Best-selling author and equine-facilitated learning pioneer Linda Kohanov’s only East Coast trip in 2018 marks her first appearance in Florida. Linda will lead two mini-workshops December 2 and 3 near Orlando.
“I was invited to lead some private workshops for equestrian clients at Barrett Farm, and was pleased that we were also able to schedule a couple of larger seminars for the public as well during this trip,” Linda says. “I’m excited that I’ll be able to offer two events that draw on the most popular topics I’ve presented throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Australia over the last two years.”
December 2: Explore the Hidden History and Untapped Potential of the Human-Animal Bond
This three-hour seminar and book signing is also a fundraiser for a regional equine-facilitated therapy center. Titled The Heart of Evolution: Exploring the Hidden History and Untapped Potential of the Human-Animal Bond, this moving, at times mind-altering presentation illustrates humanity’s deep connection with the caring side of nature. Linda shares archeological and biochemical evidence that suggests certain animals reached out to our ancestors—befriending, empowering, and gentling people long before we were able to corral and control them. Compelling new scientific theories suggest that as early humans formed partnerships with animals, our own species became braver, stronger, and more compassionate as a result.
“In researching my fourth book The Power of the Herd, I came across some unexpected information that turns conventional theories about animal domestication inside out and upside down,” Linda marvels. “I quickly realized that this counterintuitive perspective on how ancient humans formed mutually beneficial partnerships with other species offers a model for how we can effectively gain the trust and loyalty of people who we may initially perceive as being very different from ourselves.”
In her fifth book The Five Roles of a Master Herder, Kohanov was able to distill research on the human-animal bond into a remarkable eight-
step process for 21st century humans who want to enhance their relationships with other people in business, community, educational, family and political settings, as well as with other cultures. The Southern Arizona-based author and educator has led this same seminar numerous times internationally to rave reviews. This marks the first time she will share these insights in Florida.
“Linda’s books come alive in this visually inspiring and intellectually original culmination of her work,” says Beverly Kane, MD, Stanford School of Medicine, who attended the seminar near San Francisco. “She is once again the brilliant voice of associative thinking, using science, spirit, and stories to dig deep into our history and into our hearts. What evolves is a striking new narrative on our non-predatory co-evolution with multiple species of animals.”
Linda and her hosts at Barrett Farm are donating 100 percent of the proceeds to Freedom Ride, an equine facilitated therapy center. For more information on this event, https://eponaquest.com/workshop/2927/.
December 3: A “Life Changing” Daylong Workshop
In 2017, Linda Kohanov launched a new modality for understanding, learning, and practicing what she calls Sentient Communication®. Titled Beyond Words: The Art and Science of Sentient Communication, workshops teaching these skills have quickly become her most successful programs to date.
During the one-day introductory seminar in Orlando, Linda will share influential research on the physiology of horse-human interactions, heart health, and biofeedback, including some brand new, original studies she has completed with University of Arizona physiologist Ann Baldwin, PhD. The workshop is ideal for healthcare professionals, counselors, equine-facilitated therapy practitioners, parents, teachers, leaders, horse trainers, and animal rescue-workers who would like to learn skills to promote individual well-being, foster stronger personal relationships, boost professional effectiveness, and enhance interspecies intercommunication.
Participants worldwide have offered glowing reviews of the principles, tools, and horse-facilitated activities that together create an innovative approach to mastering nonverbal awareness, connection, and communication, one that is proving to be remarkably effective in helping people form deep, mutually respectful human-to-human and human-animal relationships.
During a multi-day Beyond Words workshop last winter, Patty Forward marveled at the “amazing, heartfelt learning experiences. Linda’s informative presentation on what she characterizes as ‘the grammar of sentient, nonverbal communication’ set the stage with applicable examples to solidify the concepts that we practiced with the horses. Wow…to find this missing piece of the Sentient Communication puzzle was fantastic!”
Barbara Rector, co-founder of the Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association and a major innovator in the field, also attended the workshop. “It was by far the most significant Eponaquest seminar yet,” she reported. “It was a remarkably spiritual experience, even as it also had a very practical side and an emphasis on research-based tools and information.”
