Stay Awhile with Us
It’s been a busy few weeks at HERD HQ! There’s something about Spring that always sends me into overdrive: new connections, new student cohorts, new programing, new learning, new growth. I love the sensation of forward movement at the start of the year and seeing what I’ve imagined come to life. It appears that I’m not alone in this pattern as we enter into Spring conference season. I was thrilled to have been invited to the Living with Horses conference at Eastern Kentucky University to deliver a keynote to the most inter-disciplinary audience of psychologists, anthropologists, ethologists, and zoologists convening to place equine welfare at the center of human-equine interactions. I also just returned from New Mexico for the Society for Humanistic Psychology conference. It was the first in-person conference since 2019, as our 2020 event was cancelled due to the pandemic. This gathering has always been one of the highlights on my annual conference rounds and this one did not disappoint.
Arriving at the conference in Albuquerque, I was overwhelmed with emotion at seeing the familiar faces of many friends and colleagues. Each greeting, each embrace, and each warm smile offered and received felt like a soothing balm to my soul. I felt myself sinking into the collective exhale, a deep release from the years of yearning to be together again. In that process, I recognized that this was the community from which The HERD Institute came into being, with the support, love, and mentorship of so many, and through whose values I had found alignment with to spur me onto create a similar community. Humanistic values of authentic relational process as a vehicle towards fostering a sense of collective purpose and belonging run deep in my veins. I exhaled with each joyful embrace into a feeling of coming home to a place I feel seen and loved.
I am energized, revitalized, and inspired by these interactions. In thinking about our own in-person conference in September, I feel even more committed to creating a space where we can share our knowledge, skills, and wisdom, connect with one another on a deeper level, and find a place to stay awhile. Sharing Space with The HERD Conference is NOW OPEN FOR REGISTRATION for HERD Members only on a pre-sale discounted rate. We will have limited spaces for this conference so we wanted to prioritize our community members before opening for general admission. Come and join us as we gather in community to deepen relationships within our HERD.
Veronica
Executive Director
