During my training to become an Equine Gestalt Coach (Life Coach), I worked on my values and what I believed to be true about them. Those beliefs drove my decision making, my behaviors, and judgments of people and events that I held to be most important in life.

Although I knew what most inspired me, I did not know what my values were until I began the process of looking at them and understanding the meaning behind them. It was an eye-opening experience, and I found I could use my values to help shape my future. To use them as a guide to steer me in directions that will be most beneficial versus detrimental to what I want to accomplish.
Here’s what I knew about myself before the sleuthing process began.

1. I work best for myself or in institutions where I have the freedom to act and make decisions that I know will benefit the majority of the business. Working for other people who want to undermine or control my decision-making process and keep tabs on me puts me in a frame of “hell no.”
2. The health and fitness industry played and still does a significant career role in my life.
3. Teaching, guiding, leading, and influencing became my life’s work. I then transferred what I learned from my previous career in the fitness field to coaching people in a whole different and dynamic way.

I recognized that education/teaching was in my top five values, where the fourth-grade teacher comes in.

There I was, in front of the class, erasing the board and clearing it for me to teach. Palms sweaty with chalk in hand, I addressed the class. The feeling of nervousness and excitement are physiologically the same. I was both. My belly churning, my thoughts racing, a desire to run for the door, and yet, I stood there and started to speak. The words were shaky and then got more relaxed as I felt me move into the topic. I felt scared and on top of the world all at the same time. Thus it began, I wanted to teach, educate, and be at the head of the class as a leader.

When I started my career as a fitness professional, I once again stood at the class's head.

What an amazing career! The best part of the many years of teaching were the students. I witnessed the transformations that took place not only in their physical appearance but also in their emotional state.

So, how do Gestalt Therapy and Horses help transform learning about ourselves?

As prey animals, horses are highly intuitive to their surroundings. They are intuitive to our thoughts and energy. They can read our body language, sense our energy, and practically read us like an open book. They know when we are not speaking our truth inside or outside of ourselves. They are natural healers. Horses allow us to be “In the Moment.” We can be a human being versus a human doing. Being in the moment can help unlock buried emotions, states of being and bring us back to a place of healing. We can find clarity, self-empowerment, and move towards action.

With Love,

Vonie