I’ve been lucky enough to be around horses all my life, from a wobbly toddler balanced on a Shetland pony in Kenya where I grew up, to training and competing in professional Dressage stables across Europe and winning the UK National Dressage Championships title in 2013, something I still dine out on today!
Alongside my passion for horses, I have worked in the corporate world for over 20 years in a variety of senior consultative sales roles for start-ups, agencies and major blue-chip organisations. My remit was often to secure new business from an entirely cold approach and lead teams to do the same. Over the years, I learnt that to be successful it was crucial to have empathy, confidence, conviction and purpose; to really listen, to be my authentic self and have authority without arrogance. I realised these are qualities that horses demand of us and teach us every day!
I’d always been fascinated by the use of horses in coaching and personal development, so in 2017 I embarked on my journey to become an Equine Facilitated Coach. My first experience was at a LEAP workshop and to say the experience completely floored me is an understatement.
I felt all at once completely seen and heard. I felt safety to release and express emotions I’d been unconsciously holding in for years. I felt held in a space of zero judgement. Through their behaviour, the horses gave me more insight about myself and my self-limiting beliefs in that one day than I’d had in a lifetime.
I vowed as I drove home that day that, somehow, someday I had to bring the magic of this work to others.
I went on to train with The Herd Institute in the USA accredited with the National Board for Certified Counsellors and Learning to Listen in the UK, accredited by the Association for Coaching
During my training I went through a huge personal development journey of my own. This has been vital to my coaching practice as I firmly believe you can’t help others to bring about transformational change if you haven’t experienced it yourself.
My coaching practice now draws upon the principles of experiential learning, transformational coaching, Neuro Linguistic Programming and Transactional Analysis.
I felt all at once
completely
Impact Coaching works with a number of highly experienced Equine Facilitated Learning professionals to deliver programmes across the South East of England.
Jane Oakley
Jane has 20 years experience working as an Adult Psychotherapist in the NHS. She is trained in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy -working with mind and body, using horses as an addition to the therapeutic environment through her business, Horse4Thought. In addition to her therapy work, Jane co-facilitates learning and development programmes for corporate clients and the NHS.
Susie Little
Susie is the co-Founder of Tower House Horses, a CIO organisation built on the passionate belief in the power of horses to help bring about meaningful and lasting change. She is a certified Equine Assisted Learning facilitator and HorseDream Partner. Her lifelong passion for horses has been combined with a business background, a career in Public Relations and a Psychology degree.
Joanne Simpson
Jo is an Equine Assisted Personal & Team Development Coach and co-Founder of Tower House Horses. She is also a HorseDream Partner and brings years of experience in people development, having worked in International Banking and HR. She is a certified coach and mentor through the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM).
I remain forever humbled by the amazing experiences my horses give to my clients.
They are truly powerful development partners and never fail to show exactly what is needed in the moment, always offered without judgement but with a deep, felt sense of impact.
Clients often come to an equine facilitated coaching experience without expectations but they typically leave blown away at what they felt, released and learned about themselves.