March 22, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Lisa Goodpaster, Rachel Garfield, a therapist specializing in chronic pain and trauma. She discusses the principles of healing, which she calls The Equina Reset method. The method involves reflection, repetition, and release, which are based on the training principles of horseback riding. She highlights the significance of perseverance and having something to live for, which helped her overcome pain and achieve her goals. Rachel Sydney Garfield is both a therapist specializing in pain and trauma as well as a competitive horseback rider with an amazing story of her own. She had a miraculous recovery in the aftermath of her back breaking horse fall in which she broke three vertebrae. She went on to compete as a jumper 18 months later, wrote a book called “Stay the Course” which will hopefully be published soon about the pain management technique she discovered during her recovery process. Her technique is based on the training principles of horseback riding she titled “ The Equina Reset” Rachel has a rich full life and continues to ride, compete and live largely pain free” Follow her at Rachel Sydney equestrian on Instagram and YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The following podcast is part of the Mind Bodyspirit dot
FM podcast network, now streaming on Prime Video. The Kindness
Within a Journey to Freedom is a soul stirring documentary
exploring the universal quest for meaning, healing, and connection. A
sequel to the beloved docuseries The Kindness Diaries on Netflix,
(00:23):
it follows Leon Loga Thetis, known as the Kindness Guy,
as he confronts personal pain and deeper truth and seeks
spiritual awakening. Guided by doctor Gobormate Sodgaru and Mike Dooley,
learn how kindness can heal from within.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hello and welcome to Back in Control Radio with Doctor
David Hanscombe.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Back in
Control Radio with Doctor David Hanscomb. I'm your host, Tom Masters,
and our guest today is Rachel Sidney Garfield. She's both
a therapist specializing in pain and drama as well as
a competitive horseback writer. She had a miraculous recovery following
a fall from her horse in which she broke three
(01:18):
vertebra Her clinical technique, which she calls the Aquina Reset,
is based on the training principles of horseback writing. Rachel
continues to ride, compete, and live a full and largely
pain free life. Her forthcoming book, Stay the Course, describes
the pain management techniques she discovered during her own recovery process.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Welcome, Thank you Tom, I like you. Welcome Rachel Garfield
back to a podcast. We had a wonderful time in
the first session and she has quite a story, so
if you per chance to listen to this podcast, first,
please listen to the first one. She is a therapist
specialized in pain and trap as well as a competitive
horseback rider, with the amazing story of her own shared
(02:04):
maracuscovery in the after methody backbreaking horseball, which she broke
three vertebrae. She went on to compete It's a Jumper
eighteen months later and wrote a book called Stay the Course,
which hopefully will be published as soon about pay management
she discovered in the recovery process. Her technique is based
on the training principles of horseback writing she titled the
Equina Reset Method. She has a rich, full life and
(02:27):
what's fascinating about her first interview is that the way
she healed was remarkable. And I'm going to just give
an overview where we know chronic mental and physical illness
is due to sustainable we call fireflight physiology. Your body
breaks down and things that reverse that. This has been
shown in the laboratory is a is hohope optimism, a
(02:50):
positive outlook in other words, moving forward no matter what,
finding meaning as opposed to giving blame and just connecting
with the life you have right in front of you today.
And so the healing principles are becoming more and more apparent. A.
Rachel's story really typifies what people do to heal. And
I'm always very clear that you know, I have this
process called back and control, the doct journey, et cetera.
(03:13):
But it's not formu like, it's principles. It's the principles
of healing. And everybody does it on their own, which,
by the way, is a major part of healing is
doing it on your own. And so the principle she
practiced in the first podcast to me are somewhat studying.
Also at the end she gave all the factors to
help people heal. So, Rachel, I'd like to appreciate your
(03:34):
story in the first half. Again, we won't go over
that again, but I'd like to jump to today. Is
that you have a technique you discovered through your own
experience with trauma, being the medical system, healing forces, et cetera.
So you have a unique approach. I'm excited about hearing.
So I'm coming to your office today and I'm just
(03:54):
curious how you approach people in the light of your experience,
which is and this new technique.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Okay, well, the technique evolved. I didn't even realize it was,
and then one day I looked back and realized that
it had. And I had noticed that the only time
that I was in captive to the nightmare of that
pain was Dave dreaming about horses. And when I had
connected to my passion and my heart and joy and
(04:24):
basically love and you know, love with myself, love with others,
love with horses, it was really the love that heals.
So when a person comes to me, you know, everyone
has different needs and therapy, so you know, I don't
necessarily do this with everybody. Some people are doing long
(04:47):
term analytic therapy, and it's it's just a little bit
different of an approach. But when someone has something they
want to get over and they come to me because
they hear about my story and what I got over
and how did I do it, then I'm happy to
share with them that it's a little different. But the
first thing that I do with these patients in particular,
(05:10):
is I investigate what their passions are. What are the
things that really make them feel at home inside themselves,
that make them feel that sense of joy, And that's
where we start because I've found that most people have
lost touch with that, so just reconnecting to their own
(05:33):
sense of joy. It really isn't very complicated. It's a technique.
The Aquina reset is basically a three prong technique, and
so sometimes I have people actually do this technique and
they've told me it really works. But basically it's about
totally healing the mind and the body and the spirit
(05:55):
simultaneously using the training principles from dressage. Those principles are rhythm, relaxation, connection, straightness, impulsion,
and collection, and they so remind me of the science
that you talk about, David.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Well, let me stop act this for ship. So have
you explained the audience, including me, what trissage is exactly?
