Release, Readjust and Reconnect™

Horses Healing Heroes™ provides heroes of all kinds a path towards healing. In a safe and beautiful, pastoral setting, our clients are helped to Release, Readjust and Reconnect.™

"A horse is so incredibly healing, they help heal our hearts and souls when we are incapable of doing so ourselves."       ~Gin Wiltsen

Meet Our Staff

(Click here to meet our four-legged staff, the Hearts of HHH.)

Deborah Larson is the impetus behind HHH™, as well as its founder and CEO. A successful business woman and entrepreneur, she started her career as a paralegal in San Francisco, California, working with corporate, divorce, probate, real estate and tax attorneys. After working closely with title and escrow companies on the legal side, she pursued a new career path, spending over 15 years in business development and sales in the title, escrow and 1031 tax deferred exchange businesses and opened her own exchange business.

She and her husband developed an online and in person business referral and networking business. She started working in a local tasting room as a hobby in 2000 and managed tasting rooms, wine clubs, events and sales for wineries from 2003 until today where she does consulting work for a local winery. Deborah is a mobile Notary Public and signing agent for real estate transactions and is an event consultant in addition to running HHH™. One thing, for sure...Deborah doesn’t let any grass grow beneath her feet!


Phillip Wister, MFT, HHH™'s Clinical Director, has been a Sacramentan since 1957. He attended Jesuit High School and received his Bachelor of Science from Santa Clara University and his Masters in Counseling from the University of San Francisco. HIs mother was in the Marine Corps, and his father served in the Army Air Corps and the Air Force.

After college, Phil worked in social services with group homes and foster homes, and he served as the Vice President of the Board of Directors of Nepenthean Homes. He was commissioned in the California State Military Reserve as a lieutenant and was promoted to captain. He did pre- and post-deployment evaluations of soldiers and fitness-for-duty evaluations and served as the Behavioral Health Officer at the B.T. Collins National Guard station.

Phil has been a volunteer member of Give an Hour and The Soldiers Project. He retired from the County of Sacramento as a Senior Mental Health Counselor after 17 years and has maintained a full private practice for 23 years.

MFC #40578


Steven Larson (shown here in Bagram, Afghanistan in 2008-2009, with C Co. 1-168 MEDEVAC, HH-60 Black Hawks) is HHH™'s Chief Operations Officer. Steve started his career with the US Navy in the advanced electronics program, spending ten years on active duty. During his Naval career, he was deployed on two Pacific tours and one Mediterranean tour, aboard some of the greatest aircraft carriers ever built, such as the USS Ranger, USS Kitty Hawk, and the USS J.F. Kennedy.

After leaving the military, Steve worked as a flight-line manager for a small, fixed-base operator (FBO) in Hartford, CT. Next, he moved back to his home state of California to assist his father in the family landscaping business. Upon his dad’s retirement, he partnered with his wife Deborah to create a successful, online, business-referral company.

After the events of 9-11, he joined the Army National Guard, completing a tour in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, later securing a Federal position as a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter Avionics Supervisor for the California Army National Guard. Having experienced most of the Pacific Rim, along with locations in the Mediterranean and Middle East, he brings an appreciation to what it means to be a veteran dealing with the trials of deployment.


Dr. Robert Hunter, DVM and Dr. Noel Muller, DVM, HHH™'s Directors of 4-Legged Health (our vets)

"He knows when you're happy.  He knows when you're comfortable. He knows when you're confident. And he always knows when you have carrots."       ~Author Unknown