The Operation Equine Team

Operation Equine is a team of culturally competent, experienced, and dedicated professionals whose mission is to provide a safe haven for those who serve our communities, our country, and to all those who support and care for those individuals.  

Over the last 30 years, we have combined our experience in mental health, education, and group facilitation to work with adults, children, couples, families, groups, and businesses/organizations. Through this work we are confident in our ability to effectively facilitate and support our clients towards a happier and healthier way of being. With the assistance of our 4-legged co-therapists, we will nurture your ability to relate and heal together.

Michelle possesses over 30 combined years of teaching and counseling experience, and has had the honor of serving those who serve us - in the Military Service Member, Veteran, Emergency Responder, and Health Care Worker communities - for almost 10 years.
In working with successful and heartfelt organizations such as Project Sanctuary where she has been a staff counselor since 2012, as a facilitator with TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors), and serving as a Military Family Life Counselor (MFLC) both CONUS and OCONUS, she discovered that truly: the whole family serves, and so she is dedicated to creating and offering Operation Equine programs to the entire family, as well as to any caregivers who assist them.

Horses became Michelle’s own personal sanctuary at the age of 6, and she learned to express her sense of confidence and freedom through relationship and spending hours and hours watching them, spending time with them at liberty, and learning how to ride. Later, she began sharing those unique equine experiences and knowledge with others, before equine assisted therapies were “a thing.” She continues to expand her own personal growth through the power of working with horses, and she is passionate about creating opportunities to empower our Warrior, Protector, and Healer communities to join up.

She has been an Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning (EAP/L) Eagala Model Certified Mental Health professional since 2010, is somatically trained through EGE (Equine Guided Education), has studied with EquuSoma and EponaQuest, and is open to any modalities that truly honor the human-horse connection.

Michelle is a Licensed Professional Counselor and educator who is committed to an inclusive Warrior Spirit: in her life, as well as in her organization. The values of integrity, courage, honor, service before self, and loyalty run through her veins, and they are proudly the cornerstones of Operation Equine.

Lee earned a Master’s degree in counseling from the University of Colorado and Regis University. She also holds a certification in Applied Behavioral Analysis and is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. She is the founder and executive director of the Equine Partnership Program and has also developed programs for the Denver Public Schools and the Temple Grandin Equine Center.

Lee incorporates a powerful blend of wisdom, practical skills, hope, and humor in therapy, and is committed to helping adults find and recover their sense of purpose and drive in life.

She offers equine sessions for individuals, couples, and families from a variety of backgrounds, mostly addressing trauma, addictions, depression and anxiety, and how all of these impact relationships with others and with the self. With a background in education, she has developed programs for teens to learn about horses and has facilitated a wide range of workshops and equine-facilitated learning experiences. She offers a loving, humorous, and empathic presence, as well as a deep love and respect for what the horses have to offer.

Alison is also the facilitator for the WWEG (the free, drop-in Weekly Warrior Equine Group) at Allegiance Ranch and a Senior Instructor at the HERD Institute.