We have just closed yet another round of our introductory online course called “Rewild your Heart”. And while it is not a course easily categorized, I really like it and think it has great potential and a great future. But yes, well, haha… I am heavily biased, as it is my creation!

In a lot of ways, I am a very different kind of educator and facilitator of any human-oriented learning and growth experience. And I know that not all like, or will like, my ways, or they will simply not suit them. And that is fine. But I would feel sad to lose anyone because I am not as clear as I could be.

Which is why I want to have a go at clarifying the difference between experiential learning and symbolism.

CHANGES IN HOW WE INVITE TO OUR COURSES, WORKSHOPS AND OTHER EVENTS

How to let every student be on their unique path, not building collectives, but communities!

This change has been a long time coming. I and Sonja have been discussing this back and forth.

Being a being is being relational.

Simple? Huh? – Yes. Seemingly so. Or. It is that simple. But we humans like to complicate things, and since I am a human, I am going to do just that! Not for its own sake, but when we look closer at things, go through the complex layers of something, look at it from different perspectives, we often come back, or home, to a simpler “truth” (insight). So, I invite you to follow me on a little exploration – in the hope that it will clarify some things. And if it doesn’t do that for you. At least, writing this – is helping me clarify my thinking, to me 😉

Dynamics. Another word for relationships – interactions – being with one another…(as the ones who read/train with me more regularly know - I often use the Intersubjectivity theory as a framework to look at relationships).

Everything. If we broaden Rewilding to include Rewilding of us humans. Which I think is absolutely necessary. In the bigger schemes of things – we cannot reverse the development of mass extinction and work towards diversity if we do not include working with the human psyche and mentality.

This is why we in MiMer work with our courses we call Rewild Your Heart. True and successful Rewilding depends on human awareness – of ourselves, how we function, what drives us, what our belief systems are and so on. We of course need species specific knowledge and knowledge about species environments and contexts, but without the puzzle piece that is us – humans – we will not succeed sustainably. I have looked at different Rewilding efforts of animals and nature, and their success rate all come down to how integrated the awareness of the huma component is.

So that is the start. The human, too, of course, is an animal. And since we have spread all over the globe, we impact everything. All environments are our environments. And everything that lives there needs to be able to co-exist with us. And we are the ones that need to make that happen. As we are the invasive species, and we tend to put our needs above all other species’ needs.

 – NEXT TRAINING STARTS MAY 1!

I want to address how a training called pEATT – Equine Assisted Trauma Therapy with a psychodynamic approach – is not only an education in how to do equine assisted trauma therapy, but is open for anyone wanting to learn (or learn more) about how to deliver trauma informed and trauma sensitive equine assisted services. So this training is open for anyone in our equine assisted field, or anyone who wants to join it, whether they are “human professionals” or “equine professionals”.

As well as it is open to anyone with any kind/version of “school of thought”, direction, program… there is NO need for a psychodynamic background! Or even knowing what psychodynamic means or is (it will be explained of course in the training – as well as why it is there, and why we give this training from this perspective.)

Katarina is interviewed by Annamária Jánosi, a psychologist in Hungary, working with equine assisted interventions: debrecenilovasterapia.hu

1. Katarina, you have been working with trauma and equine assisted interventions for over 10 years.

As I know you founded the MiMer Centre, an equine human education and research centre, in 2013.

Being mindful is being open to any experience, any moment – staying in them, but not disappearing into them. You pause and: You look at youYou listen to youYou notice your feelingsYou notice your breathYou notice your thoughtsYou notice your body You give yourself that safe space of holding yourself and whatever goes on with you without judging, drawing conclusions, analyzing, valuing, censoring – any of it. You stay with the experience, without holding on to it – you let it pass, leave and stay open to the next moment that is arriving. You are in you – at the same time as you are observing yo...