Podcast Summary: The Journey On Podcast – Warwick Schiller with Cara Giroux

Date: January 9, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of The Journey On Podcast features Cara Giroux, a somatic psychotherapist, transformational couples coach, and founder of Equine Somatic Pathways. Cara shares her deeply personal story of overcoming complex childhood trauma, her philosophy on somatic healing (for both humans and horses), and the interplay between relational patterns, nervous system regulation, and authentic connection. The conversation explores how trauma shapes our personal and relational dynamics, how horses mirror and support human healing, and how Cara’s integrative methods facilitate transformation for individuals, couples, and families. The tone is both candid and compassionate—anchored by Warwick’s curiosity and Cara’s vulnerability.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Cara's Work & Modalities

• Current Roles: Somatic psychotherapist focused on mind-body connection, couples intensives, and equine-assisted development.

• Somatic Psychotherapy Explained:

  • “Somatic psychotherapy is body-led psychotherapy... It’s the idea that before we make narrative, cognitive sense of any of the experiences in our life, we have a body-lived experience, a mammalian survival response to that.” (Cara, 03:31)
  • Healing requires addressing embodied patterns (breath, posture, gesture), not just cognitive narrative.

• Transformational Couples Coaching:

  • Moved from emotionally focused therapy to two-day intensive couples experiences—destinational retreats combining relational life therapy, ritual, and somatic work.
  • “It’s a really deep dive and intensive and beautiful in that people really come out seeing themselves in a different way and are generally able to connect quite differently.” (Cara, 05:00)
  • Warwick and his wife participated: “Oh, it wasn’t a—you didn’t take sides. And not only did you not take sides, nobody was wrong... It was like, what juvenile, what young part of you did that? ... It wasn’t what I was expecting. I wanted someone to take my side.” (Warwick, 08:10)

• Equine Somatic Pathways:

  • Integrates somatic psychology, animal tracking, and developmental gesture work with horses.
  • Emphasis on the horse’s agency, not using the horse as a tool.
  • Tracks how preverbal, embodied gestures (pushing, yielding, grasping) reveal our early relational patterns and become visible in groundwork with horses.
  • Noted phenomenon: people often unconsciously move away when asking a horse to back up, showing inhibited “push” from early life.
    • “When you go to embody that gesture, there’s going to be a mammalian response ... So we want to slow that down, bring the body into the here and now where it is safe... and once that shift happens real-time in the person, miraculously the horse does exactly what they ask.” (Cara, 13:06)

• Children’s Book – I Love Your Heart and All Your Feeling Parts:

  • Introduces “parts work” for kids and families, helping children and parents observe and talk to aspects of self (“my angry part,” “my worry part”), thus reducing shame and giving tools for self-regulation early in life.
  • “Let’s look at what your angry part is saying ... It takes the heat away.” (Cara, 18:16)
  • Warwick: “Think about if that was, instead of reading Clifford the Big Red Dog, you read that to your kid and so you become aware of this stuff from the beginning and you never forget it.” (19:14)

Cara’s Personal Journey

Growing Up, Trauma, and the Emergence of the Protector

• Raised in blue-collar, sarcastic mill town in Rhode Island, within a Catholic culture of shame and “false intimacy” expressed as cutting humor.
• Early sexual trauma by her cousin’s father, compounded by feeling blamed and unsupported after disclosure.
• Pivotal moment: overheard her grandmother telling her mother, “You need to tell her it wasn’t her fault” (29:43). This planted a seed of self-advocacy.
• Developed a “protector” part: “I will get so far away from here, I will be so wildly successful that I will never have to see this place again... I will be free, so wildly free of this.” (Cara, 34:23)

Manifesting Success & Corporate Career

• By coincidence and boldness, lands a congressional page role in D.C. at age 16.
• Attends college in D.C., enters nonprofit (felt like a “shell game”), then commercial real estate in NYC, mentored by a master negotiator.
• Extreme drive, self-reliance, and hypervigilance—the successful “protector” is also disconnected, angry, and relationally distant:
  • “I am now financially independent. I am. I have choice around my life... and I am, like, a through and through New Yorker in that I'm utterly impatient. I'm angry and triggered all of the time. Everything is too slow for me. Humans are stupid. Right. I don’t like anyone. I can't trust anyone.” (Cara, 46:40)

Parts Work: The Shadow of Super Skills

• Explains “parts work”: everyone has “exiles” (wounded, hidden aspects), “protectors” (managers & firefighters that prevent pain), and “super skills” that often arise from trauma-adaptations.
• “Your super skills show you your shadow.” (Cara, 50:03)
• Example: Warwick realizes his exceptional ability to explain things comes from a people-pleasing drive rooted in not wanting anyone to be dissatisfied or think poorly of him (51:39).