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Know what.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Drissage is the only way I can describe it is
it's like dancing. It's like when people talk about horses
dancing when you see those beautiful horses on TV sometimes
and it looks like they're dancing in the in the
riding arena, it's like ballet on horses. It's like the
horses themselves are dancing. That is trissage.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
And what was the three hours? Again? Just to be
really clear, Okay.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
So the three rs are of my Aquina reset technique.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Are reflection, reflection, okay.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
Repetition, repetition, and release release.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
So again I'm not going to talk about my stuff,
but the principles whoever I talk to, Okay. So the
first thing we talk about is connecting, connecting, connecting, just
being with things instead of fighting. So reflection is the
opposite of fighting things. We call it connection, just connect
with what is The second one is repetition repetition Okay,
(07:24):
we talk about that a lot, about retraining the brain
andtive activities just and the last one is release.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Release the feelings, the thoughts, the pain that will surface
over time. We need to release.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
It, right, which is the opposite of blaming and holding
onto it.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
And so repressed memories, repressed, repressed traumas and memories want
to come up and it's we're forced to face them.
Reflect when they come up, face it and release it.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Right, So let me say it, make one common that
we'll spend time on way you approach it. So I
call it connection, confidence, and creativity. And at the end
of the day I say this over and over again.
People think I'm out of my mind. But the end
of the day, you just sort of give up, say script,
I'm getting off my life. I'm gonna leave this life behind.
Not that it doesn't keep intruding, but the way is
you're released in your past and letting go and moving forward,
(08:20):
and the healing occurson moving forward, And I wrote a
website post called quit fighting darkness, just turn on the
lights and so your brain don't develop where he places attention.
So as you move forward and release, that's where the
healing occurs. And so let's talk about your and then
(08:41):
we say a quina based do you do you bring
the horse metaphorts.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Into your It's not a coin, it's just the it's
the aquina. Reset is like my philosophy. It's like an
overview or a philosophy or a program like.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Okay, let's go through that heal ra So let's talk
about that. Man, it's really remarkably nice, clear, simple. So okay,
I'm your patient and I'm assuming there's a reflection phase
is the first part of it, Yes, what does that
(09:17):
look like?
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Reflection relies on the training principles of rhythm and relaxation,
and it involves the meditative aspects that occur by allowing
thoughts to drift to a higher place. You kind of
go to your happy place and you simply visualize your
goals and dreams. When you let your thoughts peacefully drift
through your mind, it is calming. It reconnects you to yourself,
(09:41):
and we tend to run away from and abandon ourselves,
especially in today's world. We need to reconnect to ourself
and our body. So, at the risk of sounding cliche,
you want to go to your happy place wherever that is.
For me, it's a barn. Everyone has their happy place.
I observed early on that when I would paint immediately
(10:03):
after my accident and I would daydream, my thoughts would drift.
I began to just feel less pain and this longing
in my heart to ride. So I found myself calmly
planning how I would ride. I believe that in this
law of attraction that I was preparing my mind and
body to be able to ride again on some level.
(10:23):
And over time, I just noticed that the pain was dissipating,
that slowly my strength was returning, And it wasn't that
long until I was back in the saddle and I
was cantering those courses that I visualized. So in some ways,
I think I almost manifested it, just lying there, reflecting
and just allowing myself to feel safe in that space
(10:46):
and connecting to myself, because I think I had been
running for myself for a long time and for my
grief and my pain, and the only thing that made
it go away was to finally sit still. My doctor said,
the reason I healed is I was forced to finally
sit still.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yeah, that's finn. I mean, that's fantastic, because the essence
of healing is safety.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Because it happened, I was finally safe, and I saw
that I wasn't alone. I had spent my whole life
feeling alone since I lost my parents and just lost
my home and lost my horse, and I always felt alone.
Even though I had children and I had friends, I
still felt alone and and something about breaking. Everyone loved
(11:26):
me and everyone was there for me, and I saw
that even in the worst case scenario, I was loved
and I was connected, and it would be okay. And
sometimes the worst things actually turned out to be a
true blessing in disguise. And I think for me that
my accident turned out to be the best thing that
ever happened to me.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
That's a big statement, yep, because I mean myers racist.
Once people heal again, nurturing safety is where healing occurs. Again.
Safety your body built up, not a psychological contract, but
your body's physiology build your body and your brain, and
people really do heal. And this is why I quit
my practice, is that the healing of observing it's not
(12:06):
some David Cann's come formula is the body knows how
to heal. If you can find ways to feel safe,
that's all you have to do. The body will take
care of the rest of it. So reflection was the
first part of it. City is still being with the
I call it being with the pain, but that's the
same terminology. And the second R was repetition.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Repetition This is like the iconic ten thousand hours of practice.
This step relies on the training principles also of rhythm
and relaxation as well. Those are the first two principles
of dressage, and this involves any sort of repetitive activity.
Doesn't have to be horseback riding. It can be tapping,
(12:51):
tapping your fingers, brushstrokes of the painting, playing the drums,
padding an animal, brushing an animal, walk king, paddling in
a boat, ballet exercises with horseback riding, it's warming up
through lunging, circling, bending, lengthening, shortening, exercises on the flat.
