About
Meet Dr. Duncan Day
The difference here is who’s on the ground with you: a registered clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist with over a decade of working closely with horses.
A registered clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist
Dr. Duncan Day is a registered Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Neuropsychologist with nearly 30 years of clinical experience, mostly in Ontario, and is currently registered to practise in the Yukon as well. He is registered with the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario Sessions can be offered in French on request. He has practised in academic, public, and private settings throughout his career.
He also brings more than a decade of hands-on experience with horses as a rider, horseman, and farmer, the two halves of a career he has spent the last several years bringing together.
Scope of practice
Why clinical training changes what’s possible
Equine work can open more than expected. Sometimes a session brings up something big: grief, memory, a wave of emotion. What happens next depends partly on the scope of practice of the person beside you.
As a regulated mental-health professional with a doctorate and decades of clinical experience, Dr. Day can address some of the more challenging mental-health issues that arise, and stay with you through them, safely and ethically, without needing to hand off.
If it gets hard, you stay with the same person.
For people working with trauma, that continuity matters.
Training
Rigorously trained in equine-facilitated wellness
Dr. Day is a Certification Candidate with the Professional Association of Equine Facilitated Wellness (PRO-EFW), and is in the final stages of completing that certification. He also sits on the PRO-EFW Board, serving on its Research and Strategic Planning committees. PRO-EFW sets rigorous training, mentoring, and ethical standards for this work in Canada. Certification requires years of study and supervised practice.
Certification Candidate
PRO-EFW Board member
After 30 years of practice, I’ve come to recognize the critical importance of good mental health. Every one of us can benefit from support at some point in our lives. This support can come in many forms but the relationship with the person helping you is one of the most important ingredients driving those benefits. My goal is to help establish a connection leading to a therapeutic relationship that is authentic, honest, and steady. Progress happens when there is confidence in that relationship. I have also learned that horses provide uniquely authentic connections with us that, in a therapeutic relationship, can greatly enhance those benefits.
A guardrail, on purpose
Bigger than one person
This practice is built on partnership: between client and therapist, between people and horses, and in time, among a team of practitioners. It carries Dr. Day’s name and standards, but it isn’t about any one person. It’s about the work, and about growth that continues well beyond today.
The setting
A working farm in the Northumberland hills
The practice operates on Oakbank Farm at 175 Grosjean Road, Codrington, a working farm in the Northumberland hills, minutes from Brighton and Trenton.
There’s an outdoor sand arena, a smaller ring for more intimate work, a sheltered indoor space for winter, and trails, creekside spots, and other farm animals across the property. It’s a real, living place, not a clinic dressed up as one.
Start with a conversation
A consultation is the best place to ask anything you’re wondering.