Romina F. King

I specialize in Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy and also offer nature-based Walk-and-Talk Therapy.

Personal Biography and Approach:

I am delighted to meet you! Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Romina King. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a certified Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapist. I have been offering mental health services since 2000 and equine-facilitated psychotherapy since 2003. I am originally from Italy but have also spent many years living in Germany, England, Canada, and the U.S. By virtue of my multicultural upbringing, I became privy to the richness and depth of the human experience and diversity. Due to my exposure to different cultures and social norms, I am able to quickly establish a trusting and genuine connection with individuals of all walks of life. Adapting to many changes and challenges has allowed me to develop a pro-active approach to living, to ponder life and its purpose, to take things less for granted, to find awe in the ordinary, and to advance confidently in the direction of my dreams. In fact, helping people through the way of the horse represents the culmination of that dream. I strive to create a therapeutic experience for you that will promote your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual growth.
Through a relationship with the horse, you will experience aspects of yourself that cannot be experienced when alone. A single moment of understanding can flood a whole life with meaning. Horses are sentient beings; with their intuitive and sensitive nature, they mirror your nonverbal communication and emotional states and will provide you with moment-by-moment feedback about any self-defeating patterns that may stand in the way to a more fulfilling life. Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy promotes self-discovery, helps you develop a positive relationship with yourself, and awakens an authentic relationship with life. The horses will provide you with opportunities to develop trust, experience feelings of safety, finding your voice, overcome fear, increase confidence, practice self-care, self-regulation, effective communication, leadership and assertiveness, develop impulse-control, and set healthy boundaries and limits. You will have an opportunity to take initiative, solve problems, make decisions, and be accountable for results. Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy encourages the process of both awareness and change, moving you into deeper insights and healing. You will learn about yourself and others, gain profound insights into your heart, find clarity about your own strengths and struggles, process painful experiences, heal old traumas, discover life’s purpose and change self-limiting behaviors and beliefs. Change is not only a possibility but is the normal music of life. You will question and scrape away at the easy answers and expose yourself to some of the anxiety that can bring you back to life in a real and deep way. Refusing to live on the surface of things, digging deep into your heart, finding what you are capable of and what you love, and not settling for anything less will be part of your experience with me. Look inside yourself to find yourself. Welcome to your journey.

Formal Education and Training:

I am a Marriage and Family Therapist licensed in both Oregon and California. I hold a Master’s Degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling from The University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Royal Holloway University of London, Great Britain. I am a certified Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapist with the Certification Board for Equine Interaction Professionals. As a trained Civilian Mental Health provider for military Service members, Veterans and their families, I am on the registry with Star Behavioral Health Providers (SBHP). Moreover, I am trained in Brainspotting, a brain-body-mindfulness based relational therapy and trauma-focused reprocessing modality of treatment; Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment that taps into and harnesses the body’s innate self-scanning capacity to identify, process and release core neurobiological sources of unprocessed trauma including emotional and physical pain, dissociation, anxiety, depression, insomnia, flashbacks, numbing, addiction, disconnection and other challenging symptoms that are in a maladaptive homeostasis (self-limiting patterns).

I am experienced in providing Solution-Focused, Existential, Acceptance and Commitment, Cognitive-Behavior, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Experiential modalities of healing to individuals, couples, families, and groups. This includes Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy, a powerful modality providing moment-by-moment feedback about any patterns that may stand in the way to a more fulfilling life.

I have worked in a variety of clinical settings including inpatient dual diagnosis residential treatment centers, outpatient community mental health agencies, a therapeutic boarding school for troubled teens, integrative medical settings, foster care, domestic adoptions, private practice, and day treatment for severely emotionally disturbed children (SED).