How Equine Therapy and Nature-Based Healing Can Transform Your Life – An Interview with Ioana Marcus

Dr. Ioana Marcus started her curiosity about the human body and mind in Romania where she attended medical school. When she moved to the United States, she continued refining her passion and academic/professional interests by pursuing counseling as a career. As an immigrant, she always supported the unconventional and the underdog, as well as exploring the least familiar paths for healing.

Ioana B Marcus, Psychotherapist & Founder, Equibliss Psychotherapy

Who is Ioana Marcus?

Dr. Ioana Marcus is a psychotherapist, counselor educator, and equine facilitated psychotherapist. She founded Equibliss in 2013 with the vision of creating a community focused on healing in nature and with animals. She envisioned integrating experiential Gestalt therapy and clinical supervision with the horses and dogs. She was a full-time professor at Marymount University and continues teaching graduate-level courses in clinical mental health, including trauma and social justice issues in counseling. Out of commitment to social justice and equitable access to equine therapy and eco-therapy, she founded HEART (Human Equine Attachment and Relational Therapy) Space Fund for immigrants, refugees, and foster care families.

What personal or professional turning point led you to do the work you do today?

After attending medical school in Romania and moving to the United States in search of a medical career in a completely new world, I found psychotherapy as my guiding path to serving others. Every turn I took, whether completing my master's degree or my PhD, confirmed that I was on the right path. My passion has continued to grow ever since, and deepens with my compassionate and experiential understanding of the human psyche when impacted by mental health challenges such as trauma, mood disorders, eating disorders, and beyond. The other significant turning points have consisted of listening to my intuition and inviting animals into my clinical work with clients, specifically horses and my dogs. This journey has also added a rich experiential and relational dimension to my work with my clients. I am a perpetual learner with an incessant curiosity and a thirst for a deeper understanding of what makes humans heal, resilient, and ultimately grow and thrive.

Who are the people you feel most called to support, and what are they struggling with when they come to you?

My clients are usually people who have struggled with traditional therapeutic approaches. They have needed to reset their nervous system in nature and by being around animals. My approach is experiential, compassionate, genuine, sometimes playful, and embodied. I work with clients facing trauma, eating disorders, anxiety, depression, or the complexity of medical trauma or chronic illness. Like my clients, I have also mentored, trained, and supervised students, residents, and professionals who find that traditional therapy may miss key pieces, including somatic, experiential, and relational perspectives on growth.

How would you explain your work and approach in a way that feels human, not clinical or complicated?

I get to know my clients with an authentic and compassionate curiosity for their experience and journey through their upbringing, culture, and also experiences with oppression or discrimination.

What makes your approach to psychotherapy and healing different from more traditional methods?

I value connecting authentically with my clients, and by integrating my dogs and horses into therapy, I am able to delve into what makes them feel truly seen while modeling a secure and embodied attachment with the animals and me. We learn from the animals the value of connection, respect for boundaries, subtle embodied ways of building trust and growth in relationships. We also learn from nature and in collaboration with one another, taking it one step at a time.

What patterns or blocks do you see most often in clients before real change begins?

I see their suffering and survival patterns that prevent authenticity or presence. I see their reluctance to give up emotional, cognitive, and behavioral patterns. I love the moment when the shift happens, and a client releases control and opens to the mystery of life.

How do you help clients move from feeling stuck or overwhelmed to feeling grounded and empowered?

I am present with them in their embodied experience. I encourage them to slow down and notice how their patterns of survival have impacted them and how to return to their own wisdom. We learn from nature and the animals we work with. They are always embodied, present, and don't have an agenda/ expectations. We then notice and integrate the connection, lessons, and choices/ freedom.

What role do the body, nervous system, and emotional safety play in the healing process you guide?

The body and our nervous system are the most integral parts of our emotional healing. We've been taught, traditionally, to focus on cognition, our minds, emotions, behaviors, and ourselves, but reality is that we are relational beings. Our nervous systems co-regulate with other beings, so our healing process starts with the nervous system, with our bodies feeling safe, our minds starting to listen to our bodies, and being supported in relationships that are healthy, grounding, and nurturing.

What kind of transformation do clients commonly experience after working with you?

Oftentimes, clients share a sense of being seen and understood at a deeper, intuitive level. They share a sense of calm, safety, support, and embodiment as they start being more aware of their old patterns, experience more support and freedom to explore new pathways to grow and thrive.

How do Equibliss and your wider initiatives support healing beyond one-to-one therapy?

My goal is for the clients to integrate this work, identify their relational and innate resources, and be able to rely on them in their lives, whether in healthy relationships, nature, animals, spirituality, or most of all, their embodied selves. Oftentimes, clients continue their journeys with animals and in nature. Other times, they find ways of serving and empowering others in their lives.

And when it comes to the numerous equine facilitated groups and eco-therapy groups we have hosted (e.g., women’s, breast cancer patients, trauma therapists, foster care families, immigrant youth), I hope to plant seeds of connection, community, and hope that will ripple way beyond the actual event.

What would you say to someone who feels they need support but is unsure where to start?

Reach out and start by asking questions, see if this or another type of therapy/ therapist is a good fit.

If a reader resonates with your message, what is the best next step to begin working with you?

Clients and therapists can reach out through my websites here and here.

Follow me on Facebook for more info!

Read more from Ioana B Marcus