Welcome
Discover Connection and Belonging
An inclusive community, our mission is to provide equine assisted psychotherapy to refugees, immigrants and foster families.
About Human Equine and relational therapy (HEART) Space fund
Our Philosophy
We are an inclusive community. HEART Space Fund’s mission is to bridge the accessibility to mental health care, specifically equine facilitated psychotherapy, to refugees, immigrants and children in the foster care system. We want to work collaboratively with agencies or non-profits who can already provide housing, employment and other support, as we believe individuals need to have their basic needs covered in order to be able to work on their mental and emotional wellbeing.
We believe that an experiential, non-traditional approach to therapy, and one more oriented on nature based and integrating the horses could provide our participants a more organic way of connecting to their origins and yet finding a sense of belonging and community in a new country. We believe that equine facilitated psychotherapy provides an experiential, relational approach where participants can regain a sense of safety, belonging and ultimately thriving with the help of the horses and equine facilitated psychotherapists.
Our Services
Equine facilitated psychotherapy is a powerful experiential approach blending horses, nature and psychotherapy.
All our professionals are trained in both counseling/ therapy and equine facilitated psychotherapy.
- 1-2 hour individual or family sessions
- mini-retreats where we work on addressing mental health symptoms and needs for the individuals and their families.
Our Approach
Dr. Marcus is trained in several approaches to address PTSD, including but not limited to EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), equine assisted- EMDR, DBR (deep brain reorienting), and trauma and dissociation.
Our team of experienced counselors uses a variety of evidence-based techniques, trauma-informed therapies, DBT, EMDR, EA-EMDR, DBR We believe in a holistic approach to mental health, addressing both the mind and body.
Equine facilitated psychotherapy
Objectives of equine facilitated therapy:
- Building mindfulness of environment, whether school, work, community or barn
- Mindfulness of own emotions and physical reactions
- Psychoeducation on emotion and physical symptoms
- Relational and situational awareness
- Behaviors in context of trauma/ PTSD and better understanding symptoms
- Trauma-informed psychoeducation
- Anxiety and depression reduction
- Distress tolerance skills
- Emotion regulation skills
- Culturally informed interpersonal skills and family therapy
- Building the ability to tolerate distress and communicate/ ask for help
- PTSD Symptom reduction
- Post-traumatic growth
Team
Therapists, staff and volunteers
Dr. Ioana Marcus, LPC, Founder of HEART Space Fund
Board members:
Danielle Baird, Secretary
Dave Elias, Member at large
Kimberly Lane, Member at large
Therapists:
Dr. Ioana Marcus, LPC
Ann Duvall, LPC
Ailish Demody, LPC Resident
Janet Grieder, LPC
Jessica Spechardt, LPC Resident
Carol Baillie, EFL, OneHoofForward
Equine therapy team (left to right)
Whiskers
Snuggleberry
Ember