"Interacting with the horses has helped me to be kinder to myself, understand when to trust and how to set boundaries with other people. I know now what positive relationships are all about."

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-Survivor of domestic abuse who attended the Alpha Mare Peer Support group

This online training course is designed to train attendees to provide the Marsh Christian award-winning Alpha Mare Course Course, developed with funding from the mental health charity Mind. It enables you to deliver this step by step women's mental health peer support course to your own clients. 

The Alpha Mare Course is a Peer Support Project with a twist: it is delivered with the help of a horse. The Alpha Mare Course won a Marsh Christian Award for innovative peer supported in 2019. Piloted with funding from Mind, the leading mental health charity in England and Wales, and Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk. As a women’s mental health peer support program, it helped more than 40 women experiencing disadvantage who were frequently under-represented in services to improve their mental health.

This training course is ideal for equine assisted or therapeutic practitioners who work with groups of women who have a mental health issue that leaves them feeling isolated.  It utilises groundwork with  horses to help women reconnect with self, discover  inner strength and gain support from their peers.

What is Peer Support?

Peer support differs from other forms of mental health services in important ways. It happens when people who have similar experiences of something difficult come together to support each other. It is through this development of meaningful, two-way relationships that peer support works. Crucially, the people involved play an active role in creating a safe environment for each other. Peer support can improve emotional health, well-being and sense of belonging. A vital part of peer support is mutual respect; peer support aims to help both those giving and receiving support. Everyone's experiences are treated as equally important, so this gives a different experience to more traditional support options.