The Board
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Jenny and Paul Foltz (shown here with TSD King Peppy)
Are Breaking Free equine specialists. Both are EAGALA certified horse handlers. Jenny Foltz is "The Saddle Doctor," and The Saddle Doctor business, which has been part of the valley since 1996, houses Breaking Free. The Saddle Doctor is located in Timberville, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. |
Monica Johns
Is a certified EAGALA mental health specialist, has an extensive background working with children, teens, and families. She is a Parenting Coordinator Specialist working with high-conflict separating and divorcing families. She is also a Qualified Parent Educator and teaches a court ordered class for parents who are negotiating custody, visitation, and child support. |
Patricia (Trish) Gomez Lynch, LCSW
Is a clinical social worker with Humana/Valor Military Services in Harrisonburg, VA. She provides individual, group and family mental health services as well as medical case management to veterans of all ages. She has facilitated grief support groups, provided direct care to residents of supported living programs, provided case management services to adults with mental illnesses, and worked with geriatric patients. |
Joseph G. Lynch, LCSW, CSOTP
Is the Breaking Free board president, an educator and clinician with a private practice in Harrisonburg, VA. He has served on numerous community, state and national boards, and has chaired the board for First Step, Citizens Against Sexual Assault, the Human Rights Committee for Harrisonburg-Rockingham Community Services Board, and the Virginia Board of Social Work-the Licensing Board for the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a clinician he has specialized in working with sex offenders, and was the co-founder of the Shenandoah Valley Sex Offender Treatment Program for Adolescents and Adults. |
Spence White
Was born in Clarksburg, WV., and enlisted in the Marine corps after graduating high school in 1968. He served with the Combined Action Group (CAG) in Vietnam. Following this duty, he served with ECHO 2/7 in the I Corps area of South Vietnam, including the A Shau Valley and Que Son areas west of Quang Tri, Danang, and Hue. He served in a Marine Corps reserve unit and graduated Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio with a degree in Managerial Economics. He has been actively involved with Veteran Groups in Martinsburg, WV., and the VFW Post 9660, Chimney Rock near Broadway, VA. Working through the Rockingham County Extension Office, he became a Master Gardener, and work as a volunteer teaching various aspects of gardening to students in the Rockingham County School System and assists with other MG projects. He enjoys herb gardening, forest agriculture, time spent in the woods, target shooting, animals, politics and reading. He lives with his wife in the Singers Glen area and has 3 grown children and 5 grandchildren. |
Barbara Wolfe
Is a lifelong resident of the Shenandoah Valley. She is currently employed as Office Manager at Johnson Associates in New Market, VA. Her love of horses began at an early age and she says that being around horses has given her great joy and also great exercise! She teaches "Horse Crazy" with Jenny Foltz. |
Shelley Aley
Is an associate professor in the School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication at James Madison University. She teaches courses in composition and rhetoric and writing about science and technology. Her research interests include animal communication and the use of horses in equine assisted psychotherapy. She is an avid horse lover who lives in the Broadway, Virginia area on a little farm she calls Sunny Hill, after her 36-year-old horse, the late Sunny, pictured above. She has horses, dogs, cats, goats, chickens and two long-horned steers, named Bo and Crockett. |
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Breaking Free staff members are certified through the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA), a national and internationally populated organization that has been promoting horse-based healing since 1999. EAGALA was founded as a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization developed to address the need for resources, education and professionalism in the fields of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Learning. The association sets the standard for professional excellence in how horses and humans work together to improve the quality of life and mental health of individuals, families and groups worldwide. EAGALA now has more than 3,500 members in 38 countries and continues to grow. For a look at how EAGALA works, please visit this UTube video at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7E2E181689D2B749.
EAGALA certified members commit to standards of practice and ethics, which include a minimum requirement of
experience and education for the facilitating team. The Equine Specialist must have at least 6,000 hours of hands-on work with horses, along with over 100 hours of continuing education, and the Equine Specialist must be certified through EAGALA. The Mental Health Professional must follow regional laws for mental health practice, have education in the mental health scope, and be licensed, registered, supervised or certified (depending on country) by a governing body.
EAGALA certified members commit to standards of practice and ethics, which include a minimum requirement of
experience and education for the facilitating team. The Equine Specialist must have at least 6,000 hours of hands-on work with horses, along with over 100 hours of continuing education, and the Equine Specialist must be certified through EAGALA. The Mental Health Professional must follow regional laws for mental health practice, have education in the mental health scope, and be licensed, registered, supervised or certified (depending on country) by a governing body.