(13:13):
That's those are things we do repetitively, but it's practice.
It's something that we do over and over and over.
That's the only way we can ever get anywhere. We
can't go forward if we don't consistently do something over
and over again until we get it right. Like there is,
it's the work of it. It's the meat and potatoes.
And sometimes people don't want to do the work. And
(13:35):
I tell people like, if you don't want to do
the work, I'm probably not your therapist. You know I
care and I'm going to put a lot in with you,
but we're going to work. Here. There's work. And when
people just finally let down and go fine, I will
do the work. That's when they heal.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
That's my good fascinated you said, because I used to
say that all the time. If you don't want to
just engage even simple tools, I'm not your surgeon. With repetition,
which again you talk about, the healing occurs with neuroplasticity,
but you have to do repetition of the correct things.
And it was your repeatively talk about your pain, you know, complaining,
et cetera. Your brain develops that direction. So the repetition
(14:20):
of the correct place you want to go is absolutely critical.
I talk about that all the time. Your reprogramming your brain,
your reprogramming your brain to be the person you want
to be, not trying to fix the person that you
don't want to be. Because again, the healing occurs, the
repetition in the direction that you want to go. Again,
we call that deep healing. So again remarkably insightful and insightful.
(14:44):
It's not because you agree with me.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I assure you I didn't mean for it to be no, no, no,
I to get out of pain.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
No, I'm excited, because people do come out of pain.
It's remarkable how the brain changes by this second. And
so for me, it's not because you believe David Hands
goes because we came to the same ideas for our
own really deep experiences that you can keep complaining. You
can't keep hold on your past unless you decide where
you want to go, which takes repetition and commitment. It's
(15:13):
a huge deal, such a really interesting factor. And the
final r was release.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Release relies on my favorite training principle from dressage, and
that's called impulsion. At the end of the day, i
am a jumper, I am a show jumper. I'm an invenor.
I like to go fast. So impulsion is the fourth
training principle and it involves pushing through.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
I'm sorry, what what what was the word again?
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Impulsion horseback riding term. It's the fourth training principle from drisage.
It's called impulsion and it means literally an impetus to act.
It's about we call it in horseback riding a thrust,
a pushing through. It's power. A horse is powered by
(16:03):
their hind end. And let me just explain this a
little more if you want to translate that into healing
for people, It's about unblocking the pain and energy in
your body that got stuck in your in your body
and your heart and heart. You harness this powerful driving force.
(16:25):
We all have a driving force in us. I learned
this early on riding horses. Horses have a driving force.
There's a reason we say horse power. It may be uncomfortable,
it's downright painful, but when our own driving force is stuck,
then we get blocked. So it's necessary in the healing
process as well as in achieving any goal that you contemplate.
(16:47):
While you're methodically repetitively doing an exercise or a repetitive activity,
your feelings are going to be engaged. You are going
to harness your pain and this it's a transfer of
the inner which is actually a principle from physical therapy,
which will move the pain through your body. Impulsion literally
(17:10):
means an impetus to take action. It's about thrust and
driving energy, and it is the key element and healing
and reaching a higher level. So there's sort of a
shift into a higher gear. It's about integration of your feelings,
your thoughts, and it pushes you through and forward. Integrating
the three principles of reflection, repetition, and release will release
(17:34):
this trapped energy in your body that's weighing you down,
holding you back, keeping you stuck, keeping you feeling hopeless.
When you're sick and tired of being sick and tired enough,
then you'll do this work. And it's pain and the
fear and the stress which get released. So ultimately, it's
how I like to think about it. Really is pretty simple.
(17:55):
It's a controlled release of all that is blocking you.
It's really simple. You lie there, you reflect, you face yourself.
It's really painful. You decide you're sick and tired of
being sick and tired. You figure out, you write up
a little plan. I don't care. Take a piece of paper,
one piece of paper, write up your plan. What do
(18:15):
you want to do? You know? Ten steps? That's you know,
the reflection part. The repetition is one day at a time.