Relational Challenges, Illness, & Spiritual Awakening

• Marriage strained after birth of children and illness, leading to forced stillness and confrontation with exiled pain.
• Attempts at couples therapy were only unifying in mutual dislike for therapists until attending an experiential retreat which introduced her to parts work, accountability, and somatic awareness.
• Joins Apple in a high-level corporate role; recognizes the golden handcuffs of success, the cost to individual health, and intentionally walks away.
  • “My husband was wildly supportive of me walking away... I wrote my resignation on a butterfly post-it note and left it on my boss’s desk.” (69:38)

Turning to Somatic Healing and Horses

• Takes up riding and is drawn to horses’ ability to reconnect her with her exiled parts.
• Earns a master’s from California Institute of Integral Studies, focusing on somatic psychotherapy.
• Critical moment: reading Pat Ogden's book, realizes lifelong numbness and grief. First session with somatic therapist triggers spontaneous Kundalini rising and deep spiritual/aesthetic connection:
  • “This wild state of bliss takes over... It was like you were describing the baby on, you know, acid or tripping... I could stand there for 10 minutes and stare at that leaf because it was so beautiful and the energy was so alive.” (Cara, 81:41)

Synthesis and Current Practice

• Refuses to niche, instead integrating couples work and equine work. Creates her own model for equine somatic therapy.
• Emphasizes the importance of horses having agency and relational feedback, not being used as objects in human therapy.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Somatic Therapy:

• “Before we make narrative, cognitive sense of any of the experiences in our life, we have a body-lived experience, a mammalian survival response to that.” (Cara, 03:31)

On Couples Work:

• “You can be right, but you’ll pay.” (Cara, 08:10)
• “Nobody was wrong... It was like, what unhealed part of you did it trigger?” (Warwick, 06:51)

On Somatic Patterns with Horses:

• “99% of people ask a horse to back up, and their own body goes backwards—they don’t even know they’re doing it.” (Warwick, 12:01)
• “Once that shift happens real-time in the person, miraculously the horse does exactly what they ask. There’s an instant relational shift.” (Cara, 13:06)

On Childhood Trauma & Protection:

• “I developed this protector... I will get so far away from here, I will be so wildly successful that I will never have to see this place again...” (Cara, 34:23)
• “Your super skills show you your shadow.” (Cara, 50:03)

On Hypervigilance & Leadership:

• “A good leader knows how to work with a dysregulated nervous system and help it to co-regulate. And a good follower can take the lead from a regulated nervous system.” (Cara, 103:21)

Important Timestamps

• Somatic psychotherapy explained / parts work: 03:31
• Transformational couples intensives: 05:00–08:10
• Equine Somatic Pathways model explained: 08:25–13:06
• Book for children – parts work: 18:16–20:28
• Childhood trauma, emergence of protector: 29:43–34:23
• Congressional page story / early success: 36:29–41:26
• Climbing the corporate ladder/protectors & super skills: 46:40–50:03
• Marriage, illness, relational reckoning: 53:19–58:39
• First experience and impact of Kundalini rising: 77:14–85:10
• Working with horses / somatic patterns with animals: 71:39–74:55
• Leadership, hypervigilance, and nervous system regulation: 103:21–107:58

Listener Takeaways

• Healing Through Relationship: Change happens through mindful, somatic presence—whether in relationships, therapy, or with horses. Regulation is about increasing your window of tolerance, not being "zen."
• The Wisdom of Parts: Understanding your “parts” (protectors, exiles, managers) transforms shame and blame into curiosity and compassion. These adaptive strategies can become super skills, but healing comes from awareness and choice.
• Somatic Patterns Are Embodied Early: Unconscious gesture patterns from preverbal life show up in how we relate, even to horses; addressing them brings transformation in all relationships.
• Horses as Equal Partners: True equine-assisted therapy must honor the horse’s agency—not using them as mere “tools” but as sentient partners offering immediate feedback.
• Trauma as Teacher: Personal adversity often seeds the wisdom needed to support others; however, the reason you get into healing professions cannot be the reason you stay—true integration requires ongoing personal work.

Recommended Resources (by Cara)

• Children’s Book: I Love Your Heart and All Your Feeling Parts
• Pia Melody’s books – Direct insights on codependency, boundaries, relational patterns
• Compelled to Control by J. Keith Miller – For “self-reliant” types
• Terry Real (Fierce Intimacy) – Transformational couples work

How to Connect with Cara Giroux

• Equinesomaticpathways.com
• Facebook: Cara Gereau
• Instagram: @equinesomaticpathways
• Couples intensives: somaticlifecoach.com
• Children's book on Amazon: I Love Your Heart and All Your Feeling Parts

Overall Tone & Final Thoughts

This was a powerful, deeply human episode—reflecting Warwick’s curiosity and humility and Cara’s open-hearted sharing of her journey from trauma to healing. The dialogue beautifully weaved together personal anecdotes, clinical concepts, and practical wisdom for anyone seeking deeper self-connection, relational health, or a more mindful way of working with horses.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
— Rumi (Cara’s favorite quote, 94:15)