Who I am
Fundamentally, I am a Wise Woman; in other, more spiritually attuned cultures I might be described as a Crone. I have taken my life experience, personal growth and development learning and combined it with my passion for helping others and my 40+ years of business experience at senior levels.I have dedicated time to earning certifications in Equine Assisted Learning, Leadership and Executive Coaching and consider myself a lifelong learner.
Why I do what I do – what makes this my purpose
I’ve had my own struggles with anxiety and depression and being in the wrong relationships (business, romantic etc). 15 years ago, in the course of trying to find a more effective way through the difficulties, I found a ‘new’ healing modality called equine-assisted learning – the horse acts as a co-facilitator in a human development process. I then undertook extensive training (mainly of myself) and as such, qualified in this form of learning, which has a therapeutic and for me, a spiritual outcome.The changes were so profound in me and amazing in others that it has become my life’s purpose to share the approach and hopefully shorten clients’ own journey to becoming leaders of themselves as well as others. I continue to learn about myself and try to improve myself every day.
What I do
I think of myself as a bit of a magpie – I’m always learning and adding to my approach with clients – I’m not following any one method exclusively but the foundation work and many of the psychological tools and frameworks originate in my equine assisted learning studies.
How I work
I offer a variety of services with individual or group clients. I think it’s helpful to understand my values and key drivers in the work. I’ve articulated them as Principles:
- Principle 1: Leadership of others is a practice undertaken for the benefit of others and not the self or ‘ego’. This is known as Servant Leadership.
- Principle 2: Leadership must start with self – if you cannot lead yourself, you cannot truly lead others. Leadership of self lives on a foundation of self-awareness
- Principle 3: Self-awareness and leadership are the integration of Mind, Body and Purpose which create the energy to motivate oneself and inspire others. Purpose is your ‘why’.
- Principle 4: Self-awareness towards self-actualisation and the journey to discovery of purpose is a spiritual experience
- Principle 5: Understanding of your own mindset is crucial – it links back to self-awareness. Mindset drives how you approach life, decisions, learning, growth and all relationships, which maintain nuance in the application of methodologies.
- Principle 6: Most of the answers to the bigger questions that we have, lie in the natural world. Native American tradition is a fantastic way to understand the importance of the natural world.
My fox, Graff the Corgi
The Fox
The extensive training I undertook for the Equine Assisted Learning qualification, included quite a few elements from Native American tradition. I am not a religious person, but I do consider myself to be very spiritual. In pursuit of my own ‘self-actualisation’ goal, I look for the meaning and messages in everything that surrounds me. This challenges me to shake off old patterns of behaviour and embrace the new.
Native American tradition finds meaning in everything in the natural world and so do I. Much has been written down and told about the spiritual significance of animals. I find great solace, support and challenge in looking at the messages that the natural world brings. From a Leadership perspective, this fits into the thinking about self-leadership and a refreshed Servant Leader paradigm.
Several years ago, I was in ‘surviving not thriving’ mode. I wasn’t ill, I wasn’t especially unhappy, but I wasn’t living my best life either. I was starting to see a local city fox in my garden on a regular basis. Then that Christmas, one of my best friends bought me (entirely unprompted) a book called Foxes Unearthed by Lucy Jones. Her son, again without any prompting or intra family discussion, bought me a beautiful mug with a graphic fox design. At the same gift unwrapping session, I opened a bag of gifts from my brother and sister-in-law, all of which were wrapped in fox design paper. I do love synchronicity!
From my subsequent reading I learned that the fox is a keen practitioner of self-care. The traits of adaptability, agility and quick thinking enable it to thrive as the environment around it changes. It is a powerful spirit animal guardian, and it also encourages us into playful and curious behaviour. The fox is sometimes criticised for killing too many chickens for example; in reality it is exercising self-care again as it is securing food resources for its future. It is another example of self-care. Everything I read about the Fox and about spirit animals showed me that I had much to learn from this creature that could improve the way I was living my life and potentially help me focus on what I wanted to share with others.
clare & the fox 