Teena Dietz, ND, MA, RN, Equine Gestaltist™, Licensed Equine Facilitator™, Intentional Serenity / Serenity Farm and Stables, Watertown, Minnesota
Introduction: The Equine Gestalt Coaching Method™ (EGCM™) integrates the Gestalt process, somatic awareness, and partnership with horses. Gestalt emphasizes awareness, contact, and wholeness. This capstone evaluated immediate changes in anxiety, depression, and stress after one 90-minute EGCM™ session at Serenity Farm and Stables.
Significance: Emotional distress is experienced through the body and relationships as well as through thought. A herd-supported, trauma-informed environment can provide a pathway to safety, expression, and hope, as horses offer nonverbal relational feedback. This project documents healing witnessed at Serenity Farm and honors horses as active partners.
Purpose: The purpose of this capstone was to evaluate whether one 90-minute EGCM™ session was associated with immediate reductions in adults’ self-reported anxiety, depression, and stress and increased grounding, regulation, and hope.
Setting and Participants: The capstone took place at Serenity Farm and Stables in Watertown, Minnesota. Adults voluntarily sought individual sessions for anxiety, overwhelm, grief, trauma-related distress, stress, or emotional dysregulation.
Capstone Description/Process: Before the session, participants rated anxiety, depression, and stress from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating greatest intensity. Each completed an individualized 90-minute EGCM™ session. Participants repeated the ratings afterward and described their mood.
Capstone Results/Impact: Participants commonly reported less anxiety and stress, greater grounding and embodiment, emotional release, improved regulation, and renewed hope. The forms summarized showed reductions of 50% or greater in anxiety, depression, and stress ratings. The project suggests that a regulated facilitator, a safe relational container, a farm environment, and an attuned herd may support immediate movement toward safety and hope.
Capstone Evaluation: The structured pre- and post-session form provided preliminary practice-based evidence of immediate symptom change. The 50% or greater reductions are encouraging, but the exact analytic sample, descriptive statistics, and inferential tests were not available. The results are therefore promising and clinically meaningful, not proof of causation or statistical significance. Because outcomes were immediate and self-reported, durability and physiological nervous-system change were not established.
Future Directions: Future evaluation will document exact sample size and participant-level data, use validated measures, and assess outcomes after multiple sessions and at follow-up. Descriptive and paired statistical analyses can then test the strength and durability of change. Planned populations include first responders, health care professionals, and Minnesota residents affected by immigration-enforcement-related trauma. Future work will remain culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and attentive to participant and equine welfare.
Acknowledgments: I am grateful to Melisa Pearce, creator of the Equine Gestalt Methods, and to my coaches, Peggy and Risa. Most of all, I thank my mares, Willow, Lady, and Hope, who remain my daily teachers and equine partners.
References
Bachi, K. (2013). Application of attachment theory to equine-facilitated psychotherapy. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 43(3), 187–196.
Lentini, J. A., & Knox, M. S. (2015). Equine-facilitated psychotherapy with children and adolescents: An update and literature review. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 10(3), 278–305.
Pearce, M. B. (2019). What the heck is Gestalt? Touched by a Horse.
Touched by a Horse. Touched by a Horse Equine Gestalt Coaching certification program. Retrieved September 2, 2026, from https://touchedbyahorse.com
Touched by a Horse. What the heck is Gestalt? Retrieved September 2, 2026, from https://touchedbyahorse.com/what-the-heck-is-gestalt