Strides To Solutions

Esther Adams
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Strides To Solutions uncovers how animal-assisted psychotherapy—from equine sessions to canine companionship—rewires the brain for lasting cognitive and emotional gains. Join host Esther Adams, a trauma-informed psychotherapist with a doctorate in psychology, as she shares powerful client stories, expert interviews, and hands-on exercises designed to strengthen attention, memory, executive function, and resilience. Tune in for actionable strategies that transform barnyard breakthroughs into real-world success. esthernava.substack.com

  1. The Goal-Setting Method Your Horse Actually Wants You to Use

    2025-12-30

    The Goal-Setting Method Your Horse Actually Wants You to Use

    Sports psychology research shows that outcome-focused goals actually increase rider anxiety, which the horse feels and mirrors right back. The very goal that's supposed to motivate you is making your horse tense. This episode introduces an anti-fragile approach to goal-setting: vectors instead of targets, floors instead of all-or-nothing, and if-then plans that pre-program your brain to soften when your instinct is to grab. Six steps, research-backed, designed for riders. Download the Equestrian Goal Architect worksheet to go along with this podcast This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit esthernava.substack.com

    34 min
  2. Why Your 2026 Goals Might Be Designed to Fail and What to Do Instead

    2025-12-30

    Why Your 2026 Goals Might Be Designed to Fail and What to Do Instead

    New Year's resolutions fail for a reason and it's not your willpower. This episode breaks down why specific, measurable goals can actually backfire when life gets unpredictable, and what the research says about building goals that stay meaningful when circumstances change. Plus a simple protocol: pick a vector, set a floor, write three if-then plans, and actually follow through. Download the protocol today. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit esthernava.substack.com

    27 min

  3. 2025-11-26

    The Childhood Rule That's Sabotaging Your Adult Life

    “I’m doing everything right—the hard work, the responsibility, the drive, the character—and nothing is moving.” If you’ve ever felt this specific agony, this isn’t about you being entitled or not trying hard enough. It’s about the collision of two incompatible truths: you’re operating with high integrity and high effort, AND you’re living in a world where effort doesn’t guarantee outcomes. This piece unpacks the psychological equation most of us absorbed in childhood (effort → outcome → worth) and why it’s breaking you in adulthood. We’re talking about why your frustration isn’t immaturity but grief—grief that goodness doesn’t guarantee reward, that hard work doesn’t always change outcomes, that you can do everything right and still not get what you worked for. We dive into why your nervous system feels unsafe when effort stops working, how to separate intrinsic worth from market worth, and what it actually means to update your operating system from childhood logic to adult complexity. This isn’t about lowering your standards or giving up on excellence. It’s about understanding probability instead of certainty, holding paradoxes, and learning that you can do your absolute best AND the outcome might not work out—and both can be true without either canceling out the other. For high-achievers who’ve been white-knuckling their way through life, exhausted from believing they should be able to control outcomes through sheer force of virtue and effort. Spoiler: You’re not failing. You’re grieving a system that lied to you about how the world works. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit esthernava.substack.com

    35 min
  4. Growing Pains in the Saddle: Why It Feels Worse Before It Gets Better

    2025-11-16

    Growing Pains in the Saddle: Why It Feels Worse Before It Gets Better

    There’s a weird moment in riding where everything feels harder than it should. You know more, but perform worse. You’ve trained harder, but feel like a beginner. Welcome to the equestrian growth spurt — awkward, emotional, often ugly. In this episode, we unpack why things get mentally messy right before major breakthroughs. If you’re stuck in that in-between phase where you feel like you’re regressing, this one will help you name it, normalize it, and ride through it. To read the blog on this podcast with references This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit esthernava.substack.com

