Workshop with horses for SEPs
Equine Workshop: Refining Somatic Skills for SEPs In-person at Masia Les Feixes, Granollers de Rocacorba, Girona
March 18-21, 2027
Marta Cirera Baqués, SEP
Workshop description
As SEPs, we know that our presence is essential to create a container that enables change and transformation. But — do you know how present you really are? How do you respond to your clients’ nervous system changes? Do you offer calm and connection? Do you disconnect with certain types of activation? Do you merge with dissociated clients? Do you struggle with your clients’ fear or anger? Do you know your own pattern under pressure? How do you look?
Details
Instructor: Marta Cirera
Date: March 18-21, 2027
Schedule: from 10:00 to 17:30h
Format: In-person
Location: Masia Les Feixes, Granollers de Rocacorba, Girona
(40 minutes by car from Girona. Nearest airports: Girona–Costa Brava or Barcelona. Private transport required. Google Maps
Language: English with Spanish translation
Requirements: SEP or completion of the first year of training
Prices:
- Standard price: €695
- EASE (or other European SE associations) members: €625.50
Prices include coffee and tea.
Accommodation and lunch: For lunch and local lodging options, please contact Marta directly
Email: marta@martacirera.com | Telephone & WhatsApp: 00 34 629848735
Workshop Program
The course works from the SE perspective in the following areas:
- Initial orientation.
- The horse. Its nervous system. What safety is for a horse.
- Bases of horse-assisted somatic therapy: a conversation between nervous systems.
- Meeting the herd. Body scan. Presence and perception.
- Working with intention
- Building relationships: who am I in the therapeutic relationship
- Different types of paralysis and how to move out of them
- Boundaries and space: repairing personal space
- Offering safety and leadership to our clients
- The use of gaze as a therapeutic tool
Ongoing individual and group practice: adapting to diverse nervous systems
Personal Objectives
You will have the opportunity to see yourself through new eyes — those of the horse, and through the reflection of an experienced Somatic Experiencing® professional.
You will come to know a deeper part of yourself — your behavioral pattern under stress, your ability to move and to relate.
Your capacity to adapt to new situations.
You will be able to work through your own blocks or dissociation, or simply enjoy relating with the horse through your nervous system and body language.
You will experience and consolidate your learning through direct experience.
Professional Objectives
The workshop aims to:
- Understand the impact of different nervous system states on another nervous system
- Explore how to interact from silence
- Work with the therapeutic use and impact of gaze
- Recognize relational dynamics that arise from survival patterns
- Strengthen awareness of personal space and boundaries
- Improve attention to subtle details
- Train the eye in tracking
- Expand therapeutic possibilities: observing clients in relation to a horse provides rich information about the person’s nervous system and allows for deep somatic training
Why work with horses?
Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory speaks of neuroception — the neural evaluation of safety or threat that triggers changes in the autonomic nervous system beyond conscious awareness.
Neuroception operates outside of will. We are constantly scanning for safety or danger.
Interaction with horses brings this process to light. Every unconscious change within us provokes an involuntary response in the horse. We may not be aware of what’s happening, but the horse will show it through its behavior.
For SEPs, observing the horse’s nervous system provides invaluable information about the state of the client’s nervous system.
Relating to a large animal — for many, unfamiliar — provides a framework of novelty and respect where our usual cognitive tools (such as words) are of little use, revealing our nervous system’s capacity to adapt, be present, or disconnect.
We can quickly observe how we behave under stress, pressure, or connection — and especially in relationship, a key element in our therapeutic work and personal lives.
Our patterns surface rapidly, allowing us to modify, repair, or strengthen them as we choose. The horse — a non-predatory animal — lives attuned to its environment; its survival depends on distinguishing coherence, presence, and trustworthiness.
Every subtle or significant change in our nervous system produces a corresponding behavioral change in the horse. This offers continuous, real-time feedback, enabling us to practice and embody the changes we seek.
Working individually within the group will be deeply enriching, as the Somatic Experiencing® perspective offers a unique lens on each process.
SEP Assistants will be present throughout the four days to ensure a safe environment and offer optional support sessions.
Each participant will have a direct, personal experience of relating to the horse through the Somatic Experiencing® approach.
Instructor: Marta Cirera Baqués, SEP
Marta Cirera is the founder of Somatiche, at Les Feixes, a retreat space surrounded by nature in Granollers de Rocacorba (Catalonia). For more than a decade, she has been accompanying deep healing processes by integrating body, emotion, presence, and relationship with horses.
Trained in Somatic Experiencing® with Peter Levine and his team, Marta has pursued an extensive and ongoing career in the fields of trauma, attachment, nervous system regulation, family constellations, Brainspotting, somatic sexuality, and more. She also trained internationally in Equine Facilitated Learning and Coaching (Arizona and Colorado, 2011), and is among the pioneers who introduced this approach to Europe from a respectful, body-centered perspective.
She actively collaborates with Somatic Experiencing Spain and is a leader in integrating the somatic model with conscious interaction with horses, building a bridge between neurobiology, presence, and instinctive wisdom.