What is equine-assisted therapy?

Equine-assisted therapy (also called equine-assisted psychotherapy, or EAP) pairs traditional mental health treatment with structured, intentional interactions with horses. Rather than talking about your experience from a chair, you engage with a living, responsive animal — and a licensed clinician helps you notice what unfolds in real time.Horses are prey animals, exquisitely attuned to body language, breath, and emotional state. They respond honestly to what you bring into the space, which makes them powerful partners for people working through trauma, anxiety, attachment wounds, and the parts of themselves that are hard to reach through words alone.Most of our work happens on the ground — no riding or prior horse experience is required.

The Nervous-System Connection

This work draws directly on polyvagal theory and somatic principles. A dysregulated nervous system can't be reasoned out of survival mode — it has to experience safety to rewire. Horses, with their own finely tuned nervous systems, help you feel co-regulation as it's happening: heart rate settling, breath deepening, a body that was braced for threat learning it can rest. For clients already drawn to somatic, IFS, or EMDR work, equine therapy is a natural complement.

What Can Equine Therapy Help With?

Equine-assisted therapy can support people working through:
Trauma and post-traumatic stress
Anxiety and chronic stress
Attachment and relationship difficulties
Depression and emotional numbness
Difficulty trusting, connecting, or feeling safe in the body
Grief and life transitions
Building confidence, boundaries, and self-regulation

What To expect in a session

You don't need to know anything about horses to begin. A typical session takes place outdoors, in and around the arena or pasture, with your therapist present the entire time. You might observe Whiskey, practice approaching and building trust, or work on a shared task — and then reflect together on what came up: what you noticed in the horse, in yourself, and in the space between.Sessions are collaborative and paced to your comfort. Safety — physical and emotional — comes first, always, and every session follows clear ground rules for working around the horses.

Equine therapy in Livingston & Park County

Our equine-assisted sessions take place in Livingston, Montana, convenient to Park County and the greater Bozeman area.

‍Serving: Livingston, Park County, and the greater Bozeman area

Meet your equine therapist

Katherine is a clinician in Livingston offering depth-oriented, relationship-centered therapy — a natural fit for equine work's emphasis on what lives beneath the surface. She leads equine-assisted sessions alongside her horse, Whiskey.

Is equine therapy right for you?

Equine-assisted therapy tends to resonate with people who feel stuck in traditional talk therapy, who process the world somatically, or who simply feel more themselves outdoors and around animals. It's also a strong fit for those working through trauma who need a felt sense of safety before words come easily.The best way to know is to talk it through. We offer a consultation to help you decide whether this work fits your goals.