You do two little pieces of action a day. That's
all you gotta do. My mother used to tell me,
if you do two pieces of legwork a day, even
if they're little, your life will change. Do two pieces
of leg work a day. That's the repetition. Practice leg work,
(18:38):
one day at a time, do the most you can
with that twenty four hours that you have. And then
as you're doing it, feelings, thoughts, memories, pain, it's going
to come up because you've been blocking it, and as
it comes up, you have to be willing to face
it and just feel it and go through it and
then release it, and then you will go forward. You
(18:58):
won't be stuck in the mud anymore. It's really pretty cool,
really hard, but it's really simple.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Yeah, you know I talked to you before. I didn't
quite understand this until right now. How because the people
that heal say, make commas, this is disturbingly simple, and
is this not your You can dwell in the past,
and again, no plasticity. Brain changes by the second is
a big deal. So if you're repeating unpleasantness, complaining, victim
(19:26):
put et cetera, that's going to be reinforced and people
keep spiraling down. The part about releasing that's so nice
is that once you release, you keep going forward. People
continue to heal indefinitely, and you have to make a
conscious choice to go backwards to which very few people do,
if any. So I just want to do we're running
(19:46):
out of the time here. I just wanted to say
this one more time because I think there's remarkably enlightening
and is completely in principle. Every aspect of which you
just said is completely aligned. You spend hours with you talking.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
About how compare.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
But they're not different. Processes are all the same thing
with different language. So I really really like the way
you've framed us in reflection.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
And then repetition is getting up every day and doing
something for your goal. It's like practice. It's literally think
about it, then practice it every day, one day at
a time, and then over time you get into a
rhythm of it. You know, you just it's like going
to work every day. You do the same thing every day,
one day at a time. Before you know it, you
look back, whoa, look how far I came? And then
(20:31):
feelings come up, you release them, and then that way
you're going forward. But there is something I have got
to say. There's an urgency that this is so important
because this is so simple. See you have you're very
eloquent and you put perfect words to all of this,
and I'm impressed.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Not as I'm not as eloquent as you are. You
so we can talk for hour.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
I hope we do talk for hours one day. But
but but this is really key right here. Most I
wrote this and I think I would really like to
to be able to share this with the world. Okay,
so the difference in my opinion between this Maya Queena
reset and other pain management techniques that I've seen out there,
(21:12):
So really listen to this, David. The primary goal is
not to overcome pain, like I don't care if you
overcome pain, and that sounds really terrible. I do care,
but do you see what I'm saying. My goal is
not that you overcome pain. My goal is that you
go forward and that you achieve your goals and your
dreams and you have the life that you want. Overcoming
(21:35):
pain will be a perk. That's great, You're going to
go whoa, I noticed I'm not in pain anymore, or
a byproduct of living your best life. It's not going
to be your identity to sit around and feel like
you're in a lot of pain, and after a while
it becomes like our identity the goal, it's the goal.
If the end goal is just to overcome pain, how
(21:56):
sad is that? If you ask a five year old
what's your big goal in life? I would hope it
would not be overcome pain. It's to do things and
to live and be out there. And what happens is
when we do all that, we overcome pain. It's a perk.
So making overcoming pain the reason for our actions in life,
it just reinforces the pain we're thinking about pain. So
(22:19):
having something to live for is what pulled me out
of the rut created by my pain, my grief, my loss.
And while recovering, my sole focus was riding horses again,
just smelling horses, smelling hay, brushing a horse, then riding.
I had a yearning and that yearning was the most
important aspect of my technique. It is the basis of
(22:41):
my technique is yearning. And in competitive riding we always
have to have a goal or a course to memorize.
So it helped. It kept me going forward and pulled
me out of the pain. And so I discovered this
solution basically based on that. I didn't even realize it
at the time, but it's about replace seeing the pain
(23:01):
with something bigger and better.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
This is remarkable. I wish I didn't comprehend this before today.
I mean, this is really so on with the healing principles.
I can't even tell you so my gosh.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Well, I hope we talk again to we're out of time.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
We'll talk off lines of interesting comparing notes, but the
bottom line is through your own really tough experience. Why
you discovered the basic principles of healing? Do you want
to say one thing by that? Doctor Bernie Siegel pointed
out he runs He's a famous doctor who runs an
Exceptional Cancer Survivors for and he and I are good friends.
(23:37):
And I finally got this out of him last week
about what causes people to heal, because I thought it
was like some spontaneous remission or some characteristics. He was
a little bit late in night, a little bit he's
ninety two, in a little bit ground. She said, Look,
this is not spontaneous remission. This is self induced healing.
And the bottom line is she lived, he says, He said,
what happens people are so busy living the life that
they want that they forget to die. So its out
(23:59):
to be the same principles that people have to heal.
You so busy living the life that you want that
you literally push pain out of the way and move forward.
And so really, Rachel, remarkable platform insights, simplicity. I'm super
excited about this. And so the quick question, I know
you're in North Carolina. Are you seeing patients online or
(24:22):
is it mostly locally or how.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Do you I see them I do a lot of telehealth.
I do have I do actually have a little office
in Apex. I sometimes work in or I do occasionally
do a little bit of therapy in home. I have
an in home office, but mostly at these days it's
been telehealth.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
And can you cross state lines or no?
Speaker 5 (24:45):
No?
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Cannot already got it? So in North Carolina you're able
to see patients there?
Speaker 5 (24:50):
And how do you trying to cross those state lines
at this point?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Right? And how do you actually how do you access
your services?
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Uh? Well, you if you look up Rachel Sidney Garfield
or Rachel Garfield, it's pretty easy to find me on
my website Rachel Sidney Garfield dot com. But I I
have limited availability at this moment. I imagine deep long
term work. So I am working pretty hard on getting
(25:20):
my book out there called Stay the Course that's been
taking up a lot of time, and also UH riding
training that I'm working with.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
So Rachel, we got to run. But I'm super excited
about this interview and I'm excited to your insights and
I think it's going to help a lot of people.
So thank you very ver.
Speaker 5 (25:38):
I hope that people will follow me on Instagram too,
because I put videos up and I talked about some
of this. It's Rachel Sidney Equestrian.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Thank you very much, Thank you, David.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I'd like to thank our guest Rachel Garfield for being
on the show today and explaining the principles of the
Aquita Reset technique that she uses to help her clients
heal from chronic pain. I'm your host, Tom Masters, reminding
you to be back next week for another episode of
Back in Control Radio with doctor David Hanscombe. In the meantime,
be sure to visit the website at www dot backincontrol
(26:16):
dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Thanks for listening today and join us next week for
Back in Control Radium.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
I'm Suzanne Geeseman, and if you've ever wondered about life
after death or if it's possible to connect with higher consciousness,
I invite you to join me for my podcast, The
Awakened Way. It's my mission to share with you that
our loved ones who have passed are always with us
and we are so very loved. I want to teach
you how to live a consciously connected and divinely guided life.
