Streams, Teams and Scholarships

Trauma can be found in any room or round pen.

This is why the EQUUSOMA® Certificate Training is geared towards four streams of professionals.

Rather than being a strictly equine-assisted psychotherapy/learning (EAPL) training, EQUUSOMA® is broader in application. While it can be used as a standalone EAPL approach or to enhance other EAPL approaches, it can also be used by horse trainers, equine behaviour consultants, horsemanship professionals, and equine health professionals within their scopes of practice.

In short, EQUUSOMA® is about working with trauma in the equine-human relationship, regardless of context.

Student Streams

  • STREAM 1: Equine-assisted psychotherapy and learning practitioners regardless of approach (whether as the mental health professional, the experiential learning or healing professional, the equine professional, or as someone with cross-training and qualifications in two or more of these categories). This category also includes therapeutic (or adaptive) riding instructors and hippotherapy practitioners
  • STREAM 2: Horse trainers, equine behaviourists, horsemanship instructors, clicker trainers, riding coaches, or other equine health or bodywork professionals
  • STREAM 3: Somatic Experiencing® students and practitioners
  • STREAM 4: Health, helping, healing, learning and coaching professionals with a clearly defined scope of practice who do not have a background in either 1 or 3.

Training modules have different combinations of students from these four streams, allowing a rich opportunity for individuals from each background to learn from one another. The material is relevant to many scopes of practice, and training participants will be exploring how to integrate what they have learned into the context of their own work and existing approaches.

Attending EQUUSOMA® training does not ensure that all methods, principles or techniques taught within EQUUSOMA® will be appropriate for inclusion in someone’s professional practice. EQUUSOMA® training will not qualify anyone to be a trauma therapist, Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, or equine professional of any kind. EQUUSOMA® students and Practitioners are responsible for operating within their professional scope of practice and for abiding by provincial/state and federal laws.

We Value Teamwork!

Co-facilitation teams (2 registrants): Attending the training with the person you partner with to offer your services (if this applies to you) is encouraged to integrate the material.

  • A 10% discount off the tuition is offered to each co-facilitator who registers for the same Level 1 online modules together. The discount for pairs attending Level 2 practical intensives in person is 5% owing to the greater overhead costs involved in running in-person events involving equines.

Groups (3-6 registrants): Sometimes teams of more than 2 people intend to register, such as an organization that wishes to have a larger number of its staff trained in EQUUSOMA®.

  • Each registrant in a group of 3-6 students obtains a 20% discount off the tuition if attending the same Level 1 online modules together. The discount for groups attending Level 2 practical intensives in person is 10% owing to the greater overhead costs involved in running in-person events involving equines.

Inclusion Scholarships

EQUUSOMA® is committed to anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice, and supports interspecies social justice as part of a trauma-informed perspective. As a result, EQUUSOMA® issues two full scholarships per Level 1 and Level 2 cohort:

  1. One for an eligible student who identifies as Black, Indigenous, or as another person of colour (BIPOC) who faces inequities as a result of racialized trauma, and
  2. One for an eligible student who is facing financial limitations due to other disparities (this could be another individual from the BIPOC community, or someone facing inequity due to other experiences of marginalization)

Each scholarship covers the cost of tuition to either the Level 1 modules or the Level 2 practical intensives. Students must re-apply for a scholarship when proceeding to a different training level.

The scholarship does not cover incidental costs, such as:

  • Purchasing the required readings
  • Hiring a team member to make-up any missed experiential time (if applicable)
  • Hiring an approved provider to complete the personal session and consultation requirements
  • Meals, travel, and accommodation costs during the practical intensives

Scholarship students will disclose their scholarship status when inquiring with faculty, assistants, and approved providers about the possibility of a sliding scale fee (a reduced fee below the person’s regular hourly rate) or pro bono services (free of charge). However, some team members may not currently have space available and there may be a waitlist involved in accessing services that are offered on a sliding scale or that are offered pro bono (without a fee).

Application Process

Students who wish to apply for a scholarship must submit a short essay (500 to 1,500 words) outlining their background, their professional goals, and how they intend to apply EQUUSOMA® within their scope of practice. The deadline to apply for a scholarship is 60 days before day 1 of the first module of Level 1, or 60 days before day 1 of the first practical intensive of Level 2.

We want to ensure that we are being mindful of how we are applying the scholarships in light of recent highly publicized cases involving misidentification and misrepresentation of ancestry. Given our desire to be respectful of this sensitive issue, students applying for the first category of scholarship are asked to provide us with any details or clarification in this regard.

Eligible participants who are not awarded a scholarship may be eligible for a reduced registration fee at the discretion of the Schlote Psychotherapy Professional Corporation.

Note:

Please review the new EQUUSOMA® Policy Handbook – Student and Practitioner Edition (58 pages), available as of October 31, 2022. This handbook summarizes into one location the various policies and parameters that we have adopted over the years into one organized document, along with updates and improvements that are in effect as of the date of publication. All prospective and current students should review this document prior to proceeding. This document is available by request by contacting info@equusoma.com or liaison@equusoma.com.

*This page is current as of October 30, 2022