By Ewen McRae
A horse walks into a tax office. It might be the start of a joke, but for Deb Pace it’s no laughing matter.
Ms Pace took her horse into Tax Solutions in Bakery Square last week to promote better workplace mental health.
Ms Pace runs Pacing Dynamics, and is about to start workshops on the Equine Effect, which works on long established research on animal therapy’s help with mental wellbeing.
“The government has just released a paper on mental health in the workplace, and this is about highlighting that locally,” Ms Pace said.
“We run a program on mental health and positive culture in the workplace environment, and that helps everyone.
“So we’re spreading awareness on equine assisted growth and learning, which is another form of animal therapy, and we’re spreading the word around Melton because even though we are based here there’s not much knowledge of what we do in the local community.”
Ms Pace said working with horses to improve mental wellbeing had several positive benefits.
“While mental health is important for the big companies, it’s also important for the smaller businesses,” she said.
“Equine therapy is a pretty unique experience, because the horses are so intuitive.
“There’s lots of evidence around now that being emotionally strong gets you a lot further in the workplace, so investing in yourself is really important.”