(27:03):
Listen here on the Mind Bodyspirit dot FM podcast network
The following podcast is part of the Mind Bodyspirit dot
FM podcast network, now streaming on Prime Video. The Kindness
Within a Journey to Freedom is a soul stirring documentary
exploring the universal quest for meaning, healing, and connection. A
sequel to the beloved docuseries The Kindness Diaries on Netflix,
(00:23):
it follows Leon Loga Thetis, known as the Kindness Guy,
as he confronts personal pain and deeper truth and seeks
spiritual awakening. Guided by doctor Gobormate Sodgaru and Mike Dooley,
learn how kindness can heal from within.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hello and welcome to Back in Control Radio with Doctor
David Hanscombe.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Back in
Control Radio with Doctor David Hanscomb. I'm your host, Tom Masters,
and our guest today is Rachel Sidney Garfield. She's both
a therapist specializing in pain and drama as well as
a competitive horseback writer. She had a miraculous recovery following
a fall from her horse in which she broke three
(01:18):
vertebra Her clinical technique, which she calls the Aquina Reset,
is based on the training principles of horseback writing. Rachel
continues to ride, compete, and live a full and largely
pain free life. Her forthcoming book, Stay the Course, describes
the pain management techniques she discovered during her own recovery process.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Welcome, Thank you Tom, I like you. Welcome Rachel Garfield
back to a podcast. We had a wonderful time in
the first session and she has quite a story, so
if you per chance to listen to this podcast, first,
please listen to the first one. She is a therapist
specialized in pain and trap as well as a competitive
horseback rider, with the amazing story of her own shared
(02:04):
maracuscovery in the after methody backbreaking horseball, which she broke
three vertebrae. She went on to compete It's a Jumper
eighteen months later and wrote a book called Stay the Course,
which hopefully will be published as soon about pay management
she discovered in the recovery process. Her technique is based
on the training principles of horseback writing she titled the
Equina Reset Method. She has a rich, full life and
(02:27):
what's fascinating about her first interview is that the way
she healed was remarkable. And I'm going to just give
an overview where we know chronic mental and physical illness
is due to sustainable we call fireflight physiology. Your body
breaks down and things that reverse that. This has been
shown in the laboratory is a is hohope optimism, a
(02:50):
positive outlook in other words, moving forward no matter what,
finding meaning as opposed to giving blame and just connecting
with the life you have right in front of you today.
And so the healing principles are becoming more and more apparent. A.
Rachel's story really typifies what people do to heal. And
I'm always very clear that you know, I have this
process called back and control, the doct journey, et cetera.
(03:13):
But it's not formu like, it's principles. It's the principles
of healing. And everybody does it on their own, which,
by the way, is a major part of healing is
doing it on your own. And so the principle she
practiced in the first podcast to me are somewhat studying.
Also at the end she gave all the factors to
help people heal. So, Rachel, I'd like to appreciate your
(03:34):
story in the first half. Again, we won't go over
that again, but I'd like to jump to today. Is
that you have a technique you discovered through your own
experience with trauma, being the medical system, healing forces, et cetera.
So you have a unique approach. I'm excited about hearing.
So I'm coming to your office today and I'm just
(03:54):
curious how you approach people in the light of your experience,
which is and this new technique.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Okay, well, the technique evolved. I didn't even realize it was,
and then one day I looked back and realized that
it had. And I had noticed that the only time
that I was in captive to the nightmare of that
pain was Dave dreaming about horses. And when I had
connected to my passion and my heart and joy and
(04:24):
basically love and you know, love with myself, love with others,
love with horses, it was really the love that heals.
So when a person comes to me, you know, everyone
has different needs and therapy, so you know, I don't
necessarily do this with everybody. Some people are doing long
(04:47):
term analytic therapy, and it's it's just a little bit
different of an approach. But when someone has something they
want to get over and they come to me because
they hear about my story and what I got over
and how did I do it, then I'm happy to
share with them that it's a little different. But the
first thing that I do with these patients in particular,
(05:10):
is I investigate what their passions are. What are the
things that really make them feel at home inside themselves,
that make them feel that sense of joy, And that's
where we start because I've found that most people have
lost touch with that, so just reconnecting to their own
(05:33):
sense of joy. It really isn't very complicated. It's a technique.
The Aquina reset is basically a three prong technique, and
so sometimes I have people actually do this technique and
they've told me it really works. But basically it's about
totally healing the mind and the body and the spirit
(05:55):
simultaneously using the training principles from dressage. Those principles are rhythm, relaxation, connection, straightness, impulsion,
and collection, and they so remind me of the science
that you talk about, David.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Well, let me stop act this for ship. So have
you explained the audience, including me, what trissage is exactly?
