Healing with Horses with Patricia Broersma

Program Description

In just a few short visits a single therapist can help one child walk for the first time, another overcome a learning disability, and an autistic youngster make an emotional connection. She even helps a teenager recover from alcohol abuse. This therapist has snowy white hair and large, dark eyes. She’s a grey mare, and she reaches her “clients” like few human therapists can. Patricia Broersma brings the healing nature of horses to children, teens, and adults, and opens up a world of possibility for physical, emotional, and even spiritual growth. She finds that these great and gentle creatures activate the body’s nervous system, and also ignite the imagination so that we discover the mythic elements of the heroic journeys of our lives. That’s a lot of healing and a lot of growth – but then, these four legged therapists are very wise. Ms. Broersma describes what happens in her stable between her clients and their horse healers. She says, “It’s important for us to attend to that larger story that we’re a part of. It’s often hard to see that because our world is so complex. And yet, for us to attend to our own story, and also to attend to what we can do with horses, it’s like a pressure point, an acupressure.” (Hosted by Justine Willis Toms)

Patricia Broersma has been working with horses for more than forty years, and has also studied mythology, body-based healing, and healing touch. She is a certified therapeutic riding instructor, founder of a nonprofit program in San Antonio, Texas, and head instructor for HOPE Equestrian Center in Ashland, Oregon. She is the author of Riding into Your Mythic Life: Transformational Adventures with the Horse (New World Library 2007). To learn more about the work of Patricia Broersma go to www.trishbroersma.com

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• How horses’ herd behavior may be our best model for good leadership
• Why a horse can help you see the bigger picture of your life
• How a horse can help you communicate with greater sensitivity
• How a horse may understand everything you say
• What it really feels like to “lean” on a horse

Program Number: 3233              Host: Justine Willis Toms              Interview Date: 1/28/2008