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HORSE WISDOM PROGRAM

Split into two different programs

Children's 8 - 12 years  & Adolescents 13-19 years

This great hands-on program runs over eight consecutive weeks. 


Each session is designed to build on previous learnings from prior sessions.   

We work towards building awareness, developing resilience, effective communication, trust & boundary setting   

Adolescence, both early adolescence (10-14) & late adolescence (15-19) is a difficult time, with teenagers trying to figure out who they are.


Their emotions are swirling around inside them and their ability to self-regulate is compromised, in other words, they may not understand what they are feeling.  

With the horse being sentient creatures, this provides us with a wonderful opportunity to learn about ourselves. Horses have the unique ability to reflect back what an individual is authentically feeling - there is no poker face with horses, they see us exactly as we are ..... in other words there is nowhere to hide !!

This is a fantastic tool and helps individual raises their own self-awareness, plus because horses are non-judgemental (simply because they have a relatively small logic part to their brain), this is fantastic for teenagers because they feel left self-conscious and judged. By raising self-awareness adolescents have the ability to better recognize how their characteristics play out in their day to day life, at school, with parents and peers.

RESILENCE

Resilience is the ability to ‘bounce back’ from a difficult situation.   A resilient person is able to:

  • withstand adversity
  • learn from experiences
  • confidently cope with life’s challenges

What builds resilience?

  • optimism
  • ability to regulate emotions
  • having a positive attitude
  • learning from mistakes & using this information as valuable feedback to moving forward

Why is this important?

  • changing schools
  • illnesses
  • change in the family environment (separation & divorce)
  • moving from primary school to high school
  • coping with study workload and exams
  • change of friendship group
  • conflict with family, teacher & peers
  • loss and grief

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

It’s often said that communication is the key to a healthy relationship. While it might sound like tired advice, it’s a skill worth learning that will help us do better in all our relationships. As your child grows up, the way you communicate with them will need to change to reflect the new boundaries in your relationship created by their increasing independence.

Discovering these new and different approaches to communicating effectively with one another will be a learning experience for you both. Effective communication with your teenager can help you both feel happier and more connected in your relationship, and more confident about having difficult conversations and resolving conflicts. 

How can effective communication help?

  • you feel disconnected from your child
  • you and your child don’t speak
  • you want to encourage your child to talk about what’s going on for them
  • you want to improve your relationship with your child

What is effective communication?

You and your child are communicating effectively when:

Communicating with teens can be difficult in busy households, it’s easy to overlook making time and space in your day to have a really good talk with your child and find out what’s going on in their life.

When your child no longer depends on you as much as they once did, it’s harder to know everything that’s going on in their lives as the communication between parents and teenagers seems to decrease.

They are more independent, and so you have to make time to check in with them to find out how they’re going.

Why is effective communication important?

Your relationship is changing, and you have to be flexible and able to change with your child. But don’t ever think that they need you any less, it is during adolescence, that your children need you just as much as they ever did.   They just don't know how to interact.


The best way to support them is by making sure they’ll come to you with any problems they’re having, and that’s why effective communication is so important.  What can help in communicating effectively with your child?  Here are some tips that can help you have positive and constructive conversations with your child.

TRUST

By building a trusting relationship with your teenager, you’re likely to see many benefits, including:

  • Your teenager feeling open and comfortable to talk to you about difficult things
  • Your teenager demonstrating positive, trustworthy behaviours in other aspects of their life, setting them up for positive relationships into adulthood
  • Building a relationship with your teenager that goes beyond a parent-child disciplinary relationship, and strengthening your bond for years to come

BOUNDARY SETTING

Boundary setting is an important part of helping your child gain independence, remain safe and make sound decisions. As adolescence is a time of new experiences for both of you, boundaries can help you and your child know what behaviour is ok and what’s not. We take a look at how to set boundaries that may work for you and your child.

How does boundary-setting work?

  • letting them know that you care about them, and you are concerned about what they’re doing even when you’re not together
  • making them feel safe and supported
  • helping them make informed and sound decisions
  • providing them with a framework within which they have autonomy

This information has been credited to ReachOut.com, for more information,

 please click on this link https://parents.au.reachout.com/

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