Foundations of Mastery
An 8 week program in developing mastery in our craft of service.
Finding mastery in how we lead and hold space with others requires a skillful forging and development of our gifts and knowledge on how to cultivate safe and sacred spaces for our clients.
Over the years of us leading retreats, facilitating, teaching and mentoring women over the last 15 years, it has been our horses that have developed us more deeply beyond any training we have done in coaching, leadership and other programs we have done over the years.
Horses do not have an ego, they also don’t exist in the human dysfunctions that we are all walking with, they are masters at reading the energy around them, at creating regulated environments for others to have their own process and in the space and wisdom of them we can learn the same.
The foundations of mastery program is an 8 week course that blends the teachings of horses, neuroscience and somatics, to bring together a teaching that will hone and develop the mastery of how you lead and hold space for your clients and also yourself.
This is not a program for “horse people” it is for those that are curious about what horses can teach us, and show us about being deeply skilled in our genius and gifts and how they can transfer their knowledge to us to support us creating masterful containers and experiences for those we serve.
The blending of neuroscience and somatics gives us the capacity to understand the physiology of creating safe spaces, and also supporting the growth of those that we serve, while also understanding how to lean into our own internal wisdom and cultivate a safe space for ourselves while we do it.
To be masterful in leading and holding for others, means we are also masterful at how we tend to ourselves. The uniqueness of this program beyond blending the three spaces of wisdom in this program, is also looking at the lens of self and lens of others.
What we will cover as part of the curriculum of this program
Week 1: How do we cultivate a safe environment for ourselves and our clients in our work
Talking about energetic etiquette, creating safe boundaries for ourselves and our clients, understanding the neuroscience of safety and what that means and how to create that space of awareness.
Scope of practice: trauma informed vs facilitating trauma
Week 2: Somatic Awareness
How do we develop an understanding of our own cues and presence in ourself and in our clients and tap into that for how to best support a client in their process. How do we read our own cues and be more in tune with the information we are receiving in the totality of our system to inform how we lead and facilitate others.
We also talk about the difference between intuition and ego, where our brain centers in our body to inform our practice as opposed to being led by our insecurities or limited access to our full intelligence.
Week 3: Sacred Boundaries
Boundaries often emerge in our practice on multiple levels, knowing to be aware of and clear of our roles of responsibility as a facilitator and practitioner is important.
Knowing how to set up a practice that enforces boundaries so both client and ourselves feels safely held in our practice is important.
Understanding the full spectrum of where boundaries apply and can be instilled in our exchanges with others and how we set up our business is important.
When we don’t have boundaries, we end up getting burnt out, attracting the “wrong” clients and we are not able to build a safe and sacred relationship with our clients and our practice.
This module will have us deepen and explore all nuances of boundaries that exist in our practice and how we hold others and ourselves.
Week 4: Navigating Triggers and the Window of Tolerance
Being aware of how to be conscious of our triggers and triggers in others, how to hold that safely, and what the window of tolerance means and how to be conscious of that space.
There is a difference between supporting someone through a growth edge and empowering their safety boundary, this is where we become aware of the difference between both.
In this module we will be looking into what it means to be trauma informed and be aware of our scope of practice and how to support our clients within our scope of practice.
Week 5: Facilitation Skills: Reading the Space
Part of being a masterful facilitator is our ability to read the deeper space of awareness around a client and their environment, we can also call this the ability to read the room. How do we know when we are in space with a client, what they need and how to read the energy of a conversation as opposed to being led by it.
When we are masterful at space reading, we are bringing in the awareness of the entire space that someone exists in the words they are not speaking, the energy behind the words and then interpret and be informed of that energy in a way that is empowering to the client, and brings awareness to our own lens of interpretation.
Week 6: Intuition and Self Trust, Self Responsibility
Intuition can be a source of information that can help us be attuned to what is happening with our clients and also a place we can develop a trust around how to hold it and speak to it while also taking responsibility for our lens.
Self responsibility is being aware of what we bring into the space of our clients and knowing how to take ownership of what is ours, and how to be in tune with that so we don’t project onto those that we are serving.
Week 7: Facilitation and Leadership Skills: Our unique leadership presence and range
We bring a unique lens and strength to our practice and a range within that, when we are able to know our strengths in our leadership we feel more confident in what we can do to support others.
In that exploration we will also cultivate the awareness of our range, in order to meet our clients where they are and support their transformation we need to be more expanded in how we show up. We can’t be one dimensional. This means we look at our discomfort around the fullness of what we bring in our strengths, and the invitation around which part of our range are we being invited into and how do we find empowerment in that place as opposed to discomfort.
Week 8: Archetypes and Practices
What are some powerful practices we can bring to our clients to support them in resourcing their own internal wisdom? What can we bring into our practice that gives tools to our clients to help them resource from within.
Practices and tools can be very supportive for our clients in having them integrate our process with them and become empowered in themselves in knowing they can resource internally and sometimes we need guidance in order to do that.