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Know what.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Drissage is the only way I can describe it is
it's like dancing. It's like when people talk about horses
dancing when you see those beautiful horses on TV sometimes
and it looks like they're dancing in the in the
riding arena, it's like ballet on horses. It's like the
horses themselves are dancing. That is trissage.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
And what was the three hours? Again? Just to be
really clear, Okay.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
So the three rs are of my Aquina reset technique.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Are reflection, reflection, okay.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
Repetition, repetition, and release release.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
So again I'm not going to talk about my stuff,
but the principles whoever I talk to, Okay. So the
first thing we talk about is connecting, connecting, connecting, just
being with things instead of fighting. So reflection is the
opposite of fighting things. We call it connection, just connect
with what is The second one is repetition repetition Okay,
(07:24):
we talk about that a lot, about retraining the brain
andtive activities just and the last one is release.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Release the feelings, the thoughts, the pain that will surface
over time. We need to release.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
It, right, which is the opposite of blaming and holding
onto it.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
And so repressed memories, repressed, repressed traumas and memories want
to come up and it's we're forced to face them.
Reflect when they come up, face it and release it.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Right, So let me say it, make one common that
we'll spend time on way you approach it. So I
call it connection, confidence, and creativity. And at the end
of the day I say this over and over again.
People think I'm out of my mind. But the end
of the day, you just sort of give up, say script,
I'm getting off my life. I'm gonna leave this life behind.
Not that it doesn't keep intruding, but the way is
you're released in your past and letting go and moving forward,
(08:20):
and the healing occurson moving forward, And I wrote a
website post called quit fighting darkness, just turn on the
lights and so your brain don't develop where he places attention.
So as you move forward and release, that's where the
healing occurs. And so let's talk about your and then
(08:41):
we say a quina based do you do you bring
the horse metaphorts.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Into your It's not a coin, it's just the it's
the aquina. Reset is like my philosophy. It's like an
overview or a philosophy or a program like.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Okay, let's go through that heal ra So let's talk
about that. Man, it's really remarkably nice, clear, simple. So okay,
I'm your patient and I'm assuming there's a reflection phase
is the first part of it, Yes, what does that
(09:17):
look like?
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Reflection relies on the training principles of rhythm and relaxation,
and it involves the meditative aspects that occur by allowing
thoughts to drift to a higher place. You kind of
go to your happy place and you simply visualize your
goals and dreams. When you let your thoughts peacefully drift
through your mind, it is calming. It reconnects you to yourself,
(09:41):
and we tend to run away from and abandon ourselves,
especially in today's world. We need to reconnect to ourself
and our body. So, at the risk of sounding cliche,
you want to go to your happy place wherever that is.
For me, it's a barn. Everyone has their happy place.
I observed early on that when I would paint immediately
(10:03):
after my accident and I would daydream, my thoughts would drift.
I began to just feel less pain and this longing
in my heart to ride. So I found myself calmly
planning how I would ride. I believe that in this
law of attraction that I was preparing my mind and
body to be able to ride again on some level.
(10:23):
And over time, I just noticed that the pain was dissipating,
that slowly my strength was returning, And it wasn't that
long until I was back in the saddle and I
was cantering those courses that I visualized. So in some ways,
I think I almost manifested it, just lying there, reflecting
and just allowing myself to feel safe in that space
(10:46):
and connecting to myself, because I think I had been
running for myself for a long time and for my
grief and my pain, and the only thing that made
it go away was to finally sit still. My doctor said,
the reason I healed is I was forced to finally
sit still.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yeah, that's finn. I mean, that's fantastic, because the essence
of healing is safety.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Because it happened, I was finally safe, and I saw
that I wasn't alone. I had spent my whole life
feeling alone since I lost my parents and just lost
my home and lost my horse, and I always felt alone.
Even though I had children and I had friends, I
still felt alone and and something about breaking. Everyone loved
(11:26):
me and everyone was there for me, and I saw
that even in the worst case scenario, I was loved
and I was connected, and it would be okay. And
sometimes the worst things actually turned out to be a
true blessing in disguise. And I think for me that
my accident turned out to be the best thing that
ever happened to me.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
That's a big statement, yep, because I mean myers racist.
Once people heal again, nurturing safety is where healing occurs. Again.
Safety your body built up, not a psychological contract, but
your body's physiology build your body and your brain, and
people really do heal. And this is why I quit
my practice, is that the healing of observing it's not
(12:06):
some David Cann's come formula is the body knows how
to heal. If you can find ways to feel safe,
that's all you have to do. The body will take
care of the rest of it. So reflection was the
first part of it. City is still being with the
I call it being with the pain, but that's the
same terminology. And the second R was repetition.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Repetition This is like the iconic ten thousand hours of practice.
This step relies on the training principles also of rhythm
and relaxation as well. Those are the first two principles
of dressage, and this involves any sort of repetitive activity.
Doesn't have to be horseback riding. It can be tapping,
(12:51):
tapping your fingers, brushstrokes of the painting, playing the drums,
padding an animal, brushing an animal, walk king, paddling in
a boat, ballet exercises with horseback riding, it's warming up
through lunging, circling, bending, lengthening, shortening, exercises on the flat.
(13:13):
That's those are things we do repetitively, but it's practice.
It's something that we do over and over and over.
That's the only way we can ever get anywhere. We
can't go forward if we don't consistently do something over
and over again until we get it right. Like there is,
it's the work of it. It's the meat and potatoes.
