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The simplest way to explain a session: You do something. The horse responds. You adjust. The horse responds differently. That cycle is what most people spend months working toward in talk therapy alone. We work on it in the session itself. Immediate, honest feedback in a safe environment. That's what gives the nervous system something real to work with. Curious whether it could be right for someone you care about? www.berkmanacademy.com.au

The space matters. Not because it's scenic (though it is), but because it removes the furniture that usually sits between you and the real work. No desk. No clock. No chairs facing each other. Just the paddock and whatever you came in with. 📍 Berkman Academy | 271 Bayswater Rd, Bayswater North VIC

Equine assisted therapy is not riding horses. It's not animal therapy. You don't need to love horses. It's counselling, outdoors, with horses as a clinical asset. ACT and CBT frameworks. ACA accredited. For a lot of people, it's the way in when nothing else has fit. Questions welcome. www.berkmanacademy.com.au

A mum brought her teenage son in last year. He'd already seen two psychologists and wasn't going back. She wasn't sure this would work either. She just wanted to try something different. First session: he barely spoke. Nobody required him to. By the third session he was asking when the next one was. That's usually the goal for session one. Not a breakthrough. Just making them want to come back. If your young person has pushed back on every other option, that's not a failure.

A corporate group arrived recently and spent a few minutes at the fence, watching the horses and trying to figure them out. The horses were doing exactly the same thing back. The difference was the horses weren't pretending they weren't. That's usually the moment something shifts. When you realise the feedback is real, honest, and has no interest in your job title. 📍 Berkman Academy | Bayswater North VIC

If your child is NDIS plan-managed or self-managed, sessions at Berkman Academy may be covered under Improved Daily Living (line item 15_043_0128_1_3). 50 minutes. Ground-based. No riding. Bayswater North. We work with kids and teens with anxiety, ADHD, autism, and emotional regulation challenges, particularly those who haven't connected well with indoor talk therapy. Not sure whether it fits your child's plan, or just your child? Reach out. Happy to talk it through before yo

A lot of people ask: do you have to like horses? You don't. Most people walk in a bit nervous. Some are already convinced it won't work for them. The horse doesn't need you to love it. It just needs honesty, and that's usually exactly where the work begins. Ground-based sessions, no riding. NDIS supported. Bayswater North.

A young person walked in with their shoulders up and eyes down. The horse stepped back. Honest, quiet, immediate. "He doesn't like me." We spent 30 minutes actually working on that. Not talking about it. Working on it. By the end of the session, the horse was following them around the paddock. The shift didn't come from a conversation. It came from living it in real time. If your young person hasn't connected with indoor therapy, this might be worth a conversation. www.berkma

When was the last time your teen opened up about their struggles? Teens, especially those with ADHD, don’t always want to sit down and talk about their struggles. It's awkward. Their body language shifts. They clam up and wiggle in their seat. So we don't ask. We move them around, take them outside, introducing them to a horse. We relax, calm, and focus on our breathing. We embody safety, trust and space. We don't push for results, vulnerability or outcomes. Instead, we use m

We have two therapists on the team who don't charge. They work for some food. They eat weeds and they're very pleased with themselves. The goats are usually the first stop at Berkman Academy. Kids who won't talk, nervous, never been near a farm, they all end up smiling within 15 seconds. That matters. Because what happens after the goats is often something much bigger. Safety, confidence, self- awareness, self-regulation and much more. But it all starts with getting our nervo

Every therapy session ends in "didn't engage"? That's not the child failing. That's the format failing the child. Some kids can't sit in a chair across from a stranger and perform wellness. They can't make eye contact on demand. They can't find the words when someone's waiting for them. Put them next to a horse and something different happens. No social rules to get wrong. No right answer to give. No therapist face to read for cues. Just an animal that responds honestly to wh

"They're very shy. Might not participate at all." Their mum wasn't sure either of them would go near the horse. By the end, both of them were smiling, touching Dexter and loving it. We started with the goats. Feeding them with a branch, then from their hands. One of the brothers took the lead straight away. Then we walked over to Dexter. They were hesitant. We all slowed down, look first, then maybe move closer, then maybe touch. By the end, one of them introduced himself to

A nonverbal young person wouldn't get out of the car. He moved his hands a lot, unsettled in the back seat. This was clearly out of his comfort zone. Out of his normal routine. His support team and I set up chairs. We put his favorite snack on one of them. I washed Dexter with a sponge near the fence so he could hear the water. He went quiet. He watched. He smiled. He never got out of the car. He never touched the horse. By most measures, nothing happened. His support team co

Most support coordinators have been saying no to equine therapy requests for over a year. They thought it wasn't funded anymore and they're right. But Equine Assisted Therapy, delivered by a qualified counsellor, is still funded. The distinction is real, and most coordinators don't know about it. Got a participant who loved horses? You can say yes! Got a participant who is nonverbal? You can say yes! Got a participant who hates sitting in a room? You can say yes! We bill unde

They're mothers every single day. Doing chores, running errands, taking care of, being a nurse, a wife, an event planner and much more. They often talk about it. In sessions, on the phone, with friends over coffee. And that helps. But something different happens when they come here. When they step into the arena and stand next to a horse. They don't have to talk about it. They don't need to explain themselves. They don't have to "hold it together". They're not anyone's mum, a

Equine-assisted therapy (EAT) is often misunderstood. It ’s sometimes dismissed as “less evidence-based” than traditional talk therapies. In reality, EAT draws directly from the same foundations as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT). At Berkman Academy, horses provide a living, responsive environment where clients don’t just talk about change, they practice it. Why It Matters Traditional talk therapy focuses on discussion and reflect

If you’re parenting a child with ADHD, your kid probably sat through therapy sessions that expected them to: Sit still. Answer questions. Talk about feelings and throughts. For many teens, this is the opposite of what they need or want. Instead of building skills in a inquisitive, playful and instinctive way, they come away feeling frustrated and misunderstood. They shut down, looking at the floor and fidgeting their fingers. So we flip the approach. Instead of “sit down,”

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