TIme: 9:30 am to 5:00 pm

Location: Barrett Farm • 5100 Double R Lane • Oviedo, FL 32765

For Directions & Local Lodging Info: 406-365-5456 or 407-467-9281 or BarrettFarmfl@gmail.com

This innovative workshop brings together the latest research on mind-body science and the healing power of the human-animal bond with specific techniques for reducing stress, enhancing health, and cultivating meaningful, mutually supportive relationships with people and animals. Best selling author and equine-facilitated learning pioneer Linda Kohanov offers her latest distillation of 20 years of research developed through writing five books, surveying and collaborating with leading professionals in multiple fields, and leading hundreds of workshops worldwide. The one day Beyond Words seminar covers key principles and demonstrates a sequence of experiential learning activities designed to exercise what she calls “Sentient Communication.”

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.

“Health is a multi-disciplinary phenomenon,” Linda emphasizes, “related not only to diet and physical fitness, but also to the quality of our relationships: at home, school, work, and in larger community settings. Stress, revealed to be a factor in 80 percent of serious medical conditions, is often caused by chronically unproductive personal and professional interactions. We go to school for years to learn how to read and write but we somehow expect to learn important emotional and social intelligence, stress management, leadership, and nonverbal communication skills accidentally.

“In the 1990s, psychologists revealed that only about 10 percent of human communication is verbal. To negotiate interpersonal challenges, we need to become more conscious of the nonverbal messages we send back and forth to each other. And we need to learn more effective ways of handling all that nonverbal input by understanding how to more consciously process, respond to, and communicate.

“In any living organism, sensory information is crucial to basic survival,” Linda says. “But we need to become more conscious and purposeful in how we manage all this information. After much reflection, research, and development, I came up with the term ‘Sentient Communication’ to describe principles and techniques for cultivating a finely tuned awareness of nonverbal cues—in oneself and others—as the first in a series of steps that enhance our ability to act on these cues by making thoughtful choices. Over the years, I’ve seen how horses, who are exquisitely tuned to nonverbal information, can help people learn to think and respond beyond the limitations of words.

“Sentient Communication shows us how to elevate instinctual impulses and physiological processes to a language combining purposeful changes in breathing and heart rate, with a finely tuned awareness of emotional cues, body posture shifts, energetic awareness, and intuitive insights that we learn to consciously respond to rather than unconsciously react to. Among many other benefits, this translates into the ability to calm yourself and others, diffuse aggression, gain cooperation, and motivate groups to take productive action.

“Modern life encourages us to dissociate from feeling and withdraw from in-person exchanges while focusing our attention on a fastpaced, increasingly mechanized existence that overemphasizes the intellect in some circles, and encourages aggressive outbursts of emotion in other subcultures. These habits literally affect the bottom line in professional settings. According to the World Health Organization, stress costs American businesses up to $300 billion yearly and 66% of employees report difficulty focusing at work due to stress. Counselors across the U.S. also report that the current political atmosphere is raising anxiety and stress in clients at alarming rates.

To heal the growing rifts in our culture, we must learn how to manage fear and aggression in groups, respectfully communicate with those who hold different viewpoints, and create innovative solutions to age-old problems. Sentient Communication helps us move beyond stressful states of disconnection, while dramatically enhancing personal ful8illment, creative problem solving, and success in relationships.”

For More Information: info@eponaquest.com or 520-455-5908

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