“I had profound experiences that will be pivotal in my own work, which is more than I had dared hope for before I came,” noted Barb Ganske, an avid equestrian who owns a family-run business. “I was surprised how effective the technique of heart breathing can be.”
Heart Breathing is one of the more simple yet powerful skills that Linda teaches during both one-day introductory and multi-day in-depth versions of the Sentient Communication training. “It’s something I learned from horses over a decade ago, and it seems to have a magical effect when you use it with animals and people,” Linda says. “I use it with fearful or aggressive dogs, horses and other animals, and the effect is astonishing. It can really help to turn unproductive trends around in human contexts without saying a word, which also seems magical. But since I have been working with Ann Baldwin, PhD, and doing some of the research we present in the Sentient Communication workshop, I have learned that there is actually a scientific explanation for it.” You can see a video of Linda employing this technique with one of her horses on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm7GiqzQm_4
“This was one of the bests workshop I have ever participated in, and that includes EFL [equine-facilitated learning] and other personal development workshops,” says Costa Rica-based EFL practitioner Karen Montealegre. “The workshop helped me become more conscious of the way I am in the world. I realized that I have been aware of many of the elements of Sentient Communication all my life, but without consciously knowing it or naming it. By breaking down and outlining ‘the grammar’ of what is beneath and beyond words, this program helped me better understand myself, my relation to others and to my environment.”
Linda’s one day introduction to Sentient Communication is great way to sample the work and learn some skills that will be immediately useful in working with people and animals in personal and professional settings.
“In addition to covering relevant scientific research, I’ll show how why equine-facilitated activities are so effective at teaching the skills involved through some demonstrations with horses,” she reveals. “There are also a number of human-to-human experiential pieces I can teach to the larger groups who attend the one day introduction. People will learn the difference between congruence and coherence, and why both are essential to fostering mutually-respectful, supportive relationships with adults, children, and animals—at work, home, school, and in human therapeutic contexts as well as in animal rehabilitation and rescue contexts. Participants will also learn how to employ key breathing techniques and body postures that enhance personal well-being and professional success.”
“As a communications and change specialist, I am currently consulting on a two-country, four company merger in the finance and insurance sector,” says June Maine, who attended a Sentient Communication training in Melbourne, Australia this past September. “Following the weekend workshop, on Monday, I had been at work 7 minutes and was given the opportunity to put key techniques from the Sentient Communication workshop to the test in the workplace. Worked a treat for me as I dealt with someone who was quite argumentative that day.
“Cross-functional meetings are often quite oppositional as the project is complex and challenged with very tight time-frames. Having learned how to change tense human situations using Linda’s techniques, I later tried these methods out in two meetings that are normally quite adversarial. The results were quite noticeable in the lack of escalations between normally argumentative individuals. As a further benefit, there was a significant reduction in the overall tension of the meetings. Clearly this kind of improvement has positive results for all team members and the quality of outcomes. I was pleasantly stunned at the immediacy of the results and instant benefit of one weekend’s training.”
Suzy Conway, former Medical Librarian at Harvard Medical School, lives in Corvallis, Oregon, where she writes poetry and devotes herself to the study of becoming versatile in equine communication. She found the Sentient Communication skills useful with the horses and humans in her life. “This workshop has changed my life,” she says. “I used to think that non-verbal modes of communication could have an effect on others. Now I know they have an effect, and I know how to consciously use breathing, body posture, and other forms of Sentient Communication to have the greatest possible effect. My relationships are more authentic. I’m more confidant, trust myself more, and I can speak my horse’s language without opening my mouth!”
Linda’s One Day Sentient Communication workshop in Orlando is limited to 30 people. For more information and to register: https://eponaquest.com/workshop/beyond-words-the-art-and-science-of-sentient-communication/.
For information on an upcoming four-day, in-depth Sentient Communication workshop in Arizona: https://eponaquest.com/workshop/beyond-words-the-art-and-science-of-sentient-communication-2/.