Eponaquest Training to become a coach, therapist, or group facilitator with horses
Developing yourself. Helping others develop. Together with horses.
This is what you will get started with:
As an Eponaquest coach or instructor we help our clients strengthen their leadership, emotional resilience, and social intelligence, and thus optimally cope with challenges. We achieve this through instruments and exercises with horses that have proven themselves in practice for more than 20 years. The focus of our efforts:
- Strengthening of social intelligence and leadership skills at work and at home.
- Authenticity and productive communication in teams and within relationships.
- The program breaking through limiting beliefs, blockages and patterns that get in the way of personal growth and flourishing.
- Enlarging emotional flexibility and resilience, in personal development, at work, and for specific target groups with mental health issues such as AS and PTSD.
Background and accreditation
You can fool other people, and sometimes even yourself, but you can count on the average horse to let you know exactly where you stand!
The Eponaquest training was founded in America in 2002 by bestselling author Linda Kohanov, in collaboration with psychotherapists, psychiatrists, leadership experts and horse trainers. The training provides an answer to the growing demand for professionalization in the provision of equine therapy and coaching with horses, and for tools to help people function better, inspired by the natural herd behavior of horses.
Since 2012, the program has been available in Europe at a few locations on the European mainland, in English, Dutch, and French. (German-speaking support is available for the international program in the Netherlands).
Currently, there are approximately 450 graduated Eponaquest Instructors working worldwide in fields such as equine therapy, leadership development, career counseling, team building, and personal growth. Thousands of people around the world have participated in training, coaching, and workshops based on the Eponaquest philosophy.
The approach is continuously further developed and adapted based on the latest scientific insights, the practical experiences of people who work with it, and those of their clients.
The Eponaquest Certification Training: 4 Modules
The Eponaquest Training consists of 4 modules. These together form the complete training package to become an Eponaquest Instructor in Experiential Learning with Horses.
Basic Module: The Nature of Wisdom 4-Season Program
The best foundation for your next steps
The Nature of Wisdom (NOW) training is one of the most powerful personal development programs involving horses. As a coach or facilitator of others, it is important to personally experience the impact of the tools you work with. In the exercises with horses, you learn to effectively deal with challenges encountered within the human herd. You confront limiting patterns and learn how to stand in your own power.
Level 1: Eponaquest® Coach
Focus: individual coaching Experiential Learning with Horses
The aim of Level 1 is to become proficient in both theory and practical implementation around a complete basic package of coaching instruments and exercises with horses. You will learn the most important basic principles for ensuring effectiveness, professionalism and safety. You practice in practice building and implementing a coaching process. With the Level 1 Certificate in your pocket, you can immediately start working professionally in your own practice.
Level 2: Eponaquest® Instructor
Focus: individual coaching Experiential Learning with Horses
In Level 2 you expand your package of knowledge and exercises with advanced practical exercises for personal growth. These exercises will help your clients naturally take up their space and lead to achieve their goals. We delve deeper into the leadership role of a coach or therapist and you will receive more tools to tap into this within yourself. With the Level 2 Certificate you can gain more depth in working on specific themes of your clients.
Level 3: Eponaquest® Group trainer
Focus: group guidance Experiential Learning with Horses
In this course you will learn to offer training or workshops with horses to teams or groups. We pay attention to group psychology and dynamics, and you will learn what is needed to facilitate a group learning process, and how to use horses practically and safely. As a supervisor and as a person, you also learn to deal with tensions and challenges in a group as effectively as possible. Together with fellow students you will give a 2-day theme workshop based on a specific theme. After successful completion, you can start shaping your work with horses for groups.
Set your own pace!
The Basic Module and Level 1 together cover 19 days of lessons plus the time you need to complete your Level 1 practice trajectories with clients. This is the basic package required for the Level 1 certification, with which you can start your own practice. This component can be completed within a period of one year.
You can then take Levels 2 and 3. Levels 2 and 3 each consist of 6 class days. For Level 3, in addition to the class days, time is required to jointly prepare your exam workshop.
It is possible to complete all 4 modules within one year. However, this requires a significant time investment. Therefore, it is also possible to complete Levels 2 and 3 in a subsequent year.
Insights
The Five Roles of a Master Shepherd
Horsepower for leadership and teams!
In this advanced training led by Linda Kohanov herself, you will learn to work with the Master Herder leadership model for leadership development and team building. This model, based on natural herd behavior, helps leaders and teams achieve better communication, improved performance, more productive collaboration, and a constructive approach to conflict.
This program can be taken as a standalone course and is currently offered only in the USA.
Online Master Classes
Connections – The building blocks of the Eponaquest Toolkit
The key insights, self-help, and coaching tools for emotional and social intelligence from the Eponaquest Approach are now available as an online course. These inspiring online trainings are presented by Linda Kohanov herself and are illustrated with footage of demonstrations she performs with her own horses at her ranch in Arizona. The courses are subtitled in Dutch, French, and German.
In my work with managers and professionals, I notice that this training has changed the way I listen. Whereas I used to listen primarily to the story, I now also listen to what someone *doesn't* say. I am alert to incongruence, emotions, and what the body reveals. This often leads to very different conversations.
Meet the team: your Eponaquest experts
This experienced team is ready for you!
Meet the instructors. The course is offered in the Netherlands in Dutch and English, and in France in French with English support. German support is available in the Dutch course. All program and coaching materials are available in Dutch, English, German, and French.
The Eponaquest Training is offered for the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany by Eponaquest® Faculty Member and Advanced Eponaquest Instructor Josselien Janssens.
Josselien worked for many years as a team leader and process coordinator in an international organization. In 2010, she made the switch to coaching with horses. She completed the Eponaquest training with Linda Kohanov in Arizona in 2011. She also holds the continuing education certificates of Sentient Communication Instructor and Master Herder Instructor, and Connection Focused Therapy facilitator. She edited the Dutch translation of Linda's books “The Power of the Herd” and “The Five Roles of a Master Herder”.
In addition to the study program, she has her own coaching practice with horses, specialized in leadership development for international professionals and teams.
Babs Jasper
Teacher of Eponaquest training in the Netherlands and Germany
Eponaquest Instructor, Master Shepherd Instructor, Connection Focused Therapy Facilitator
Antje Stephan
Coordinator Eponaquest Training Germany
Eponaquest Instructor POH (advanced workshops)
Rosie Withey
Medicine Horse Way trainer in England, teacher at Eponaquest Training in the Netherlands
Eponaquest Advanced Instructor
Irene Robben
Instructor Eponaquest training Netherlands
Eponaquest Instructor, Level 3
Melanie Baldwin
Trainee Instructor Eponaquest training in the Netherlands and Germany
Eponaquest Instructor, Master Shepherd Instructor, Connection Focused Therapy Facilitator
Want to know more?
Would you like to get acquainted with the Eponaquest approach for therapeutic work, leadership development or personal growth? Are you interested in the Eponaquest training? Book a free digital introductory meeting, or participate in an introductory afternoon.
