Psychologists, Horses and Helping with Naomi Rossthorn

This episode of the Potential Psychology Podcast is brought to you by the Wellbeing Evidence and Horizons Conference, Australia's leading multi-disciplinary, evidence-based wellbeing and resilience conference. April 28 & 29, 2020. See you there! What can we, as humans, learn from horses to boost our wellbeing and overcome struggle? My guest for this episode is Naomi Rossthorn. Naomi is a psychologist and the Clinical Director of Harnessing Wellness, a psychological counselling service located in the beautiful Yarra Ranges in Victoria in the SE of Australia. Harnessing Wellness is not your ordinary counselling practice. Rather than sitting in a room with a therapist, clients and therapists take to the great outdoors with a gorgeous horse or pony. Naomi and her team have a specialist interest in equine assisted psychology; the use of horses in the therapeutic process. During our conversation Naomi and I discuss: •The ins and outs of equine assisted psychology: What is it? Who accesses it? And why? •The life skills that can horses teach us. •The lack of good quality research available on the efficacy of equine assisted treatments and how Naomi and the Harnessing Wellness team are working to change this. •How Naomi, as a former city girl, got interested in equine-assisted psychology and how the events of Black Saturday led to the establishment of her practice. •Naomi's upcoming guide for budding Equine-Assisted Psychologists which will take you through the steps to setting up an equine-assisted practice. For a full transcript, guest profile, expert tips and the resources mentioned in this episode, visit potential.com.au/podcast or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/potentialpsychology/message