Horse-assisted coaching for high-masking neurodivergent adults, in The Hague and Leiden. For those who functioned well for years and are now paying the bill. The horse sees the difference between what you show and what your body does. We work with that difference.
You compensated for years. Lists, strategies, a social script. Anything to keep up in a world that wasn't designed for your brain. And it worked. Until it stopped working.
Burnout, a diagnosis, dropping out. Or no diagnosis yet, but the sense that something isn't right. That you're always tired. That contact costs energy instead of giving it. That your body has long been sending signals you learned to ignore.
At a força I offer horse-assisted coaching for neurodivergent adults. Specifically for people who managed on their own for a long time and are paying a price for it.
Neurodivergence is not a diagnosis. It is an umbrella term for brains that process differently from the majority. It includes:
What connects these groups: a nervous system that responds faster and more intensely to stimuli. And a lifetime of adapting to an environment that doesn't take that into account.
Most coaching and therapy runs on language. You talk about what you feel. But if you're neurodivergent and have masked for years, language is precisely the problem. You have learned to give the right answers. You know exactly what the other person wants to hear. Your brain is lightning-fast at it.
A horse doesn't fall for it.
Horses respond to your nervous system, not to your words. They sense your heart rate, your breathing, your muscle tension. If you say you're fine while your shoulders are up around your ears, the horse walks away. Or it comes closer, precisely because it senses you could use support in letting tension go.
That isn't a trick. Horses are prey animals. They read their surroundings continuously in order to stay safe. The same sensitivity to stimuli that you have as a neurodivergent person, the horse has too. You speak the same language, just not in words.
A large share of my clients discover late that they are neurodivergent. Often after a burnout, after years of compensating, performing and adapting.
The mask worked so well that nobody saw it. Not the GP, not the employer, sometimes not even themselves. But the body kept the account: chronic fatigue, sleep problems, stomach complaints, tension that won't lift.
Horse-assisted coaching for neurodivergence doesn't start with taking that mask off. That would be unsafe. It starts with learning to feel that the mask is there. The horse shows you that, without judgement.
Every programme is tailored. But there are patterns.
We always begin by getting to know the horses. No exercises, no achievements. Simply being. Seeing what happens when nothing is required of you. For many neurodivergent people that alone is confronting: not having to do anything is unfamiliar.
I work from body-based insights into nervous-system regulation and interoception. We follow the science critically — including where it is still developing. That means we don't start with your thoughts, but with your nervous system. Where does your tension sit? How does your body respond to closeness? To space? To silence?
Many neurodivergent people have difficulty with interoception: perceiving signals from their own body. Hunger, tiredness, stress — those signals arrive late or distorted. In the sessions we practise recognising them. The horse helps with this, because it responds to what your body is doing, even when you can't feel it yet.
You'll get somatic exercises to take home. Short, concrete exercises that help you stay in contact with your body. Not homework that adds more pressure, but tools that support your nervous system.
Horse-assisted coaching is not therapy. I am a coach, not a psychologist. For serious symptoms I refer on and coordinate with your practitioner. What I do offer is a complement that works where language falls short: in the body.
This is not horse riding either. You don't need any experience with horses. Everything happens from the ground.
And this is not a quick fix. Undoing years of masking takes time. But the first step is a small one: feeling what is there.
Can't find your question here? Book a free, no-obligation introductory call through my online calendar at the bottom of this page.
No. Many people who come here have no official diagnosis. A suspicion is enough. We don't work from the label, but from what you experience.
Sometimes. But you set the pace. There is no pressure to show anything or to perform. The horse doesn't judge, and neither do I.
We take that seriously. Location, timing and structure are agreed in advance. Many neurodivergent clients actually experience the stable as calmer than expected. There is less social noise and more space.
No. Horse-assisted coaching is coaching. For serious symptoms I refer on and coordinate with your practitioner.
Yes, and that often works well. Many clients do this alongside or after a course of therapy. I'm happy to coordinate with your practitioner if that helps.
Yes — through the Train-the-Trainer programme.
Click the calendar icon to schedule a free, no-obligation introductory conversation with me quickly and easily.
You're welcome to come to the office, or we can meet by phone or video call.