Coaching with Horses
Leadership Coaching with Horses
Leadership coaching sessions with horses are a powerful space for exploring the body, nervous system, and how we are leading in our lives. Immediate feedback from the horses when partnering through exercises reflects back how we are actually operating in our minds, hearts and bodies — and opens pathways for opening to new ways of being.
Coaching sessions take place in a round pen, where we work with horses on the ground ‘at liberty,’ or free without restraints, and engage various forms of groundwork exercises that unite horse and human in a co-learning process that offers a practice ground for embodying new leadership behaviours.
Explore self-inquiry, deep listening, boundaries, collaborative leadership, non-predatory uses of power, and more. Leadership coaching with horses is often accompanied by ongoing virtual coaching work.
Therapeutic Coaching with Horses
Therapeutic coaching with horses engages the powerful, reflective presence of horses as a support in deepened presence and somatic awareness. Horses are incredibly intuitive animals, responding to our energy, emotions, and intentions. Sessions support clients in accessing nervous system regulation, metabolizing charge in the nervous system, and in integration processes, such as integrating grief and loss.
In partnership with the horses, we explore client thresholds around presence, attunement, and connection with self and other. Therapeutic coaching is a powerful developmental space to explore deep personal intentions and what is getting in the way. Sessions support clients in metabolizing areas of charge in the body that are restricting their systems from their natural unfolding into health.
Therapeutic coaching is informed by my background in biodynamic cranial sacral therapy, polarity therapy, and chaplaincy.
Testimonials
“Bridgit and the horses uniquely show us sides of our behaviors that are often hidden from our own view. Little, if anything, is hidden from the horse and Bridgit is a great intermediary, putting into language possibilities to shift (e.g. unease, being inauthentic, fear) and other behaviors and emotional states that in other contexts limit our freedom and fulfillment. Go for it if you have any sense at all that this adventurous form of learning will serve you in your life.”
“The echoes of our time with the horses is still reverberating with me and your gentle yet clear and firm guidance was exceptional in helping me push my edges. I discovered insights about my leadership that would have taken months if not longer to realize in just moments interacting with those horses. Those dances provided immediate, powerful, nuanced and gentle biofeedback on how I show up in the world with others and how I hold and wield my power. ”
The EQUUSLIBERE HERD
EquusLibere works in partnership with my not for profit project, Bridging Unicorns, and I am grateful to steward three rescue equine partners - Rasa, Ocean, and Eclipse.
Each of them has an incredible story, and their journeys have taken each of them from being slaughter-bound to joining forces with me in healing and development work.
Rasa
Ocean
Eclipse
coaching background
I am a PCC level integral coach and since 2016 I have practiced coaching work in both personal and corporate settings through EquusLibere and Emergence Leadership. Since its inception, my coaching work has been deeply interwoven with horses as profound partners in reconnecting with our innate wisdom. My passion for working with whole-system, bottom up development has led me to pursue and integrate in trainings in somatic therapeutic approaches, including biodynamic cranial sacral therapy and polarity therapy. I also hold credentials in chaplaincy. In my work with clients, I cultivate a safe and supportive environment for individuals to explore their hearts, bodies, and minds — and to allow their unique development process to unfold.
Integral Coaching
Integral coaching is a holistic approach that considers the whole person—mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Integral coaching examines root causes impacting adult development. In my work with clients, we explore client’s "way of being,” which encompasses presence, mindset, and the ways we engage with the world, and look together at the results that their current operating system is creating. My coaching approach brings a strong focus to the body, or the ‘soma,’ with the recognition that our bodies and nervous systems hold invaluable wisdom. I work with clients to co-create a space of safety, attunement, and deep listening — allowing for client’s authentic impulses and empowerment to emerge.
Credentials:
PCC Level Credentialed Coach (International Coaching Federation)
Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Therapy (Certificate of Course Completion, Colorado School of Energy Studies)
Professional Integral Coaching Certification (New Ventures West)
Clinical Pastoral Education: Chaplaincy (Jewish Theological Seminary)
Facilitation of Groups as Living Systems Certification (Matrixworks)
Life Coaching Certification (Soluna)
Testimonials
“I have been with our time together all day- resonating with tracking where I have arrived and opening to the feel of new possibilities. The gift the horses bring to me is that immediate feedback of where I am - when I am deeply connected and when I am not connected. I am so grateful for the work! Bridgit, I was reflecting on the way home what an amazing space you hold- not only do you tend the space for humans, you also tend space for what is going on with the horses and when we meld, the whole. ”
“It was powerful to learn how horses regulate our nervous system and I was inspired by horses’ congruency between their inner state and actions. It opened up my eyes to be aware and really feel and connect to my inner thoughts, to sit with what came out of watching the horses’ reactions to our exercises. I felt that I could trust the process and trust the feedback that I was getting by the horses. It was a learning experience realizing how to shift my energy and use it as a tool to better myself and those around me. Bridgit’s sense of caring and kindness can be felt throughout sessions. I would recommend this to anyone that is wanting to do some self discovery and wants to better themselves.”