Medicine Horse Program Staff

Kathy Johnson, M.Ed - Executive Director
Kathy is a long-time trainer and riding instructor in Colorado and former President of the Foothills Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Dressage Society. Kathy is a graduate of the University of Michigan honor's English program and is a Hopwood award winning writer. She has a master's degree in education from University of Houston where she taught rhetoric and composition while doing doctoral work. She taught at the Briarwood School in Houston, a non-profit school for children with learning disabilities, where she was junior class team leader. She was also a member of the experiential learning team and the discipline committee. Kathy has written articles published in national magazines including "The English Journal," "The Equestrian Journal," "The Chronicle of the Horse," "The Centaur" and "USDF Dressage Connections."

Tony Johnson - Marketing Director
Photographer, web designer and marketing professional, Tony has had a wide range of experience including magazine, fashion and sports photography, was a marketing manager for Americana Sportswear, web designer and programmer for Centrix Financial and led the web design team for Worldcom's Advanced Technology Group. Tony came to Colorado with e-commerce software startup, Novazen, Inc. where he served as Web Services Manager. Tony designed our web site, does most of our photography and our marketing collaterals.

Chris Johnson - Barn Manager

Rudolfo Arellante - Barn Manager

 

MHP Clinical Supervisor

Wendy Conquest, MA, LPC, CSAT, Certified Integrative Body Psychotherapist, EMDR I & II
Wendy comes to Medicine Horse after being the director for Access Counseling Longmont and while currently being the Director for Women's Programs at Colorado Sexual Recovery Center. She has extensive experience working with a variety of issues including sexual abuse, addiction, trauma, divorce, co-parenting, blended families, and infidelity. Wendy has been supervising interns and Colorado professional counselor candidates for over seven years from graduate schools throughout the West. Her equine experience incorporates individual horses and horses in herds to facilitate body-based and emotional reactions. Clients learn unconscious patterns of how they behave and relate to themselves and other human beings through this unique and dynamic counseling.

 

MHP Clinical Staff

Kris Abrams, Clinical Therapist
Kris loves life and sees it as a series of adventures. From backpacking in the mountains to work and service to others, from relationships to spiritual discovery, each adventure is an opportunity to grow, connect, and honor life. Yet, in the midst of living, we create pain and suffering for ourselves and for others. Observing this, Kris has sought to learn how change happens from many angles. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy of Science from Brown University, then her Master's in Social and Economic History from Oxford University in England. Kris then worked for more than ten years in various non-profit organizations committed to creating a better world. She is currently pursuing her Master's in Counseling Psychology from Prescott College, with a focus on wilderness therapy and Ecopsychology.

Kris' approach to psychotherapy is characterized by holism and empowerment. She believes that health arises from a balanced integration of emotional, physical, cognitive, social, environmental, and spiritual well-being. She also believes that each one of us has the inner wisdom to guide our own healing - but sometimes we have difficulty listening to our truest self. Kris therefore works with clients to discover in which areas they need to grow, and to listen to their own wisdom. She employs a combination of experiential, nature-based, cognitive-behavioral, and transpersonal modalities to support people on their unique paths to wholeness.

 

Heidi Zeller, MA Clinical Therapist
"Since graduating with a Master's Degree from the University of Denver's Counseling Psychology Program in 2009, Heidi has been in private practice working with individuals experiencing grief/loss, mood disorders, interpersonal challenges, and PTSD stemming from childhood trauma. She is an EMDR provider, trained and registered with the EMDR Institute. Heidi has a deep appreciation for the healing power of the human-animal bond.

Since 2010, she and her black lab, Guinness, have been a registered Pet Partner team with the Delta Society, providing end-of-life care in the form of animal-assisted therapy for hospice patients and bereavement care for their loved ones. A former yoga instructor, she sheds light on the mind-body-spirit connection and its importance in the overall health of each individual. Heidi's definition of good mental health incorporates a practice of staying mindful in all life experiences, a deep understanding of ourselves in relation to the self and others, and a detachment from dysfunctional core beliefs, deeply rooted in our past. She enjoys assisting each client through their own unique process of self-discovery, empowerment, and healing.