We recently connected with Hallie Sheade and have shared our conversation below.

Hallie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?
It’s so hard to choose just one! Every day, my staff and I are honored and humbled to witness the power of the human-equine relationship. One in particular that stands out to me is the story of a little girl named Patty*. (*Names and details changed to protect client privacy). Patty’s younger brother had recently passed away from a chronic illness. Patty’s parents brought her to counseling to help her process her grief and work on behavioral issues that had started since her brother died. Patty talked about her brother almost constantly and often appeared inattentive and impulsive. When Patty first met the horses, she became so excited that she tried to run right up to them! Predictably, the horses ran away. Patty was disappointed and asked why they didn’t want to be her friend. The more sessions Patty attended, the more she began to learn how to pay attention to and change her own behaviors when she noticed the horses seemed uneasy. As Patty got more comfortable, she began to take one of the horses, Daisy, for walks. On these walks, Patty would talk about her brother. With the help of her counselor, Patty began to recognize how Daisy responded differently to Patty’s different feelings. Over time, Patty began to learn to identify her own feelings. Working with Daisy helped Patty to not only cope with her grief, but also learn better ways to understand and express herself.

Hallie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up as a stereotypical horse-crazy little girl. As I approached my teen years, I found myself interested not just in riding horses but also in understanding them as individuals. The relationships I formed with specific horses felt like magic. I was in awe of the ability to connect and form cooperative partnerships with such a large powerful animal. I went on to study animal behavior in college before deciding I didn’t want to just focus on the animals themselves but on the human-animal bond. After learning about the new and developing field of equine assisted counseling, I decided to become a Licensed Professional Counselor and integrate the power of the human-equine bond into counseling.

During the tail end of my PhD program, I started my own practice, Equine Connection Counseling (ECC). A few years later, my husband (a USMC Veteran and therapeutic riding instructor) and I co-founded a nonprofit called S.T.E.P.S. With Horses (STEPS). Our goal was to establish a program that could grow and flourish while increasing access to services for some of those most in need of mental health care – military veterans and at-risk youth. This past November, we transitioned all operations from ECC to STEPS as part of a long-term capacity-building plan. Currently, STEPS cares for 11 equines (including miniature horses, full-size horses, and a donkey) who work exclusively in our programming and serve almost 50 mental health clients per week. With the support of major stakeholders, we hope to move into a permanent home custom-designed for our programming in 2023.

STEPS offers a spectrum of equine assisted mental health services including equine assisted counseling (EAC) and therapeutic riding. Equine assisted counseling is our cornerstone service and is a form of professional counseling facilitated by licensed mental health professionals (or graduate interns supervised by licensed professionals) and equine professionals. Just like other forms of counseling or psychotherapy, EAC focuses on lessening symptoms or disorders. It can also help people cope with life’s challenges and experience a greater sense of meaning in their lives. Interaction with equines is used in conjunction with a variety of best practice counseling techniques and interventions such as trauma processing, psychoeducation, cognitive behavioral strategies, behavioral interventions, problem exploration, motivational interviewing, mindfulness and grounding skills, play therapy, and more. We offer a specialized form of play therapy which incorporates equines for young children.

Equines notice many cues indicative of a person’s emotional state such as breathing rate, heart rate, body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and even scent. The feedback they provide can assist clients in gaining insight into thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as they are happening in the moment. Our counselors help clients connect these experiences to challenges they may be facing. In addition, clients have the opportunity to practice different skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, calming skills, and communication skills that can be generalized and applied to increasing satisfaction in relationships and daily life.

We serve adults, adolescents, and children starting at age 4. We work with both military and non-military clients to address concerns such as trauma, PTSD, anxiety and stress management, depression and mood disorders, bullying and self-esteem issues, grief and loss, military readjustment, school and work-related problems, attention deficit/hyperactivity, relationship problems, and child behavior issues. Our services may be especially beneficial for clients who are uncomfortable or dissatisfied with office-based approaches.

After clients have met or made considerable progress towards treatment goals, they may have the opportunity to participate in our non-clinical therapeutic horsemanship services such as riding in order to build upon and maintain the gains made in counseling. Our non-clinical services shift the focus from therapy to learning horsemanship and riding in a therapeutic environment with our highly trained and certified equine professionals.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
As in the names of the counseling approaches that I developed (Relational Equine-Partnered Counseling and Equine-Partnered Play Therapy), I think the key to success is partnership. I chose those names for my counseling approaches because I truly believe that viewing the equines as partners (as opposed to tools) is the secret behind why our methods work so well. We strongly believe in the importance of respecting and acknowledging the equine’s role as a sentient being in our sessions. We pay attention not only to the equines’ behaviors but also to their experiences in the session. In this way, our clients form authentic and meaningful relationships with the equines which helps them feel safe to open up and try new things. We also approach our clients as partners in each of their healing journeys – we do not view ourselves as the experts telling them what to do, but instead as partners in helping them find a better and healthier path.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Over the course of my career, I have had to pivot many times. Our most significant pivot was when we learned that the ranch where we had been operating was going to be put up for sale (including several of the horses we worked with). We sprang into action and reached out to one of our biggest supporters, Hope 4 All, to see if they could help us work towards obtaining our own facility. This wasn’t the first time we’d had to move and say goodbye to horses, and we decided we wanted our own facility to not only create more stability for our clients but to also have our own equines directly under our care. With the help of Hope 4 All, along with several other supporters, we now have 11 equines working exclusively with STEPS and have expanded our programming and increased the number of clients we are serving. We are thrilled to partner with 4Hearts Ranch as our temporary home while we await the completion of our permanent home in 2023.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.stepswithhorses.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stepswithhorses/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stepswithhorses
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsal_0sls0U9otwo_j8EtAw