Surrey Homes | SH56 | June 2019 | Kitchen & Bathroom supplement inside

Health & Wellbeing
Horses for Healing
Emma Rourke explains how she has harnessed the
therapeutic power of horses to provide equine assisted
personal development through her company, Hephzibah
What is Hephzibah? Hephzibah, in short, means new name, new
identity. It is a Hebrew word that comes from the Old Testament
Book of Isaiah, who was a prophet. The significance for me is very
personal as it is talking about overcoming life’s heartbreaks and
has been my story of overcoming personal challenges, particularly
growing up with alcoholism and the devastating effects it can
have within families. Horses are amazing animals – offering me
comfort, emotional resilience and helping me to be brave. My
story, I hope, will inspire others to be able to overcome similar
challenges. I am very fortunate to have helped many people who
suffer addiction – your past does not have to define who you are.
What issues do you deal with? I work with people on many
levels, dealing with anxiety, depression, confidence, PTSD, and
leadership in business. It is not always necessary to have
a problem, it can be a great way to de-stress, and leave our fast
paced world behind for a little while, to connect with horses,
nature and yourself. The Hephzibah approach is a gentle,
non-judgemental way to become self-aware and learn the
tools of emotional regulation, as it is based in neuroscience
and psychology. I am not a counsellor, more of a facilitator to
empower people to find their own answers, and I also act as a
bit of a cheerleader, with the help of my partners, the horses.
How does it work? There is no short answer to how it works, but
to give you an idea, horses are flight animals, they sense things
emotionally and are very good at picking up where people may
be hiding something. They mirror people and sense what is really
going on for them, this makes them fantastic co-facilitators, as
they pick up on someone’s body language and energy and will
mirror back to them what they might not be saying. They are
extremely forgiving and are social animals who enjoy interacting
with humans. How you show up on the day is the bio feedback
you get back. They help people to be fully authentic, as you
can’t hide anything from a horse. Winston Churchill once
said, “There is something about the outside of a horse, that
is good for the inside of a man”. I believe this to be true.
What makes horse therapy better than conventional
therapy? For many people, talking about their problems can
be a problem in itself. Equine assisted learning can be a more
natural, experiential way to explore how a person is feeling
without the need to verbalise everything. It works very well
as a stand-alone therapeutic intervention and also alongside
more traditional therapies. It can open the door where maybe
people have found other approaches more difficult.
Can different horses produce a different therapeutic effect?
Do you pair clients with a specific horse? Different horses offer
different experiences. With equine assisted learning, the horses are
at liberty, free to make a choice on who they want to interact with
or not, unlike more traditional riding. It has been my experience
that the horse picks the person. I have had clients who have had
anxiety and one particular horse will come forward, and for others
suffering grief another will choose to come forward. It is an honour
to observe clients, who sometimes have very powerful interactions
with the horses that have helped them, become self-aware and
acknowledge the root of their pain, to allow the healing to take
place. The neuroscience behind becoming more aware of what
we are holding in our bodies helps people to re-frame negative
mindsets and re-set the brain with healthy new neural pathways.
Find out more about Emma and her horses at hephzibahuk.com
Summer Loving
Nourish and protect with natural skincare
Andrea Dinnick founded DESAVERY in
2017 to deliver natural, luxury skincare:
“I knew the products needed to have the
absolutely best ingredients and that they
needed to be effective, come from the
best places in the world and be harvested
and sourced sustainably,” she says. Her
small-batch products needed to be good
for mood and mind as well as the skin,
so the range includes products such
as ‘Stellar’, a daily serum that lowers
cortisol levels, and ‘Reset Hormone
Therapy’, which includes botanical oils
that are scientifically shown to relieve
the symptoms of hormonal imbalances.
Find out more at desavery.co.uk and
visit the stand at Wealden Times
Midsummer Fair this month.
If you’re on the hunt for a
skin-kind range of sun care
suitable for the whole family,
look no further than Green
People’s award-winning
line of sunscreens. They
feature broad spectrum
UVA/UVB protection, are
free from harsh chemicals,
suitable for sensitive skin,
plus they’re marine-friendly,
too. greenpeople.co.uk
surrey-homes.co.uk
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