Equine Facilitated Interactions at The Athena Herd Foundation

PSA Register

The Athena Herd Foundation holds the first and only animal national based Accredited Practitioner Register to define a set of professional standards to support the delivery of Equine Facilitated Interactions (known as, for example, Equine Assisted Services, Learning, or Psychotherapy and Equine Facilitated Learning, Therapy,  Counselling, Psychotherapy, or Hippotherapy – defined here) by improving the regulation and registration of Practitioners through the Athena® Herd Foundation Accredited Practitioner Register™ regulated in the UK by the Professional Standards Authority.

To explore the register or find a practitioner please click here.

PSA Accredited practitioner register

To find out how we handle public concerns or complaints please click here

Please contact us for more information.

Awarding

Working with external regulatory and accrediting organisations to ensure professional standards in practice and education.

Learning

Delivering externally accredited qualifications and training that develop professional skills in Equine Facilitated Interactions.

Community

Providing insightful and beneficial Equine Facilitated Interactions for local individuals, communities and organisations.
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Organisational Member No: 00275580

Most importantly, the move to the farmhouse provided the horses with an amazing environment.   This is because it better supports optimum physical and emotional health and well-being.  Inspired by, amongst others, Jaime Jackson’s book “Paddock Paradise: A Guide to Natural Horse Boarding”.  Athena Herd Foundation today is home to a sizeable barefoot herd of horses.  They live as naturally as possible on an equine track system.

Consequently, it is no surprise that this labour of love brought together horses and a group of like-minded humans. In other words, people passionate about the emotional and physical health and well-being of horses. This emphasis has made it an ideal place to deliver Equine Facilitated Interactions. 

Athena Herd Foundation CIC is an Organisational Member of both the BACP: British Association for Counselling  and Psychotherapy and ACCPH: Accredited Counsellors, Coaches, Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapists, IAHAIO Jennifer Geach is the co-founder of Athena Herd, a Senior Solicitor, Equine Facilitated Practitioner and Fellow Member of the ACCPH.  The combination of living in harmony with nature and looking to care for the herd of horses in as natural an environment as possible provides a very authentic setting for the best possible Equine Facilitated Interactions and development training and experience.

Currently the Athena Herd Foundation team can deliver a single stand alone Certification in Equine Facilitated Interactions, a full Equine Facilitated Practitioner Diploma  as well as various events and learning experiences in line with the vast amount of individual expertise.

One thing that really stood out on moving to the farmhouse was an old almost spooky looking dead tree.  This tree is located in the middle of the land and gains a great deal of attention.  The lightening tree.  This tree was the origin of the Athena Herd Foundation logo.   It depicts that special tree deeply rooted into the land.  It also has a representation of the Athena Herd and animals all encompassed within a circle.  Depicting positive emotions and nature.  We give thanks to Kate Chandler for designing the original Athena Herd logo and Frankie for adapting it in 2021 to bring in the Athena Herd Foundation Awarding, Learning and Community arms.

Athena️ Logo - Circle Version

Authenticity and attention to the whole health and well-being of the Athena Herd horses.   This is what makes the  Equine Facilitated Interactions (including Equine Facilitated Learning and Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy) experiences here at the Athena Herd Foundation unique. Jennifer Geach strives to build meaningful relationships and connections with the Athena Herd Foundation horses.   For instance, we really observe and listen to their needs and choices.  Moreover, this has also been the case with all of the horses that have made up Athena Herd over the years.  We really look to gain a better understanding and insight into their individual needs and choices.  This journey is what took Jennifer on this path.  Looking at what is, for example, Equine Facilitated Learning, Equine Assisted Learning, Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy, Occupational Therapy, healing with horses.  Subsequently, Jennifer went on to join courses offered by various training providers.  Jennifer also, for example, actively participates in the Equine Assisted & Facilitated Practitioners Network and Conferences.

 

Importantly there is a  great breadth of complementary experience and expertise in our team.  This includes horsemanship, training , coaching, advisory, business, legal, equitation, counselling and much more.

300+

Success Stories

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Qualifications

400+

Happy Students

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Combined Years Experience

Equine Facilitated Training Programmes

The Athena Herd team has designed the unique stand alone externally accredited ACCPH Level 2 Certificate in Equine Facilitated Interactions (whether you are looking for “EAS”, “EAL”, “EFL” or “EFP”).  This is a Foundation Certificate referred to as Module One.  Most importantly, this can be taken as a seven week interactive distance learning option.  Participants can also continue, after successful completion of Module One, with the externally accredited ACCPH Level 4 and Level 5 Equine Facilitated Practitioner Diploma, either on a fully or partially remote basis.  As well as an externally accredited ACCPH Level 7 PG Cert.

The Athena® Herd Foundation CIC is a not for profit community interest company located in West Kent, UK.   We offer the best possible learning and development experience in a unique location alongside special people and animals.   Jennifer and Brent established Athena® Herd in 2014 and have developed a unique interactive learning and development centre bring track systems to the Equine Interaction and Equine Assisted Services space becoming the Athena Herd Foundation in 2021.  Our programmes have been designed so that we can tailor our training to suit your needs so that you can attain accredited qualifications.  Many of our training programmes are validated for CPD and CEUS by ACCPH.

For more information please visit our programme page.

Level 2 Certificate

Our  externally accredited ACCPH Certificate in Equine Facilitated Interactions (Module One) as a standalone Certificate

Level 4 Diploma

Diplomas build on the theory and knowledge you gained on the Certificate, as well as core practical experiential skills.

Level 5 Diploma

We expect that you will need approximately nine to ten months in total to complete all modules of the Level 4 Equine Facilitated Practitioner Diploma, and an additional three to six months to complete the Level 5

athena level 7

Level 7 Certificate

A year-long course based on supervised individual independent research and analysis, which is supported by a taught module focusing on the skills required to undertake your own research project.

Your Future Starts Here.

A heart felt thank you for partnering with us to support those most in need. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”. Winston Churchill