Τhe birth of Hippolysis is lost in time. It started with grandfather’s stories of love for the horses and his respect towards them for their sensitivity and understanding. It was born through personal contact with them and long-standing experience and communication. Through years of medical studies, psychiatry, research on what makes as sick and how we manage to fill our lives and souls with misery.
Hippolysis was born after observation and realization of the beneficial effect that horses have on humans, an insight that was confirmed by therapists -“horse people” in the USA. Their 35 years long research has clearly shown the psychotherapeutic effect of the horse and the method has emerged as an internationally acclaimed method of psychotherapy (counting 600 certified centers worldwide).
Horses have not been confined to therapy. They proved to be –through research- mighty guides of learning and development for humans. Recently, horses have emerged in the business world, as they have become teachers of co-operation and leadership for business teams, sales teachers, and teachers of crisis management and alternative solutions finding.
The time came, in 2009, that Hippolysis (the Eagala center of Greece) was founded. With years of experience and education, ready to provide Greece the gift of the horses. Hippolysis was fortunate enough to be loved and embraced by beautiful people, that spent endless hours under the sun and the rain, gained the experience and the training and travelled abroad in order to earn the diplomas required in order to work as volunteers and give her life.
The four-legged therapists, our horses, are with as for many years (with some we are together for 20 years). Through the difficulties that they passed in their lives in the past, they became wiser and they were trained in order to be therapists and teachers. Each one having its own personality and approach, they never cease to amaze as with their depth of therapeutic effectiveness.
Dr. Niki Markogianni (Founder of Hippolysis)
Νeurologist-psychiatrist with 35 years experience in the field of psychotherapy and 45 actively occupied with horses. International EAGALA mentor.