Naomi is a registered psychologist, who has further study in and experience working in natural disaster recovery, trauma focused therapy, child and family development and natural horsemanship. Naomi has worked in educational institutions, local government, clinical mental health services, not-for-profit organisations and private practice. Naomi began working with horses as an adjunct animal assisted therapy for people in 2009 following the black Saturday bushfires, in Victoria, Australia. The weekend the bushfires started, Naomi completed training working with horses in therapy. On the Monday, Naomi worked in recovery centres and as part of the disaster recovery effort, she was contracted to write and facilitate a trauma sensitive experiential horse therapy program for those affected by Black Saturday bushfires. Naomi has a keen interest in ongoing research and support for mental health practitioners wanting to incorporate equine assisted therapy into clinical practise. Naomi is a co-founder of the Equine Assisted Psychologists Association with an aim to continue the research and development of evidenced-based equine assisted therapy practices. Day to day, Naomi runs Harnessing Wellness Psychology, a private psychology practice; is mum to two beautiful human boys. They live with their two dogs, six fi sh and three equines: Trigger, Bob and Happy. And she is a surrogate to Bailey the next door neighbour's pony who climbs through the fence each morning to play with the herd.
