Jodi is an Equine Gestaltist who collaborates with her equine partners in the discovery process of self-awareness and healing. Through asking co-active questions and being present in the moment, she helps individuals explore their inner selves to overcome barriers and find freedom. Trained in trauma-informed techniques, Jodi understands how trauma affects the body and emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and releasing it to achieve true healing. She believes that by shifting from a reactive to a responsive state, individuals can heal and find peace.
She follows the Equine Gestalt Coaching Method developed by Melisa Pearce, aiming to bring balance and empowerment to people’s lives. Her sessions cater to various areas including trauma, grief, empowerment, relationships, and mental health struggles, offering a unique and transformative experience regardless of one’s prior horse experience. Jodi’s purpose is to assist others in finding their freedom and making a positive difference in themselves, their relationships, and the world.
Being of service to my family has always been my #1. I have a very supportive husband that farms and two amazing daughters. We live in the heart of Saskatchewan, the Land of Living Skies, with breathtaking views of our prairie landscape.
My husband & I purchased our girls their first saddle horse, Jett. We teetered back and forth if this was the right time for us to do this as it was a huge commitment involved for our whole family. Jett, the gentle giant was a confidant in each of their lives, he taught us all so much – to love unconditionally, respect, responsibility, trust, joy, balance, patience, you give and get so much back in return without expectation. I quickly saw he was filling a void with our girls that I never had the opportunity to have when I was growing up. We all experienced the loss of him, learnt a lot about life, the varying degrees of grief – let alone how to support our young daughters that experienced this. Since then they both have acquired more horses that they treasure and have learned different disciplines on and have grown the desire to live outside the box to pursue what fills their cup.
We all have learned behaviour of some kind, generally this forms in childhood. I know that epigenetic work ethic was ingrained in me at an early age, growing up on a grain farm. My grandparents lived in the same yard – which made family relations tense on a good day. When growing up in it a person is not aware or perhaps willing to admit what a toxic situation it really was. I did not realize all the implications that I would unknowingly carry forward into my family. I know being the oldest and the only girl I put on extra expectations on myself to measure up. I knew things had to be different for my girls, they didn’t deserve to have all the strings attached of what they needed to do, how to do it and the pressure to measure up with someone else’s expectations. They truly deserve to have freedom to choose for themselves.
Even though I didn’t grow up with a horse or any horse experience and neither did my husband, however, he did ride bareback broncs for a brief time till he broke his arm. We seem to be making up for this now as we as a family ranch raise about 40 bucking horses. Whether it be watching them run free down the coulee bank, standing in among these athletic gems, seeing the wonder in the eyes of a new born foal with long whiskers, the fairy knots in some of their manes or being across the fence from them – they have so much to teach us about living for today, enjoying what we have and loving who we are. I marvel that I can be apart of this!
