We are honored to be seeing Blue Star and Gold Star families. While not on the front lines themselves, these families bear the burden of either not knowing where in the world a member of the family is now, or have lost a family member who’s made the ultimate sacrifice. In both situations, family members must deal with an inordinate amount of stress or grief and all are in need of tools that build their capacity to handle these experiences.
To that end, sessions with military families center on building the ‘window of tolerance’ for feelings of powerlessness, worry, sadness and grief that are mixed with ones of pride and honor.
We have specific exercises designed to:
- Address the need for healthy boundaries,
- Offer a process for managing difficult emotions,
- Encourage asking for help with the horses
- Provide tools for managing the natural and authentic feelings that are difficult for all of us to acknowledge
Our goal is to help military family members become more congruent, more grounded, and more connected to themselves and others around them.
We help break through self-limiting patterns and help people see for themselves what happens when they change.
We use ground-based experiential learning with horses, didactic material called Emotional Agility to address healthy ways to process emotions, and resilience tools to help clients manage people and situations between and beyond sessions.
Why horses? As prey animals, horses assess their situations with a keen sense of safety and survival. They never mask their intentions and value trust over all else. Learning to deal with them effectively implies that we ourselves must be trustworthy — honest, congruent, respectful, and fair. As it turns out, when we can do this: ‘The inside of a man/woman becomes good for the outside of a horse’.
All programs for military families are free of charge.
We typically run programs once a month for 4 months — and sessions are 4 hours, including lunch.
Enhance your:
- Self-awareness
- Capacity for renewal
- Ability to become more present
To sign up, email through the contact button below and we’ll get back to you with a schedule.
If you have further questions, please reach out to Kelly Hitt @ (203) 613-1107.
Are you interested in helping us?
IMPORTANT INFO ON DIRECTIONS TO THE SHARON FARM
Navigation apps do not work to our street address!!!
PLEASE SET GPS to Sharon Town Beach, Mudge Pond Rd., Sharon, CT.
Drum Road is a Y-intersection directly across from entrance to the beach.
The facility is about 3/4 mile on the left.
Park in front of the red barn on the left or on the far side of the red cottage on the left.
NOTE: Please do not park or turn around in driveways on the right side of the road.
IF YOU GET LOST:
Call or text (203) 613-1107.
The Equus Effect
Address
37 Drum Road, Sharon, CT 06069
Main Office (860) 364-5363
Jane Strong, SEP, IFS Trained
Executive Director
Co-founder, Lead Facilitator
(860) 364-9985
David Sonatore, LCSW
Program Director
Co-founder, Lead Facilitator
(347) 439-1777
Kelly Hitt
Communications Director
Outreach Coordinator
(203) 613-1107
For general information:
kelly@theequuseffect.org