Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ Chaplaincy Training

You were called to this work long before you had a name for it.

An Invitation to Pioneer

There are moments in the development of any field when something genuinely new emerges — not a variation on what already exists, but a wholly original model of care that opens doors previously unimagined. Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ is one of those moments. And this training is your invitation to be part of it.

Developed by Dr. Rachel Mikaelsen — Army Veteran, doctoral-level chaplain, PATH ESMHL-certified equine specialist, and the founder of Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ — this course offers the only training in the world that prepares practitioners to deliver this groundbreaking model of psychospiritual healing. You will not simply learn techniques. You will be formed as a practitioner — shaped by the same clinical rigor, spiritual depth, and hard-won wisdom that gave birth to this work.

What Is This Training?

The Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ Chaplaincy Training is a comprehensive, professionally structured program that prepares chaplains, spiritual care providers, and allied helping professionals to competently and ethically deliver Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ in individual and group settings.

This is not a wellness certificate or an introductory workshop. This is a serious, substantive professional training designed for those who are called to work at the intersection of clinical chaplaincy, equine-assisted services, trauma-informed care, and nature-based spiritual healing — and who want to do that work with excellence, integrity, and a strong evidence-informed foundation.

Upon completion, graduates will be equipped to offer EFSC sessions that integrate:

• Clinical chaplaincy and pastoral care

• Equine-assisted learning within equine-assisted services

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy frameworks

• Structured moral injury curriculums

• Trauma-informed spiritual care

• Nature-based and holistic healing practices

• Sacred ritual and interfaith spiritual care

• Sound healing and somatic approaches

• Safe, ethical, and professional equine facilitation

Who This Training Is For

This course is designed for those who feel called to something more — more depth, more innovation, more integration of the sacred and the clinical, more capacity to reach people whose wounds have resisted every conventional approach.

You may be a good fit for this training if you are:

• A board-certified or clinically trained chaplain seeking to expand your scope of practice into equine-assisted and nature-based spiritual care

• A spiritual care provider, pastoral counselor, or minister with clinical training who is drawn to embodied, experiential models of healing

• A mental health professional with a strong spiritual care background looking to integrate equine-assisted approaches

• A PATH ESMHL-certified equine specialist seeking to deepen the spiritual and chaplaincy dimensions of your practice

• A Veteran, first responder, or healthcare professional with chaplaincy training who wants to serve others carrying moral injury, trauma, and spiritual wounds

• Someone who has experienced the healing power of horses firsthand and feels called to bring that experience to others through a clinically and spiritually grounded professional framework

Prior experience with horses is valuable but not required. A genuine calling to this work, a commitment to ongoing professional growth, and a deep respect for the people and animals you will serve are essential.

What You Will Learn

This training is organized around five core domains of formation — the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that define an Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ practitioner:

Domain 1: Foundations of Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™

• The history, philosophy, and development of EFSC as a model of care

• The theological and spiritual framework underlying EFSC

• The role of the equine chaplain, equine professional, and horse as co-facilitators of healing

• Ethics, scope of practice, and professional boundaries in EFSC

• How EFSC differs from and integrates with equine-assisted therapy, equine-assisted learning, and conventional chaplaincy

Domain 2: Clinical Foundations

• Principles and practice of clinical chaplaincy in trauma-informed settings

• Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and its application in spiritual care contexts

• Understanding moral injury — definition, etiology, assessment, and evidence-based approaches to treatment

• Structured moral injury curriculums and how to adapt them for EFSC settings

• Trauma-informed care principles and their application in equine-facilitated contexts

• Recognizing and responding to spiritual crisis, existential distress, and religious trauma

Domain 3: Equine-Assisted Learning & Equine Facilitation

• Foundations of equine-assisted learning within equine-assisted services

• Horse behavior, herd dynamics, and equine communication

• Reading and responding to equine cues in a therapeutic and spiritual care context

• Ground-based equine activities for spiritual care — design, facilitation, and processing

• Safety protocols, risk management, and ethical standards in equine-facilitated sessions

• The horse as co-facilitator — understanding and working with equine wisdom in the healing encounter

