After years of pain and turmoil, Jennifer Malocha finally found her soulmate: a 2,000 pound stud named Teddy.

For more than a decade, Malocha, 52, worked as a personal trainer and wellness coach for a wide array of clients between 22 and 62, from very fit to 100 pounds overweight. No matter what their background, she quickly saw their similarities and impediments.

“I realized that I could create the best workout program ever, but without the mental wellness, it wouldn’t make a difference,” she said.

Around the same time, Malocha had followed through on a longtime dream to own a horse. She stumbled upon an overly aggressive thoroughbred racehorse named Teddy who had been worked hard on the track, bounced between owners and had run out of options.

From the beginning, Malocha identified with Teddy and knew she was his last hope.

“I knew I was [Teddy’s] last stop. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was saving my life as I was saving him,” she said.

Malocha herself has had what she calls a profoundly abusive life.

Both she and her brother were sexually molested as children. The two were also emotionally abused by their mother and physically abused by their violent, drug-addicted father, who would “leave welts and bruising from our heels to our head” if they did something he didn’t like, Malocha said. Her stepfather, she added, was even worse.

By the time she reached adulthood, Malocha had adopted many self-destructive behaviors to numb her pain.

“Eventually, I saw the light. It was behind me and was flashing and blue — a cop pulling me over for a DUI,” she said.

Over the years, Malocha tried many different types of therapy, but found she didn’t fully get what she needed until she rescued Teddy and took a course with horse trainer Buck Brannaman. Himself a survivor of abuse, Brannaman is known for his work with horses.

Soon, she became certified in coaching and animal communication.

“I wanted to share it with others — I got more deep healing in those 300 hours than in all of the years of therapy beforehand,” Malocha said of her career shift.

Though the therapeutic value of horses has been recognized since early Greek civilization, experts have only begun studying and recommending equine-assisted therapy and treatment over the last half-century. People with autism, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, drug and alcohol addiction and many things in between have been shown to benefit from therapy with horses.

Because they naturally stick to herds, horses are very in tune with the actions and emotions around them, Malocha said.

During a recent retreat at her Bellevue business, Wuhoo Coaching, one horse brought into the pen immediately went over to a young woman and began nuzzling her belly. As it turns out, the woman had just found out she was pregnant and was feeling scared and uncertain.

That is not to negate the value of talk therapy, Malocha stressed. Many of her clients have also tried and been helped to a certain extent by other types of therapy.

After her premature daughter died shortly after birth, Maxine Waterman tried therapy. Though time healed some wounds, her grief always felt like it was on the surface and it hurt to talk about the daughter she never had the chance to know.

“It was always something where it hurt when I talked about it,” she said. “The pain of losing a baby, I don’t think it ever goes away, but I do believe working with Jennifer and Teddy helped.”

Over the last few years, Malocha has worked with over 100 clients. Some of them have been through highly traumatic experiences, while others are part of corporate teams.

Malocha describes her job as “coaching” — asking the right questions during clients’ sessions with her horses to help them get the answers they need. Depending on the client, she uses a variety of scenarios involving Teddy.

Client Jessica Riverson described her experiences with Malocha and Teddy as unique and profound.

As soon as she approached Teddy’s enclosure, fear and distrust began building up in her body, though she had never had a bad experience with horses. As Malocha prompted her to vocalize what she was feeling, elements of Riverson’s past that she thought she had resolved bubbled up.

“She wasn’t asking me to re-live anything, it was bringing it up so I could release it,” she said. “It was really surprising, it’s very deep and profound and unique.”

For more information, visit www.wuhoocoaching.com or call 206-601-2485.