Individual and group work exploring creativity, intuition, emotional fitness and authentic community-building skills. Are you satisfied and content will all parts of your life? Do you feel your life is always in balance? Do you have plenty of money for all that you want? Do you feel totally supported by your spiritual beliefs? Do you love your career, job and employer? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? This work is a powerful place to explore these questions and more. It is also a powerful place for you to find your answers. Enlisting a 1200-pound partner, to achieve a remarkable change in the dynamic of your life? Yes! Equine-assisted coaching, through equine facilitated experiential learning (EFEL) is about partnering with horses to: Build on your potential in areas of work or life effectiveness Identify and fulfill your personal mission Address specific challenges related to work or personal life Make powerful improvements in areas of work-life balance, relationships, or personal well-being Build trust and discover your authenticity and power

Photos by Connie Fiedler

"I had the fortunate opportunity to take part in a clinic led by Lisa Murrell. Lisa is a gracious, knowledgable, sensitive, compassionate facilitator. I learned a simple truth during this process that will stay with me forever, and for that I am infinitely grateful." Diane Epstein Founder: Interface Healing/Transforming Surgery

Why Horses?
Because they are preyed upon in nature, these sensitive, mindful creatures have maintained a highly developed ability to respond to their environment. Subtle changes and nuances that we may not be aware of can provoke behaviors in them that give us information about ourselves. This helps us identify behaviors that impact our lives, relationships and careers in a negative way or keep us from moving forward. Through the authentic connection that horses require of us, we learn to clearly communicate our intentions. And they respond to this with trust and full engagement. Something that may be quite new to some of us; something that can be more fully present in our daily lives.

To learn more about why horses...

How does it work?
All of MCG’s work with horses will cover the basic philosophy and tools employed by Linda Kohanov and Kathleen Barry Ingram at the Epona Center at Apache Springs Ranch in Arizona. We also include other development tools we have used that have created value in organization development and one-on-one coaching over the past 12 years.

The individual sessions and workshops are a combination of reflective work, gentle body work to prepare you for the energy work with the horses, and experiential activities with the horses. There will be reflective discussion and dialogue among participants after the experiential work as well as an opportunity to identify and apply learnings to their personal goals for the future.

Each session and workshop is designed to help you reveal and explore your human potential for developing and manifesting a higher consciousness in your life, and put this into powerful action. You can choose to work individually or with a group of no more than 12 participants.

Lisa Murrell along with Johanna Husta, will be facilitating the work. Lisa is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and an Epona Approved Instructor in the Epona ApproachTM to human development. She brings her 13 years of extensive experience with global executives, entrepreneurs and small businesses to this process. She is also an avid horsewoman born and raised on a farm in New Mexico. Click here to find out more about Lisa. Johanna is a professional dressage trainer who started her riding career at the age of five in the hunters and jumpers. She has15 years experience as a technical lead position in a large corporation before chronic lyme disease ended her career and put her on a path to follow her passion and gifts of working with horses.

No prior horse experience is necessary, all of the exercises are on the ground—unless you decide to choose one of our workshops that are specifically for equestrians who would like to explore this work through their riding.

During these sessions our equine partners will:

• Illustrate the essential skills for authentic community building
• Show you ways to set boundaries while staying connected and grounded
• Work with you to explore your Authentic Self and how this part of you does or doesn’t manifest in your life
• Help you to see how others see you
• Explore how you build relationships in your personal and professional life
• Show you the importance of being aware of and interpreting the messages behind your emotions . Identify and work with you and your self-limiting thoughts and behaviors

Some of the activities during the workshops include the following

• Qigong — A gentle martial arts practice can help you identify your personal energy and space, the field of energy that surrounds you, and replenish as well as increase your personal qi, or life energy. This work prepares you for the energy work with the horses.
• Meet the Herd — Through meeting the herd with a beginner’s mind, you can explore and develop self-awareness of your and the horses’ energy. This exercise gives you the opportunity to focus on what happens to you when you are with the horses emotionally, physically, mentally and energetically. This is the beginning of exploring your energy when you are with any other being.
• Messages Behind Emotions — For most of us, emotions play an important role in our lives. Working with the horses as our equine facilitators, we will explore some of the messages behind emotions such as fear, vulnerability, anger, frustration, sadness, joy, and look for ways you can turn these messages into action for your personal and professional development.
• Essential Skills for Building Authentic Community — Humans can learn a great deal about building community from the herd behavior of horses. Because their behavior is based upon these skills/values, they will react when our behavior doesn’t embody these same values. This work will help develop awareness of these skills that will help you to build community in your own lives.
• False Self – Authentic Self Work — An important part of the workshop is learning about the difference in the ‘false self’, an acquired group of habits that reflects our tendency to comply with the needs and expectations of others, and the ‘authentic self’, that part of us that is intrinsically motivated and strives for self-awareness and autonomy—in the overall service of growth. Once we begin to see the difference, we can begin to notice the impact these parts of ourselves have on our lives.
• Round Pen Work — Horses mirror our intentions and underlying emotions. When we are clear and congruent, the horse rewards us with respect, affection and trust. When we are not, the horse ignores, moves away from us or dissociates. Building upon the previous exercises, we work with horses in the round pen to help us see how we are really ‘showing up’ and find ways to become more clear, congruent and fully present.

In addition, individual sessions or workshops focus on areas of special interest