Authenticity Workshops
REFLECTION, DISCOVER AND HORSES
We create authentic safety by setting and holding boundaries and using conscious predictions of what we think will happen. Experiential learning is unlike learning by reading or videos, as it happens only with presence. Being present, and focused on the moment, brings clarity and confidence.
WHY TAKE THESE WORKSHOPS?
We invite you to find what you have been looking for...and personal growth!
- Conscious Connection and Encouraging Engagement
- Partnering as Equals
- Parenting with Respect
- Recovery
Our primary goal is personal growth and a richer capacity for a meaningful life and friendships. These workshops are successfully helping people feel more connected within themselves and with others.
- Each Workshop consists of twelve 1.5-to-2-hour sessions for peer groups
- Each session is facilitated by two leaders who between them are well-qualified as knowledgeable equine specialists and life coaches with an educational background
- Each workshop has specific goals and objectives and is customized to meet the capacity and needs of the participants
- The first workshop AW1 is the foundation for all the other opportunities and relationships
WHAT MIGHT YOU EXPECT?
These workshops create an experiential, supportive learning environment for participants to learn about themselves, heal what has been broken, and reconnect with their own hearts. We allow the horse to ‘guide’ the process of learning, as we reflect and explore our emotions. This leads us to integrate those wounded and subconscious beliefs and apply our insights to find our own authentic balance.
INTERNSHIPS
For people wanting to add to your professional credentials, we invite you to consider coming back after completing the foundation workshop and joining us to become certified facilitators. Your experience as an intern will support you as a part of our team and will give you the confidence that you need to present this curriculum independently.
Internships are offered to most graduates of the first workshop, who have a background, and clear desire to become a facilitator of future workshops. This curriculum will only be made available to graduates of the first workshop, to become trained by participating with our facilitators until such time as both the intern and the facilitator are confident that the workshops can be presented with high quality to others.
HORSEWOMANSHIP
A set of twelve sessions that are open to graduates of the Foundational Authenticity Workshop (AW1), will offer ways to build a positive relationship with horses, for the purpose of growing as an equestrian. Sessions will be customized to the horses and participants and will include both ground time and mounted activities that create the foundation for a successful future.
ABOUT THE DEVELOPER
Kathy Rutan-Sprague, in 36 years as an RN, has been present for births, deaths and crises. Her passion is in healing the whole person and promoting wellness. Time away from the hospital to travel, raise children and become a Certified Flight Instructor, gave her insights into the way we can connect love to the adventure that life is. She realized that the horses she had as a girl gave her an authentic connection with her father, and confidence within herself in times of crisis, they were like therapeutic friends. As a nurse working with patients in a crisis unit, she came to see that medication management was not enough. People have a need to be heard and to belong. With the horses she raised for this purpose, she served clients from the county outpatient mental health, kids from social services and continuation high school, and weekly groups of kids and adults from mental health treatment programs. This taught her what actually works to heal and empower people who are vulnerable and in need of trusted allies. Kathy considers this work to be the culmination of all that she learned in her careers and her life, and believes that it can be useful to many others.