Joan Cleary is an Equine Specialist, certified in 2008. In 2012 she became the
Networking Coordinator for the Eagala New England Networking Group and by
2015 each of the New England states could boast having their own networking
group.
Later, in 2015, she relocated to Tennessee, created Horse Powered Healing LLC and
started the Eagala East Tennessee Net Working Group. In 2018 she became a
member of the Eagala Ethics Committee.
Concurrent with over 20 years experience with horses, and life with Eagala, Joan
had a 42 year career in health care as a New York State Registered Nurse. Now
retired from her first profession of caring for people experiencing difficult times,
and sometimes devastating moments, Joan has found the transition into mental
health care to be a continuum. Decades of professional experience caring for those
with physical illness, trauma and death enabled her, as part of an Eagala team, in
providing care to surviving child victims, and the families, of the Sandy Hook
shooting tragedy in 2012.
Also, trained as a Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SAFE), while in New York, she
has also provided equine assisted therapy, in collaboration with a licensed,
professional LCSW, to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, in Tennessee.
Joan was also a shelter volunteer and member of the Board of Directors of the
Avalon Center for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in Crossville, TN.