This is a reflection on how I work — and why. Not as a method to be defended, but as a philosophy that has emerged slowly, quietly, through years of being with horses and humans in vulnerable places. At Hurihanga, my work is grounded in trauma-informed practice. For me, that does not mean a checklist of techniques. It means an ongoing commitment to notice where power, control, and conditionality quietly enter relational spaces  — and to choose differently when they do. At the

At Hurihanga, I am often reminded that trauma does not only live in memory. It lives in how people respond to loss, to relationship rupture, and to the feeling of being unprotected in the world. Recently, I noticed a pattern emerging across very different stories. Different circumstances, different relationships — yet the same emotional shape. Loss intertwined with trust. Disappointment tangled with expectation. And a deep sense of being left to carry something alone. What sa

We often think of gratitude as something we should feel when everything is going well : a big life, a full heart, a list of blessings written neatly in a journal. But what if gratitude isn’t meant to be practised in large doses? What if it works better in microdoses ? What is Gratitude Microdosing? Gratitude microdosing is the practice of taking tiny, regular moments  to notice what is working, what is present, and what feels even slightly supportive — without forcing positiv

Horses, Nervous Systems, and the Cost of Performing Despite the Environment This past week, the weather has been relentless—wind, rain, pressure changes, and no real pause between systems. When I walked up to the paddock this morning, Boy was visibly agitated — running up and down, unsettled, unable to land. Nothing “wrong” had happened. And yet everything had. Horses, like humans, need more than micro-rests. They don’t just need to nod off while standing. They need to lie do

As 2025 closes, I find myself unexpectedly… full. Not full of events, social engagements, or ticking off one more thing before the year ends — but full in the way that only being present  can fill you. I’ve just returned from nine days away with my 19-year-old. Anyone who has spent time with late adolescents will know the energy: fast, impulsive, alive, unpredictable. It reminded me very quickly what it’s like to be around 18–19-year-olds again — that developmental edge where

How Equine Therapy Brings the Change Triangle to Life One of the most common things I see when people begin equine-assisted therapy is not fear of horses, but uncertainty in themselves. They may have horses of their own, yet have never been shown how to lead with clarity, presence, and trust. They might know  what they want, but not quite how to ask for it. And when this happens, the horse does not respond — not out of defiance, but out of honesty. This moment is where equine

In Te Ao Māori, healing is not something we force. It is something we return to — through connection with whenua, whānau, wairua, and the natural world that holds us. For many rangatahi who have grown up carrying adult responsibilities, witnessing conflict, or feeling constantly alert, traditional spiritual practices like meditation or silence can feel unsafe. Their wairua might long for peace, but their tinana (body) is still in protection mode. This is not weakness. This is

When someone gives up an addiction — whether it’s alcohol, substances, pornography, food, or a behaviour they’ve relied on for years — something powerful happens inside the nervous system. A kind of awakening. A crack of light. A surge of momentum that says: “Right, let’s fix everything now. Let’s get to the finish line.” If you’ve ever felt this in the early stages of healing, you’re not alone. And if you’re a practitioner or support person seeing this in someone you care fo

“Your presence became the tāhuhu — the ridgepole of the whare —holding the space steady as the storm passed through.” That’s what the day asked of me —to stand grounded in faith as everything around me swirled. Aurora over the marae The Storm Arrives A client was coming for her first in-person session at Hurihanga  after months online. She had already faced a difficult morning — locking her keys in the car, breaking a window to retrieve them, gathering her three dogs without

There’s a truth I’ve seen play out in the arena with horses, in the counselling room, in leadership spaces, and around the kitchen table with family. We teach — whether we mean to or not. Every moment, we are transmitting a message. With horses, I often say: we are always training . We are either training what we want… or we are unintentionally training what we don’t. A horse is learning from the release we give, the behaviour we ignore, the tension we hold in our body, and t

There are moments in life when something unsettles us so deeply that the ripples move through our mind, our body, our relationships, and even our sense of who we are. It may be a conversation that lands awkwardly, a misunderstanding that lingers, or a situation that touches an old wound we thought had healed long ago. Often, our first instinct is to fix the imbalance “out there” — to explain, correct, defend, or seek resolution with the other person involved. But there is ano

A Story of Contrast, Transformation, and the Sacred Art of Being Held The Universe has a way of arranging experiences with a precision that only makes sense in hindsight. Abraham Hicks calls it contrast  — those moments where life places two opposing realities side by side, not to punish us, but to reveal truth with undeniable clarity. Only through contrast do we learn to recognise what feels good, what feels aligned, what feels like home in the body. I didn’t know, as I led

I’ve always been fascinated by what science can’t quite measure — that invisible thread between horse and human, body and body, feeling and field. Chris Irwin says horses are not at the effect of their thoughts but of their feelings, and I’ve built an entire way of working around that truth. Somewhere between the nervous system and the soul, there’s a conversation happening — not in words but in waves. I’ve spent years trying to decode it, only to discover that the horse neve

Every horse person knows this: you cannot make fine corrections on a galloping horse.  At speed, there’s too much momentum. The horse is...

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Last night, under the potent alignment of the Lionsgate Portal , I joined a beautiful ceremony for the Divine Feminine . It was an...

This week, I found myself eyeing up a crooked wire structure that had long irritated me—an old enclosure wrapped around the garden, built...

There is a kind of leadership that arrives with a microphone. It’s certain. Confident. Loud. It speaks over the top of things. It...

Spiritual awakening is not a one-time light switch — it’s more like a series of thresholds. Sometimes subtle, sometimes soul-quaking....

Presence, Vision, and the Quiet Pivot After the Storm When Oliver messaged me after his first heat at the Longboard Surfing World...