotional Self-Regulation

Develop practical resources for ongoing self-regulation and self-compassion to manage stress, anxiety and challenging work/life circumstances

Building Resilience for a Balanced Life

Building resilience for a balanced life through safe and ethical facilitated interactions with horses.

Customized Coaching and Therapeutic Pathways for Sustainable Wellbeing

Personalised support for enduring wellbeing through coaching or therapeutic pathways.

What to expect in a Being With Horses session

Sessions last between 1 and 2.5 hours. They take place in-person at the Being With Horses site or online and, when in person, involve processing and learning time with horses. This can include observation and reflection in the field, 1:1 time with a horse in an arena and/or guided grooming. These are not riding sessions and it is not necessary to be in the arena or close contact with a horse, working over a fence is equally transformative.

Online sessions may be substituted for in-person sessions but at least one equine session for processing the work is advised for every two online sessions. Depending on weather conditions it may occassionally be necessary to move a planned in-person session online.

Our promise to you

Being With Horses provides fully insured, inclusive sessions with health and safety as a priority. I hold the Ofqual-regulated IFEEL Qualifications Equine Facilitated Psychotraumatology Level 6 Diploma and am committed to the highest ethical standards of professional practice including supervision and continuous professional development. I am a full member of the National Council of Integrative Psychotherapists, and the Equine Assisted Services Partnership (EASP). a founding member of the Actor Wellbeing Facilitator Collective, and a member of the UK Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS) and Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA). Being With Horses is approved for listing on the Human Equine Interaction Register (HEIR).

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Transformative Journeys:

Discover the transformative impact of Being With Horses on personal resilience and wellness. Hear from coaching clients who have experienced Being With Horses.

My first time trying Equine Facilitation and it was a truly wonderful experience. To be guided by Lucy in exploring my feelings whilst in Ferdie’s gentle but powerul presence was very moving. Ferdie’s ability for empathy whilst asserting her needs showed me parts of myself that needed listening to, and I was able to reflect about patience, boundaries and trust through our connection. A very special and unique way to process challenging emotions with one of the animal kingdom’s most magnificent beasts. Very grateful to have worked in this way with both Lucy and Ferdie.

Anna, Playwright

Feel very grateful to have worked with Lucy.
The sessions brought a lot of things to light, definitely offered a different perspective, a different way of working and really kick-started a deeper journey of self growth and discovery.

Confidential, Actor

Lucy was supremely sensitive and responsive with my 15yo introverted son who was struggling with his self-esteem. He was amazed about what both Lucy and her horses could intuit about him and the amount he learned about them. He became more positive about himself and had a greater sense of optimism after just the first two hours. Amazing!

Frequently Asked Questions

We have compiled a list of frequently asked questions to help you find instant answers to your queries

What services do you offer?

We provide one-off coaching sessions and ongoing therapy sessions, usually booked as 6-10 sessions depending on need.

Do I need to be experienced with horses?

No prior experience with horses is required. You will be taken through a thorough safety briefing and instructed in basic techniques prior to any close contact with our well-trained horses. It is not necessary to be in close contact if this is something you are uncomfortable with and the work can be done over a fence.

Will I ride the horses?

No, this is not a riding programme and you will not ride the horses.

What’s the difference between psychotherapy and coaching?

While there often is some overlap between psychotherapy and coaching, psychotherapy focuses on understanding, resolving and healing emotional trauma and pain carried through from the past. Psychotherapy is recommended when your past experiences are significantly affecting your present in a way that is damaging to your mental health.

Coaching focuses on the present and future. This may include examining patterns and habits that cause you to feel stuck, identify goals and develop strategies for achieving them. In equine-facilitated fields, coaching is also referred to as equine-facilitated learning or equine-facilitated human development. The equine, as a partner in a coaching context, helps us identify what our obstacles and our goals are.

We would discuss your situation in the initial consultation to decide whether equine-facilitated psychotherapy or coaching was more suited to your needs.

What do I need to wear?

You need to wear covered shoes or boots and clothes you are comfortable being outdoors in. In wet weather, it can get muddy so wear wellingtons or walking boots. In summer a sunhat and sunscreen is recommended. We work outdoors in most weathers unless it is very rainy or windy, so waterproofs may sometimes be required.