The format
How sessions run
Every session lasts an hour and takes place outdoors and in the barn facilities. Annabel shapes each one around what you bring on the day rather than working through a set programme.
There is no riding involved. All of the work is done on the ground, standing beside the horses. You do not need to have been around horses before, and nobody will ask you to get on one.
NDIS funding can be used, and Field of Healing is a registered NDIS provider. See the frequently asked questions for what to wear, what to bring, and how weather and cancellations work.
Ways to work together
Sessions on offer
Everything below is ground-based. If you are not sure which fits, call or text Annabel and talk it through.
Individual sessions
One-to-one work for children, teenagers and adults. This is the most common way to start, and it gives you room to go at your own pace.
Horse Wisdom Program
The Horse Wisdom Program is a seven or eight session equine assisted learning and psycho-educational program. It uses guided, non-riding interactions with horses to build emotional regulation, awareness, boundaries, communication skills, resilience and healthy relationships.
Veterans and service personnel
Of all the areas equine assisted therapy has been studied in, work with veterans has the strongest evidence behind it. The Man O' War Project at Columbia University Irving Medical Center ran the first university-led trial of equine-assisted therapy for PTSD, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2021.
Sixty-three veterans took part in an eight-session group programme. None of it involved riding — participants groomed, led and worked alongside the horses on the ground. Both PTSD and depression symptoms fell significantly and the improvement held at three months, and only five of the sixty-three left before the end, which is notable given how high dropout usually is in PTSD treatment.
That was an open trial rather than a randomised controlled study, so the evidence is promising rather than settled, and Field of Healing is not the Man O' War programme. Annabel offers her own individual and small group sessions for veterans and serving personnel, informed by the same ground-based approach.
Also available
- Family and sibling sessions
- Group sessions
- Corporate sessions
- Domestic violence support
- Retreats
- Nervous system regulation through somatic movement therapy
- School holiday programs
- Schools
Annabel will talk you through any of these. Call or text 0419 530 744.
Children and teenagers
An easier place for a young person to start.
Children and teenagers often find it hard to sit opposite an adult and put words to what is going on. Out in the yard there is something to do with your hands, somewhere else to look, and an animal that responds honestly to how you are without asking you to explain it.
Annabel works with primary and secondary aged clients, privately and through NDIS. Parents are welcome to talk it through with her first.
No experience needed
Nobody is expected to know what they are doing.
Annabel sets everything up and stays alongside you. Standing quietly next to a horse counts as a full session's work if that is where you are on the day.
Your first hour
What to expect
Sessions follow a rhythm rather than a script, but the shape is usually this.
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Arrive and settle
You meet Annabel at the gate and take a few minutes to land. Nothing starts until you are ready.
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Meet the horses
You spend time observing and getting alongside them. How a horse responds to you tells you both something useful before a word is said.
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Do the work
Annabel sets up ground activities that connect to what you came in with — holding a boundary, staying calm under pressure, asking clearly for something you need.
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Make sense of it
You finish by talking through what came up and what it points to, so you leave with something you can use during the week.
Trauma and the body
Understanding what happened is not the same as feeling safe.
A lot of people arrive able to explain their history clearly and still find themselves reacting in ways they did not choose — tensing up, shutting down, snapping at people they love. That is not a failure of insight. The nervous system learns through experience rather than explanation, so knowing why you react a certain way does not, on its own, stop the reaction.
What tends to shift things is repeated experience of being calm and safe in the present. Working on the ground with a horse gives you that in a fairly direct way: you notice what your body is doing, the horse responds to it, and you get to practise settling yourself with something real in front of you.
This is slow work and it is not a cure. What Annabel offers is a setting to practise in, at a pace you set, with someone alongside you.
Connection with nature
You notice more when you slow down.
Being outdoors is part of the work, not the setting for it. People often find they start seeing things they would have walked straight past.
Not sure which one fits?
Have a chat with Annabel first. There is no obligation to book.