⭑Presenter Bio Sarah Schlote⭑
Sarah is a bilingual and neurodivergent Registered Psychotherapist, Canadian Certified Counsellor, and Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner. She offers individual trauma therapy, drawing from multiple approaches, as well as case consultations (for human and equine clients), training, and speaking engagements internationally and online.
Sarah is passionate about helping equine professionals and people involved with equines in various capacities to understand the parallels between human trauma and equine trauma, and how improving equine welfare and equine physical and mental health involves supporting the same pieces in the humans involved.
Early in her career, she noticed that a number of the more recent cutting-edge trauma therapy approaches for humans focusing on the nervous system and attachment evolved out of applied animal ethology and research on the effects of adversity in mammals. However, these same approaches were not typically used in developing frameworks or approaches for the animals themselves where the information and inspiration originated from. Instead, the predominant approach to animals is behaviourism and operant conditioning. While it is essential to refine and increase one's competence in behavioural methods and to use these more skillfully and ethically, there are also many other layers to address that are not commonly considered in a strictly behavioural approach to horses.
She has since made it her mission to champion a greater integration of this area of knowledge and practice to the animals as clients alongside her humans, and the animal-human dyad as a client.
Her biggest contribution to the equine world to date has been EQUUSOMA® Horse-Human Trauma Recovery, a 2-year professional training program officially licensed by Somatic Experiencing® International, looking at trauma in equines, trauma in humans, how these intersect, and ways to support nervous system repatterning and relational repair through the application of the SE™ method to equines and humans.
EQUUSOMA® also includes components of the Polyvagal Theory (affectionately referred to as The Ponyvagal™ theory), attachment theory, attunement practice, calming signals and scentwork (and their equivalents using different terminology within the SE™ model for humans), neurobiology, boundary rupture and repair work, relational rupture and repair work, and additional frameworks, concepts, and practice drawn from a variety of interdisciplinary fields.
She has also collaborated with Dr. Steve Peters and Rachaël Draaisma to offer online and in-person course offerings under the Equuscience™ banner, and has been featured on a number of podcasts, has presented at multiple events, and is a published author.
Because Of The Horse...
I have a greater appreciation for our shared mammalian nature. Trauma can arise in any room or round pen, and it can also be transformed and transcended. It starts with us.
Sarah Schlote’s 2025 Presentations
DAY 1
★ Your Horse's Nervous System: Attuning To The Activation Cycle - Part 1
This presentation (in two parts) introduces a framework for understanding the equine nervous system that goes beyond simply thinking about things in terms of a gas pedal and a brake. You will learn about allostasis, allostatic load, and walk through a map for the nervous system's activation and deactivation cycle or defense cascade that provides a compelling visual for making sense of stimulus stacking (or trigger stacking) in equine and human nervous systems.
★ The Ponyvagal™ Theory: Key Concepts for Horse Owners - Part 1
This presentation (in two parts) provides a brief acknowledgment of some of the challenges associated with the Polyvagal Theory, and focuses more specifically on key concepts from this model that are useful for horse owners in terms of understanding equine and human nervous system states. In particular, the presentation will provide an introduction to the neuroception of safety, danger, and life threat; to how nervous system states affect the information we take in and how we make sense of the world; to the 3 (as opposed to 2) branches of the nervous system proposed by Dr. Stephen Porges and how to make sense of their influence on behaviour..
DAY 2
★ Your Horse's Nervous System: Attuning To The Activation Cycle - Part 2
This presentation (in two parts) introduces a framework for understanding the equine nervous system that goes beyond simply thinking about things in terms of a gas pedal and a brake. You will learn about allostasis, allostatic load, and walk through a map for the nervous system's activation and deactivation cycle or defense cascade that provides a compelling visual for making sense of stimulus stacking (or trigger stacking) in equine and human nervous systems.
★ The Ponyvagal™ Theory: Key Concepts for Horse Owners - Part 2
This presentation (in two parts) provides a brief acknowledgment of some of the challenges associated with the Polyvagal Theory, and focuses more specifically on key concepts from this model that are useful for horse owners in terms of understanding equine and human nervous system states. In particular, the presentation will provide an introduction to the neuroception of safety, danger, and life threat; to how nervous system states affect the information we take in and how we make sense of the world; to the 3 (as opposed to 2) branches of the nervous system proposed by Dr. Stephen Porges and how to make sense of their influence on behaviour.
Where You Can Find Sarah Schlote
