About Horses Teaching and Healing
Horses Teaching and Healing exists to educate, connect and promote practitioners in the emerging equine assisted/equine experiential field.
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In 2005 Equine Assisted Assets™ was created to support the field with guidance, inspiration and resources. Horses Teaching and Healing has grown out of that beginning.
Pam Salem is a certified Equine Experiential Educator who was a regional VP for the former TN Horse Council for 15+ years, who is “owned by horses” since 1956, and who believes that “horses being horses help humans be better humans.” In addition to co-facilitating equine assisted programs with a licensed therapist since 2000, Pam has a B.S. in Education, 40 yrs of hands-on horse experience as a competitor (Pony Club, horse shows, and competitive trail) and breeder of Arabian & Anglo Arabian sport horses. At age 17 years she had 4000+ hours in the saddle and was chosen as one of four team members for their first Pony Club rally when the Tennessee Valley Pony Club was founded in Knoxville, TN. She and her horse Queen’s Buccaneer (aka Jasper) won the Jr Working Hunter Championship at the Knoxville Charity Horse Show. She raised Anglo-Arabian sport horses for 20 years. One of her colts won a Class A Hunter Pleasure class in a field of fourteen. Another colt, purchased by an Olympic endurance rider, won a hundred-mile endurance race for him. Since 1972, she has co-owned and operated a hospitality linen and contract furnishings business:
Salem Hospitality Inc
In 2005 she created Equine Assisted Assets™ to support the field with guidance, inspiration and resources. Pam is known for her ability as a catalyst, bringing together a variety of different people to enhance each others expertise. Pam believes in an eclectic approach to training in human/equine interaction so she can have more tools in her toolbox to best serve her clients, including 20 plus years of training with a number oforganizations in the field including (but not limited to): EAGALA, PATH, and Natural Lifemanship; certification in the work of Zivorad Salvinsky.
See below for a partial list of Pam’s relevant training:
– 1998 Studied with Dr. Joanne Moses at Tucson Animal Assisted Psychotherapy Associates (TAAPA)
– Met and visited with Wyatt Webb at the Miraval Equine Experience, author of It’s Not About the Horse.
– October 1999 EAGALA Training with Greg Kersten and Lynn Thomas at Virginia Intermont College.
– October 2000 Hosted Chris Irwin demonstration and Dr. Joanne Moses workshop.
Hosted EAGALA Training with Greg Kersten and Linda Myers in Knoxville, TN, and began to work as the Eagala Horse Specialist with a PhD therapist doing equine assisted psychotherapy.
– October 2003 EPONA Three Day Workshop for Educators, Counselors & Riding Instructors with Linda Kohanov, author of The Tao of Equus and Riding Between the Worlds, and Kathleen Ingram of Sacred Place of Possibility.
– June 2004 EAPD with CHRIS IRWIN, author of Horses Don’t Lie.
– 2006 OK CORRAL SERIES Blue Seminar [business] with GREG KERSTEN.
– June 2007 certification by Innovative Horizons as an EQUINE ASSISTED TRAINING SPECIALIST.
– December 2007 EAGALA Level I at MARK LYTLE’s to maintain Eagala certification.
– April 2008 hosted OK CORRAL SERIES White Seminar [mounted].
– July 2008 Founding Member of E3A, the EQUINE EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION.
– May 2013 Healing with Horse Symposium, Denver, Colorado
– June 2014 Trauma & Equine-Assisted Practices Conference, North Carolina
NATURAL LIFEMANSHIP https://naturallifemanship.com/
Theoretical Base: Dr. Bruce Perry’s NeuroSequential Model http://childtrauma.org/
Trauma-Focused Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy (TF-EAP)
– June 2015 Equine Assisted Trauma-Focused Conference
– November 2015 Eagala Part 2 Training with Lynn Thomas & Mark Lytle
– March 2016 Eagala Conference Lexington, KY
– March 2018 Eagala Conference Murfreesboro, TN
– March 2020 Eagala Conference Lexington, KY
– 2020 Virtual Conferences with The Herd Institute and Natural Lifemanship
– 2023 Eagala Five Day Fundamentals – Recertification
– 2023 PATH EAL FUNDAMENTALS PILOT PROGRAM, CERTIFIED
– 2023 OK CORRAL SERIES Red Certification Seminar, Greg Kersten (co-founder of Eagala)
Pam Salem with Greg Kersten
Pam has co-facilitated equine assisted programs with a licensed therapist since 2000, and continues to hone her equine assisted learning skills. In addition to programs at her farm, since Feb 2010, Pam created and has co-facilitated an equine experiential program at English Mountain Recovery in East Tennessee: https://englishmountain.com/team
https://englishmountain.com/equine-interaction-recovery-interview-pam-salem/
https://englishmountain.com/equine-interaction-experience
“Pam, Hope you’re still offering equine-assisted treatment. Your program was a bright spot in the English Mtn Recovery services and powerful in its healing potential and application.”
~Gene M. Rutkauskas, previous Assistant Clinical Director at EMR; MS, LADACII,QCSNCACII, Licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor, MCRRC
Pam in her office
Photo in my “office” at EMR 3/22/23. On Wednesday one of the staff came down to our session and told me that she handles the alumna app for our clients. She said many consistently ask about the horses and express how much they loved their sessions. She wanted to post this on the app for them.
Pam continues to Translate Equus™ through authentic connection with the horses she loves.
Specialties: Certified PEAT Processor and Trainer in the Spiritual Technologies of Serbian psychologist, Zivorad Slavinski. https://spiritual-technology.com/
Pam is featured in Marketing Ideas for the Equine Professional by Beth Woodward.
Pam Salem is dedicated to the success of equine assisted work, and to the support and encouragement of those who are inspired to do it. She is a seeker and a traveler of ‘the path with heart.’ She believes that YOU are the expert at knowing YOU and your own uniqueness. You are your own guru and your own ‘best asset.’
“You don’t ‘find’ yourself….what are you, under a tree? You create yourself.” Victoria Principle
“I have a lot of history in the field since arriving in 1998 and watching it develop. I have benefited from working consistently in it, first with a PhD psychologist psychotherapist for 7 years and then for 13 years in a program created with an activities therapist at a residential recovery center. It is rewarding work. I also helped to co-found E3A www.e3assoc.org as one of the founding members. At the recovery center I do two sessions once a week, so that is now 2 x 52= 104 x 13 yrs = 1,352 sessions. With an average of 6 per one session and 12 per the other that is an average of 18 people per week. 52 weeks x 13 year = 678 weeks x 18 people average. I never kept a record of therapeutic clients or workshops prior to that, so that is just part of the experience I draw from to comment online and in groups. I think historical perspective is important and helpful in this work, and I wish I had documented more. I guess I was too busy just doing it. That is why I respect scientific rigor and its discipline…just don’t get lost in it. Get lost in the company of horses, and you will learn what you can help others benefit from experiencing.”
~Pam Salem