And sometimes people don't want to do the work. And
(13:35):
I tell people like, if you don't want to do
the work, I'm probably not your therapist. You know I
care and I'm going to put a lot in with you,
but we're going to work. Here. There's work. And when
people just finally let down and go fine, I will
do the work. That's when they heal.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
That's my good fascinated you said, because I used to
say that all the time. If you don't want to
just engage even simple tools, I'm not your surgeon. With repetition,
which again you talk about, the healing occurs with neuroplasticity,
but you have to do repetition of the correct things.
And it was your repeatively talk about your pain, you know, complaining,
et cetera. Your brain develops that direction. So the repetition
(14:20):
of the correct place you want to go is absolutely critical.
I talk about that all the time. Your reprogramming your brain,
your reprogramming your brain to be the person you want
to be, not trying to fix the person that you
don't want to be. Because again, the healing occurs, the
repetition in the direction that you want to go. Again,
we call that deep healing. So again remarkably insightful and insightful.
(14:44):
It's not because you agree with me.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I assure you I didn't mean for it to be no, no, no,
I to get out of pain.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
No, I'm excited, because people do come out of pain.
It's remarkable how the brain changes by this second. And
so for me, it's not because you believe David Hands
goes because we came to the same ideas for our
own really deep experiences that you can keep complaining. You
can't keep hold on your past unless you decide where
you want to go, which takes repetition and commitment. It's
(15:13):
a huge deal, such a really interesting factor. And the
final r was release.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Release relies on my favorite training principle from dressage, and
that's called impulsion. At the end of the day, i
am a jumper, I am a show jumper. I'm an invenor.
I like to go fast. So impulsion is the fourth
training principle and it involves pushing through.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
I'm sorry, what what what was the word again?
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Impulsion horseback riding term. It's the fourth training principle from drisage.
It's called impulsion and it means literally an impetus to act.
It's about we call it in horseback riding a thrust,
a pushing through. It's power. A horse is powered by
(16:03):
their hind end. And let me just explain this a
little more if you want to translate that into healing
for people, It's about unblocking the pain and energy in
your body that got stuck in your in your body
and your heart and heart. You harness this powerful driving force.
(16:25):
We all have a driving force in us. I learned
this early on riding horses. Horses have a driving force.
There's a reason we say horse power. It may be uncomfortable,
it's downright painful, but when our own driving force is stuck,
then we get blocked. So it's necessary in the healing
process as well as in achieving any goal that you contemplate.
(16:47):
While you're methodically repetitively doing an exercise or a repetitive activity,
your feelings are going to be engaged. You are going
to harness your pain and this it's a transfer of
the inner which is actually a principle from physical therapy,
which will move the pain through your body. Impulsion literally
(17:10):
means an impetus to take action. It's about thrust and
driving energy, and it is the key element and healing
and reaching a higher level. So there's sort of a
shift into a higher gear. It's about integration of your feelings,
your thoughts, and it pushes you through and forward. Integrating
the three principles of reflection, repetition, and release will release
(17:34):
this trapped energy in your body that's weighing you down,
holding you back, keeping you stuck, keeping you feeling hopeless.
When you're sick and tired of being sick and tired enough,
then you'll do this work. And it's pain and the
fear and the stress which get released. So ultimately, it's
how I like to think about it. Really is pretty simple.
(17:55):
It's a controlled release of all that is blocking you.
It's really simple. You lie there, you reflect, you face yourself.
It's really painful. You decide you're sick and tired of
being sick and tired. You figure out, you write up
a little plan. I don't care. Take a piece of paper,
one piece of paper, write up your plan. What do
(18:15):
you want to do? You know? Ten steps? That's you know,
the reflection part. The repetition is one day at a time.
You do two little pieces of action a day. That's
all you gotta do. My mother used to tell me,
if you do two pieces of legwork a day, even
if they're little, your life will change. Do two pieces
of leg work a day. That's the repetition. Practice leg work,
(18:38):
one day at a time, do the most you can
with that twenty four hours that you have. And then
as you're doing it, feelings, thoughts, memories, pain, it's going
to come up because you've been blocking it, and as
it comes up, you have to be willing to face
it and just feel it and go through it and
then release it, and then you will go forward. You
(18:58):
won't be stuck in the mud anymore. It's really pretty cool,
really hard, but it's really simple.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Yeah, you know I talked to you before. I didn't
quite understand this until right now. How because the people
that heal say, make commas, this is disturbingly simple, and
is this not your You can dwell in the past,
and again, no plasticity. Brain changes by the second is
a big deal. So if you're repeating unpleasantness, complaining, victim
(19:26):
put et cetera, that's going to be reinforced and people
keep spiraling down. The part about releasing that's so nice
is that once you release, you keep going forward. People
continue to heal indefinitely, and you have to make a
conscious choice to go backwards to which very few people do,
if any. So I just want to do we're running
(19:46):
out of the time here. I just wanted to say
this one more time because I think there's remarkably enlightening
and is completely in principle. Every aspect of which you
just said is completely aligned. You spend hours with you talking.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
About how compare.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
But they're not different. Processes are all the same thing
with different language. So I really really like the way
you've framed us in reflection.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
And then repetition is getting up every day and doing
something for your goal. It's like practice. It's literally think
about it, then practice it every day, one day at
a time, and then over time you get into a
rhythm of it. You know, you just it's like going
to work every day. You do the same thing every day,
one day at a time. Before you know it, you
look back, whoa, look how far I came? And then
(20:31):
feelings come up, you release them, and then that way
you're going forward. But there is something I have got
to say. There's an urgency that this is so important
because this is so simple. See you have you're very
eloquent and you put perfect words to all of this,
and I'm impressed.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Not as I'm not as eloquent as you are. You
so we can talk for hour.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
I hope we do talk for hours one day. But
but but this is really key right here. Most I
wrote this and I think I would really like to
to be able to share this with the world. Okay,
so the difference in my opinion between this Maya Queena
reset and other pain management techniques that I've seen out there,
(21:12):
So really listen to this, David. The primary goal is
not to overcome pain, like I don't care if you
overcome pain, and that sounds really terrible. I do care,
but do you see what I'm saying. My goal is
not that you overcome pain. My goal is that you
go forward and that you achieve your goals and your
dreams and you have the life that you want. Overcoming
(21:35):
pain will be a perk. That's great, You're going to
go whoa, I noticed I'm not in pain anymore, or
a byproduct of living your best life. It's not going
to be your identity to sit around and feel like
you're in a lot of pain, and after a while
it becomes like our identity the goal, it's the goal.