• Introduction to PATH ESMHL standards and how they apply to EFSC practice

Domain 4: Spiritual Care Modalities

• Interfaith spiritual care — theory and practice across diverse traditions and non-religious frameworks

• Sacred ritual in EFSC — design, facilitation, and cultural responsiveness

• Nature-based spiritual care and ecotherapy — research foundations and practical application

• Sound healing — principles, tools, and integration into EFSC sessions

• Somatic and energetic healing approaches within a spiritual care framework

• Holistic and organic care modalities — grounding, breathwork, and embodied spiritual practice

• Designing and facilitating individual and group EFSC sessions

Domain 5: Professional Formation & Reflective Practice

• The spirituality of the practitioner — self-care, ongoing formation, and the prevention of compassion fatigue

• Reflective practice and clinical supervision in EFSC

• Building and sustaining an EFSC practice — ethical, legal, and operational considerations

• Documentation, assessment, and outcomes measurement in spiritual care settings

• Advocacy, education, and the expansion of EFSC in institutional and community settings

• Your unique call — integrating your own spiritual journey, wounds, and wisdom into your practice with integrity and appropriate boundaries

The Training Experience

The Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ Chaplaincy Training is offered in an immersive, multi-modal format that reflects the very values it teaches — embodied, relational, experiential, and whole-person centered.

Training components include:

• Didactic Instruction — Live and recorded sessions covering the theoretical, clinical, and spiritual foundations of EFSC

• Experiential Learning — Hands-on time with horses in carefully facilitated EFSC experiences that allow trainees to receive the care before they learn to deliver it

• Supervised Practice — Observed and supervised EFSC session facilitation with structured feedback and clinical reflection

• Case Study & Clinical Reflection — Small group exploration of real-world EFSC scenarios, ethical dilemmas, and complex care situations

• Personal Formation Work — Guided reflection on your own spiritual journey, wounds, and call to this work — because you cannot accompany others to places you have not been willing to visit yourself

• Mentorship — Direct access to Dr. Mikaelsen and senior EFSC practitioners throughout your training

Upon Completion

Graduates of the Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ Chaplaincy Training will receive:

• Certificate of Completion in Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ Chaplaincy

• Authorization to offer and market EFSC sessions under the EFSC™ trademark framework

• Membership in the growing national community of EFSC-trained practitioners

• Access to ongoing continuing education, supervision, and professional development within the EFSC community

• Listing in the EFSC practitioner directory

Note: Graduates are encouraged to pursue or maintain PATH ESMHL certification and relevant chaplaincy credentials to ensure the highest standard of professional practice.

A Word from Dr. Mikaelsen

"I did not set out to found a new model of care. I set out to find something that could reach the wounds that everything else had missed — in myself, and in the people I served. What I found, in a mountain meadow in Colorado, in the presence of a cantankerous rescued horse named Shiloh, was that the most sophisticated healing technology in the world might just be a living being who meets you without judgment and stays when you cry.

I built Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ because the people who need it most — Veterans, survivors of abuse, those carrying moral injury and religious trauma and the weight of a fractured conscience — deserve practitioners who are trained to meet them with both clinical excellence and genuine spiritual depth.

If you are reading this, I suspect you already know you are called to this work. This training is how you learn to answer that call with everything it deserves.

I cannot wait to meet you — and to introduce you to the horses."

— Dr. Rachel Mikaelsen, Founder & Developer, Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™

Prerequisites

Applicants to the EFSC Chaplaincy Training are required to have:

• A graduate-level degree in theology, divinity, pastoral care, counseling, or a related field — or equivalent clinical and spiritual care experience

• Active engagement in a recognized chaplaincy or spiritual care role, or demonstrated commitment to entering such a role

• A personal statement describing your call to this work, your spiritual journey, and your experience with or interest in equine-assisted approaches

• Two professional references from supervisors, mentors, or colleagues in a clinical, pastoral, or equine-assisted services context

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Cohort sizes are intentionally small to preserve the relational depth and quality of formation this training requires.

Ready to Answer the Call?

Apply today and take the first step toward becoming one of the world's first trained Equine-Facilitated Spiritual Care™ Chaplains.

The horses are waiting. So is the work. So are the people who need exactly what you have been called to offer.