Meet Kristen Kincer

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristen Kincer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristen below.

Kristen, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Jesus. I get my resilience from Jesus. As the founder and equine-assisted facilitator of a nonprofit for kins, teens, and adults who are struggling with their mental health and/or are survivors of abuse, trafficking, some days are tough. Not only are there the normal challenges of founding and running a nonprofit, but add in the trauma shared during client sessions, and I need something bigger than myself to share the weight and keep me going. I can’t fix things that clients have gone through, so I rest and find strength in knowing the One who can.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Restore Ranch was born out of my own testimony. It’s so much more than just a nonprofit organization – it’s a mission field. I grew up with extremely abusive parents and have experienced firsthand how God can bring healing through horses. Restore’s mission is to serve kids, teens, and adults who are struggling with their mental health, self-harm, and/or survivors of abuse and human trafficking. I know a lot of those words are “taboo” in today’s culture, but being a survivor of abuse and human trafficking, as well as facing many mental health challenges, I also know that trying to be “politically correct” doesn’t help those who have been through those things. Being a voice for those who haven’t found theirs or aren’t ready to share their voices yet is more important to me than being politically correct.

As the founder of Restore, I do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff such as farm upkeep and maintenance, helping run our social media account, researching grants and other forms of outreach, like magazine and newspaper articles. The equine facilitator part of my job is much more interesting.

As the equine facilitator, I am certified in both Equine Assisted Learning and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy through Greg Kersten’s O.K. Corral Serries. I get to use my certification to help clients process what happened during their session. Restore offers both group and individual EAL sessions, and both types of session have a very similar set-up. Each session has an equine activity, where the clients are hands on with the horses, leading them through various obstacles, working through a challenge with the horses, or using their body language and/or nonverbal communication skills to try to work through an activity with the horses. Typically, once the equine activity is finished, we process what happened during the activity. In this, the clients share what they noticed, learned, observed, felt, if the activity brought up anything from their past trauma, horse body language, questions, etc., and we talk about that. My certification has also taught me how to ask guided but open-ended questions to help the clients make connections that can further help them heal. Restore’s activities are designed to reflect real life, healing, overcoming obstacles, faith, goals, and so much more. Through the processing time, I help clients apply what happened in the arena during the activities they do to the things they are currently facing in their own lives and healing.

You may have noticed that we use the phrase “mental health” instead of “mental illness”, and I’d like to clarify that. Everyone has mental health, but not everyone has a diagnosed mental illness. Restore doesn’t just help those diagnosed with mental illnesses. We serve everyone. Everyone, or almost everyone, has or likely will face a time where they have great mental health, and where they have or will struggle with their mental health. Someone can have a diagnosed mental illness and have great mental health. Just like someone else can have poor mental health and not have any diagnosable or diagnosed mental illnesses.

Lastly, we do have a book available for purchase on Amazon. It’s called Restored, by Kristen Grace. (I’ll link it just in case, too.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLC4K1SC

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three things that were most impactful to me in both navigating start-up and in the day-to-day of Restore Ranch are faith, boldness, and patience.

Faith is first and foremost for me. I am a Christian and Restore Ranch is a ministry. Faith is extremely important because that’s what kept me going in the beginning and that’s what still keeps me going. I couldn’t walk back into the same kinds of trauma I experienced growing up to help clients apart from my faith in God. Having a relationship with Jesus means that I can tell our clients in complete honesty that there is hope and that there is healing. I can reassure them that even if they don’t see justice on earth, that their perpetrators will face judgement for what they did.

Boldness is important because, as a once shy person, I’ve had to learn to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. I’ve had to learn to take no for an answer or live with no response. I’ve also had to learn to jump at opportunities that come up that are out of my comfort zone but will benefit Restore or myself as the equine facilitator. I’ve had to learn how to ask difficult questions to clients when processing through activities they’ve done. Boldness is so important for that.

Patience. Haha. This one seems like a given. But it is also so important. When starting a nonprofit, things don’t run according to your timeline. It seems like you’re forever in that hurry up and wait phase. And in some sense, you are. Learning to be patient and to focus on learning everything you can about what you’re starting will go such a long way. We live in a microwave society where we have instant access to social media, news, the internet, and so much more, that we forget to be patient. And I guess, not only being patient, but learning to wait well, will take you far. Waiting seasons are a part of life. How we wait speaks volumes to our character and our personality. Learn to wait well.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Restore would love to partner or connect with other similar organizations and ministries, especially those who already work with survivors of abuse and human trafficking and/or mental health. We’re located just outside of Lexington, KY, and would love to connect with others who would be interested in trying out our equine assisted program. We know you’ll love it and its benefits.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.restoreranchkentucky.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/restoreranch