The Origin
Tressa Beaulieu is a Métis woman with Indigenous heritage originating from Treaty 3 lands; home to the Saulteaux band of the Ojibwa people. In 2016, she completed a Bachelor of Sciences degree with a major in Human Nutritional Sciences and a minor in Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba. Following her degree, she completed a dietetic internship with the Manitoba Dietetic Education Program and now holds the title of Registered Dietitian (RD) here in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As an avid equestrian for the past 20 years, Tressa sought to combine her passions of nutrition, traditional land-based teachings and horses. The end result is a unique, culturally sensitive, and empowering program she calls ‘Fuel Your Spirit’.
Program Description
'Fuel Your Spirit’ is an Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) program centered on traditional Indigenous teachings. EAL is an emerging framework utilizing horses as teachers for the development of everyday life skills such as communication, leadership, self-worth, trust and relationship building (Dell et al., 2011). It includes specially-designed, non-riding learning exercises facilitated by an equine specialist. The horse’s non-verbal cues are observed by the equine specialist and translated to the participants to help guide them to a desired learning objective. The horse is seen as the teacher and embodies a holistic approach to learning and healing (Adams et al., 2015). Frederick, Hatz and Lanning (2015) found a positive impact on the lives of at-risk adolescents, with increased levels of hope and decreased levels of depression after a 5-week intervention of EAL.
The Fuel Your Spirit program is being offered to groups of Indigenous women or youth ages 9 and up. It includes six 2-hour sessions held on a weekly basis in a safe, non-judgmental and inclusive environment. Over the course of this six week program, components of overall health and wellness will be incorporated as represented in the medicine wheel (i.e., mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual). In combination to working with horses, the program will incorporate traditional teachings, sharing circles, smudging, preparation of traditional foods and a variety of land-based activities.
The Fuel Your Spirit program is being offered to groups of Indigenous women or youth ages 9 and up. It includes six 2-hour sessions held on a weekly basis in a safe, non-judgmental and inclusive environment. Over the course of this six week program, components of overall health and wellness will be incorporated as represented in the medicine wheel (i.e., mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual). In combination to working with horses, the program will incorporate traditional teachings, sharing circles, smudging, preparation of traditional foods and a variety of land-based activities.
