About GEIR


​Founded in 2008, The Gestalt Equine Institute of the Rockies provides the most comprehensive Gestalt Equine Psychotherapy™ training program currently available. Participants will gain an understanding of the therapeutic relationship between therapist-horse-client, and competency in the essential theoretical concepts and experiential process of Gestalt therapy, development and horsemanship. Training will provide basic knowledge of horses including: safety, herd behavior, ground work, riding, health care, theory and history of horsemanship, and other relevant areas of horse management. We will also provide extensive training in Gestalt Theory and Practice as well as interweaving developmental theory into all of our work.

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​What is Gestalt Equine Psychotherapy (GEP)™?

​Gestalt Equine Assisted Psychotherapy™ is an existential and experiential psychotherapy where horses partner with people to facilitate our experience in the present moment. Awareness, relationship and healing is cultivated through the therapist-client-horse relationship, the exploration of self within the environment, and the dynamics of contact. ​

​Why Horses?

Horses are teachers of self-awareness; they are keenly alert, intuitive, emotional, and authentic animals. Like humans, horses are social beings that live together in herds with defined hierarchies, roles, responsibilities, and relationships very similar to our family systems. Horses maintain a state of constant awareness. Their survival depends on instinctively scanning all aspects of their environment. Interacting with horses can help illuminate our patterns of contact, allowing us to receive direct and immediate feedback from the horse on our intentions, behaviors, and incongruities. Gestalt Equine Psychotherapy™ offers the client new opportunities and choices for relationship and emotional growth. ​