Judith Emond, CEIP-MH, is an accredited mental health social worker, clinical family therapist, and lifelong horsewoman. Her practice, Heart To Heart Equine Assisted Therapy, is located on five beautiful acres in the countryside of Meredith, Victoria, Australia. Judith’s herd of four equine partners supports clients by engaging with them at liberty, where everyone is empowered by the freedom to choose.
For Judith, deciding to combine her career as a mental health professional with 30 years of equine experience was an obvious next step when she realized how much her clients could benefit from stepping outside the traditional therapy setting, which is not the ideal healing space for everyone. Judith specializes in bereavement and general mental health therapy, and many of her clients are children, teens, or adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. She states that the ability to form safe relationships with other sentient beings carries enormous potential for clients to learn what healing relationships feel like.
She tells the story of one client who came to Heart To Heart with a history of extreme childhood abuse and chronic mental health issues and who lives apart from friends and family. The client developed a close connection with two of the horses right away and remarked that these horses taught her what love is and provided her with the love she had never felt or received as a child. The client reports walking with greater confidence and feeling less anxious after her sessions with the horses.
Judith has held the CEIP-MH certification for almost four years. She chose to certify with CBEIP because it is an entirely independent, international organization with excellent standards of practice. Access to an internationally recognized certification body was especially significant because, as Judith explains, there are few nationally recognized certification organizations in Australia that are specific to human-equine interaction
