Lisa* had felt drawn to working with horses for a long time. Now three years post divorce and with her youngest child starting high school she felt ready to “move on” with her life.
After a few sessions, Lisa chose to connect with the large dark horse. After spending some time with him, she was able to walk him to several different areas in the arena. Lisa had identified “courage to try new things” as something she wanted more of in life. After setting up some cones to weave through, Lisa named her end goal “joy”. Lisa and her horse started off fine, but just before making it through the cones he began pulling her to the other side of the arena, where the rest of the herd was hanging out. She was able to get him back on track but then he pulled her off course again. Lisa paused and decided that she needed to be more assertive about where she wanted him to go. She tried a third time. Again, he pulled her away and began to move towards the other horses.
Lisa actively voiced her frustration as the horse pulled her along with him. When asked “so what do you want to do?”. She called out “let go!” A few moments later she did let go and watched him walk over to the other side. Lisa shared “he’s just like my ex-husband always looking at other women and now always focusing on his fiancée instead of dealing with me and our kids.” As Lisa talked about her frustration and anger she realized how good it felt to just “let go” of the horse. The embodied experience with the horse led Lisa to recognize how much she was trying to get her ex-husband to behave a certain way and how much it was actually “pulling” her off course. I watched as Lisa walked herself through the cones and into her goal – when she turned around and smiled. She was definitely feeling sense of joy.
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