You deserve to be seen & heard just as much as anyone else.
First and foremost Coaching is not the same as therapy. Here is the way I like to look at it. Therapy for me is more about looking back to who we were and where we came from. It’s about uncovering things from our past experiences, traumas, and relationships, in order to understand ourselves, our patterns, and our dysfunctions. Coaching is more about the present and future. Who we are now, and how can we move forward to be better, to feel better, and most importantly to live better. The word coach for me, like the word therapy (as I am sure it does for you) brings to mind a specific set of adjectives and meaning. When I imagine a coach I see a person with a lot of energy and enthusiasm, whose sole purpose is to discover someone’s potential, someone’s strengths, someone’s inner talents, and then do everything they can to help that person use all of those innate attributes to succeed in whatever the task at hand. They will challenge that person to think, perceive, and even move differently. They will encourage that person to push themselves out of their "comfort zones" as well as to explore new and exciting paths to achieve their goals. And they will be there to cheer them on in moments of success, as well as pick them up when they’ve hit a setback. That is my approach in our sessions…with horses to help!
My philosophy on mental health, and on life in general, is that we can all use a little help from time to time. I believe in moving forward instead of always circling back to unhealthy patterns or the untrue stories we have been telling ourselves for years. I also believe the importance of “Yes, And” statements, instead of “Yes, But” ones. “But’s” only continue to perpetuate our dysfunctional patterns and thinking and hold us back from experiencing our true desires and joys. Through coaching with horses we can learn to rewrite our perceptions of ourselves, forming a clearer and stronger bond with our authentic selves. We do this by having the courage to be vulnerable, exploring the possibilities of our future, and the willingness to take small steps to getting closer to what we really want from our lives.
And most importantly to be that elusive thing we all talk about... HAPPY!