    29 min
  5. The Dopamine Code: Why Some Brains Bounce Back from Trauma

    2025-11-16

    The Dopamine Code: Why Some Brains Bounce Back from Trauma

    What if resilience after trauma isn’t about strength of character, but about dopamine? In this episode, we explore groundbreaking research showing that the difference between bouncing back and staying stuck often comes down to how your dopamine system responds during and after traumatic experiences. We’re not talking about the “feel-good chemical” you’ve heard about. We’re talking about dopamine as a motivational interpreter—the system that tells your brain what’s worth doing, what’s safe, and whether you can handle what’s in front of you. You’ll learn: * Why some people’s brains release dopamine in ways that support active coping and recovery, while others get trapped in fear circuits * How dopamine acts as an internal “safety switch” that helps terminate fear responses (and what happens when that switch doesn’t flip) * The role of genetics, early experiences, and neuroplasticity in shaping your dopamine response to stress * Why trauma symptoms like numbness and anhedonia aren’t character flaws—they’re protective mechanisms gone dormant * How understanding your dopamine system can open pathways to genuine healing This isn’t about blaming biology or excusing harm. It’s about recognizing that resilience has a neurochemical foundation—one that can be understood, supported, and in many cases, restored. If you’ve ever felt like your brain “won’t let you move on,” or wondered why trauma affects people so differently, this episode offers both answers and hope. For the full research breakdown and citations, visit Esther Adams’ blog This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit esthernava.substack.com

    16 min
  6. Your Nervous System Doesn't Have an Off Switch—It Has Transitional Blends

    2025-11-15

    Your Nervous System Doesn't Have an Off Switch—It Has Transitional Blends

    The transition from sympathetic survival to parasympathetic collapse isn’t a single threshold—it’s a dynamic integration of threat imminence, internal arousal, and contextual cues processed by your amygdala, PAG, and hypothalamus. This episode synthesizes cutting-edge research on how the nervous system determines when to let go, why some people snap from high-functioning to shutdown while others don’t (hint: vagal tone and ego-resiliency), and what actually happens in your dorsal vagal complex in the hours after threat removal. We’ll cover the cognitive mismatch between returning motivation and delayed executive capacity, the role of relational vs. environmental safety cues, and whether communal relief events synchronize autonomic collapse across populations. Plus: the specific interventions (slow-paced breathing, co-regulation, trauma-informed movement) proven to accelerate recovery. To read the blog associated with this podcast: https://www.estheradams.com/post/the-day-the-hostages-returned-my-body-let-go-understanding-post-threat-recovery This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit esthernava.substack.com

    42 min
  7. Why Your Brain Betrays You in the Dressage Ring

    2025-11-08

    Why Your Brain Betrays You in the Dressage Ring

    Forgot the next movement in the middle of your dressage test? If you’ve experienced this, you know how frustrating and embarrassing it feels. And if you haven’t experienced it yet but you’re terrified it will happen, that fear itself might actually be making it more likely to occur. Today we’re going to dig into the psychology and neuroscience of why memory fails under pressure, specifically in the context of dressage tests at shows. But more importantly, we’re going to talk about what actually works to prevent it, based on what research tells us about memory, stress, anxiety, and performance under pressure. I’m calling this episode “Why Your Brain Betrays You in the Show Ring,” and we’re going to spend the next hour really unpacking the mechanisms behind these memory lapses and the evidence-based strategies that can protect your memory even when the pressure is highest. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit esthernava.substack.com

    34 min
  8. Why Talented People Quit (And How the Best Push Through When Practice Stops Working)

    2025-11-08

    Why Talented People Quit (And How the Best Push Through When Practice Stops Working)

    You’ve put in months or years of focused practice. You were getting better, steadily improving, and then... nothing. Week after week of the same effort producing zero visible progress. Every practice session becomes a catalog of everything you still can’t do. This is where most people quit. But research on expertise development shows this plateau period is exactly where mastery gets built—if you know how to navigate it. This episode breaks down the evidence-based strategies that separate people who eventually achieve expertise from talented beginners who abandon ship: self-regulated learning techniques that actually work, the psychology of maintaining motivation when results disappear, why your practice approach might need changing (not just more effort), and how the best performers use plateaus as information rather than evidence of inadequacy. If you’re stuck in that brutal middle phase of skill development, this might change everything. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit esthernava.substack.com

    26 min
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About

Strides To Solutions uncovers how animal-assisted psychotherapy—from equine sessions to canine companionship—rewires the brain for lasting cognitive and emotional gains. Join host Esther Adams, a trauma-informed psychotherapist with a doctorate in psychology, as she shares powerful client stories, expert interviews, and hands-on exercises designed to strengthen attention, memory, executive function, and resilience. Tune in for actionable strategies that transform barnyard breakthroughs into real-world success. esthernava.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Esther Adams
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    112
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Esther Adams, Linsey Adams, Strides To Solutions
  • Show Website
    Strides To Solutions