Find Your Place
In The Herd
Supporting better mental health, education and growth
through horse-human connections
About Hope Meadows CIC
Hope Meadows is a not-for-profit organisation, based in Lincoln, founded and led by chartered Counselling Psychologist Dr Emily Walters. As a CIC established in 2020, our core focus is to make Equine Assisted Psychotherapy more accessible for adults and children who are struggling with their mental health.
We promote accessibility for our Lincolnshire community by keeping our therapy fees as low as possible, being located near to public transport, and reducing the use of waiting lists. For the wider community, we promote access by providing training and CPD for fellow professionals.
We're proudly supported by funders such as the National Lottery, Children in Need, and Lincolnshire's Mental Health and Wellbeing Community Investment Fund.
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
Hope Meadows is primarily a counselling and psychotherapy service offering Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. This is a highly specialist form of therapy that incorporates a herd of horses into the therapeutic process, and it's designed for people who need something a little different to traditional talking therapies.
We work with adults and children, and most forms of mental health difficulties. Whether it's your first time coming to therapy, or you have a mental health team supporting you already, we'll welcome you for an initial assessment to see how we can help. You do not need a referral, diagnosis, or previous horse experience to access us.
If you're struggling with your mental health, you need proper support. Our therapy team are all HCPC/BACP registered, receive regular clinical supervision, and are fully insured. We are psychology-led, which means the care of all our clients is overseen by Counselling Psychologist Dr Emily Walters.
Alongside our psychotherapy service, we run a specialist Alternative Provision with packages for children and young people who aren't accessing school full time. Our AP is led by Beth Fuller (counsellor & QTS) who designs our curriculum to be bespoke for young people with complex mental health needs that impact their relationship to learning. It is small, psychology-led, relational, and unique for each child and their specific difficult education experiences.
To support our non-profit work, we have a smaller offer for professionals seeking clinical/non-clinical supervision, CPD/training, or leadership development. Our relational approach guides all that we do, and we are keen to share this with other professionals to widen our impact.
Impact Report 2025: 4,156 sessions delivered for adults & children. 45% of these were free or low cost (£30 or less).
"Since attending Hope Meadows, she has thrived. She has grown in confidence... she is happy, she comes home with a smile on her face"
Get Support
For adults and young people finding life hard, our qualified psychotherapists offer Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. We work with a wide range of mental health difficulties such as anxiety, stress, depression, eating disorders, and relationship challenges. No diagnosis needed.
Our Alternative Provision offers therapeutic education for children and young people who are struggling with full time mainstream education. We offer a place where young people can settle, feel safe, and engage with equine-assisted learning at their own pace.
As a CIC we can access funding to keep costs as low as possible and run free/low cost projects for those most in need. Over the past 5 years, we have secured £132,660 of funding. In addition, each of our qualified therapists has a few discounted spaces available. Spaces are always available with our therapists in training.
Train & Develop
We offer long-term placements in our Equine Assisted Psychotherapy service for trainee counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychologists. These are usually for those who are studying at postgraduate level.
We also offer short-term placements in our Alternative Provision for university students studying psychology or education looking to get real-world experience of therapeutic settings.
Let us help you to help others. We're passionate about growing the field of equine assisted practice and that means investing in training the people who deliver it. We aim to offer training for those taking their first steps into equine assisted work through to those deepening an existing practice. Our training has equine welfare and relational theory at the heart, and draws on our lived experience of working in this industry.
Supervision and reflective spaces are an invaluable resource if you're holding complex dynamics, whether that's clinically, in a classroom, or in equine assisted services more widely. We have a range of professionals who can offer you space to process, learn, and develop your practice.