If the end goal is just to overcome pain, how
(21:56):
sad is that? If you ask a five year old
what's your big goal in life? I would hope it
would not be overcome pain. It's to do things and
to live and be out there. And what happens is
when we do all that, we overcome pain. It's a perk.
So making overcoming pain the reason for our actions in life,
it just reinforces the pain we're thinking about pain. So
(22:19):
having something to live for is what pulled me out
of the rut created by my pain, my grief, my loss.
And while recovering, my sole focus was riding horses again,
just smelling horses, smelling hay, brushing a horse, then riding.
I had a yearning and that yearning was the most
important aspect of my technique. It is the basis of
(22:41):
my technique is yearning. And in competitive riding we always
have to have a goal or a course to memorize.
So it helped. It kept me going forward and pulled
me out of the pain. And so I discovered this
solution basically based on that. I didn't even realize it
at the time, but it's about replace seeing the pain
(23:01):
with something bigger and better.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
This is remarkable. I wish I didn't comprehend this before today.
I mean, this is really so on with the healing principles.
I can't even tell you so my gosh.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Well, I hope we talk again to we're out of time.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
We'll talk off lines of interesting comparing notes, but the
bottom line is through your own really tough experience. Why
you discovered the basic principles of healing? Do you want
to say one thing by that? Doctor Bernie Siegel pointed
out he runs He's a famous doctor who runs an
Exceptional Cancer Survivors for and he and I are good friends.
(23:37):
And I finally got this out of him last week
about what causes people to heal, because I thought it
was like some spontaneous remission or some characteristics. He was
a little bit late in night, a little bit he's
ninety two, in a little bit ground. She said, Look,
this is not spontaneous remission. This is self induced healing.
And the bottom line is she lived, he says, He said,
what happens people are so busy living the life that
they want that they forget to die. So its out
(23:59):
to be the same principles that people have to heal.
You so busy living the life that you want that
you literally push pain out of the way and move forward.
And so really, Rachel, remarkable platform insights, simplicity. I'm super
excited about this. And so the quick question, I know
you're in North Carolina. Are you seeing patients online or
(24:22):
is it mostly locally or how.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Do you I see them I do a lot of telehealth.
I do have I do actually have a little office
in Apex. I sometimes work in or I do occasionally
do a little bit of therapy in home. I have
an in home office, but mostly at these days it's
been telehealth.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
And can you cross state lines or no?
Speaker 5 (24:45):
No?
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Cannot already got it? So in North Carolina you're able
to see patients there?
Speaker 5 (24:50):
And how do you trying to cross those state lines
at this point?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Right? And how do you actually how do you access
your services?
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Uh? Well, you if you look up Rachel Sidney Garfield
or Rachel Garfield, it's pretty easy to find me on
my website Rachel Sidney Garfield dot com. But I I
have limited availability at this moment. I imagine deep long
term work. So I am working pretty hard on getting
(25:20):
my book out there called Stay the Course that's been
taking up a lot of time, and also UH riding
training that I'm working with.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
So Rachel, we got to run. But I'm super excited
about this interview and I'm excited to your insights and
I think it's going to help a lot of people.
So thank you very ver.
Speaker 5 (25:38):
I hope that people will follow me on Instagram too,
because I put videos up and I talked about some
of this. It's Rachel Sidney Equestrian.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Thank you very much, Thank you, David.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I'd like to thank our guest Rachel Garfield for being
on the show today and explaining the principles of the
Aquita Reset technique that she uses to help her clients
heal from chronic pain. I'm your host, Tom Masters, reminding
you to be back next week for another episode of
Back in Control Radio with doctor David Hanscombe. In the meantime,
be sure to visit the website at www dot backincontrol
(26:16):
dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Thanks for listening today and join us next week for
Back in Control Radium.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
I'm Suzanne Geeseman, and if you've ever wondered about life
after death or if it's possible to connect with higher consciousness,
I invite you to join me for my podcast, The
Awakened Way. It's my mission to share with you that
our loved ones who have passed are always with us
and we are so very loved. I want to teach
you how to live a consciously connected and divinely guided life.
(27:03):
Listen here on the Mind Bodyspirit dot FM podcast network
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