This module is about exploring some of those practices and tools and how to integrate that into our practice with our clients.
Bonus week 9: Energetics of money and our practice
We wanted to create a module that confronts our relationship with the exchange around money and how to hold our offerings and practice.
When we can’t hold our integrity in this piece, it impacts our capacity and how we hold the space with our clients.
We don’t want to dilute the power of what we hold with those that come to us, and project our own discomforts around charging in our practice and we need a practice to support our work.
At the end of this program you will have a robust knowledge of how to blend the intelligence of neuroscience, somatics and horse wisdom into your practice, while deeply influencing the quality of space you create for those that you serve.
The delivery of the program:
Each week there will be a teaching call to deepen into the teachings and concepts of each week, that includes guest teachers that bring their expertise to the field, this includes Dr. Maia Love who will be bringing her wisdom on neuroscience and Nicole Quaid who will be bringing her background of somatics to speak more deeply to how this blends into our work.
There will be written and audio modules, along with the recordings of the teachings calls and guest speakers.
You will have lifetime access to this program, including any new material we add for future programs.
Who is this program for?
This program is for coaches, mentors, facilitators, intuitives, healers and those that are seeking to add knowledge of neuroscience, somatics and have a curiosity of what the horse wisdom brings in how they can develop a deeper mastery of craft in how they serve.
You can be someone who has worked with others for a long time, or be earlier on in your journey, the content of this program will meet you where you are, and add value to where you currently find yourself in relationship to how you have been cultivating spaces for those you serve.
When: March 9th we will open our circle with our first call taking place the following week, the calls will be scheduled around who enrolls in the program.
When: Starting March 9th
Investment: $495 CDN (pilot price)
or 3 payments of $167CDN or 5 payments of $100CDN
Meet your facilitators
Brittany Ashworth
Brittany Ashworth lives with her husband, horses and other animals on the traditional and unceded territory of the Secwépemc people, specifically Splatsín (Salmon Arm, BC).
Through her own business, Sacred Echos, Brittany serves as a Horse Medicine facilitator, Animal Communicator, Akashic Records Reader, intuitive, and educator. Her passion lies in bridging the gap of communication, understanding, and partnership between humans and animals. Her practice is deeply guided by the wisdom of animals, her intuition, and her love for teaching.
As a facilitator, Brittany strives to empower individuals on their healing journeys in a way that honours them on their unique path to healing. She recognizes each person as a unique individual with their own lived experiences, challenges, and truths. With a commitment to inclusivity, she creates a welcoming and safe space where all feel seen, heard, and supported.
Brittany’s dedication to supporting others and sharing the healing work of horses shines through in all that she does. She is honoured to guide and witness those who feel called to this transformative work.
Dr Maia Love
Maia is an executive and leadership coach and physician specializing in the area of neuroscience and consciousness. She founded and directed BrainTalks at UBC, has led and co-led various retreats, and has spoken internationally at conferences for over twenty years.
Her love of neuroscience includes studies through several university degrees including a degree in biology and physics where she studied electromagnetism in animals and humans, and her advanced neuroscience training through medical studies and research.
She loves holding a clear space for you to experience your own magnificent potential, touch on your authentic truths, learn how to work with your personal neuroscience, and then sense how to live your brand of unique intelligence in the world. She works with horses as horses powerfully magnify and accelerate your personal, professional and leadership growth, in both mysterious and very practical ways.
Nicole Quaid
Nicole is a licensed psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) and Integral Somatic Psychology Practitioner (ISP). She has studied Embodied Imaginal Dreamwork, Jungian psychology, and trauma- informed attachment theory.
She practices eco-therapy, animistic astrology, and most recently, horse medicine sessions.
Sessions with Nicole offer time to explore body, psyche and spirit.
She holds and co-creates the space to explore the magic that emerges from engaging our most stuck and expansive parts while gently sharing the land. Being with the plants, trees and animals allows for a reciprocity and exchange of energy that continually proves generative and healing.
Nicole also studied and worked in photography and fine art. The curiosity she most enjoys in creative processes is similar to that brought into healing work. Both feel like devotional practices.
She is the guardian of a black and white paint named Willow and part-time care provider for her herd mates. She lives with the energy of four cats who are now all in spirit-form. They live on the unceded land originally and continually cared for by the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Gabrieleño-Tongva people, called greater Los Angeles.
Hillary Schneider
Hillary Schneider is the founder of Horse Medicine Leadership and Epona Rise Retreat Center.
She has spent the last 13 years dedicating herself to teaching and sharing the wisdom and medicine of horses to those that are called. Hillary runs her own 80 acre retreat center with a herd of 27 wise equine teachers, together they lead and facilitate retreats for those that are called to the wisdom and medicine of horses.
Since 2013 Hillary has been mentorship and teaching other equine facilitators that are looking for a path that empowers and is centered around the partnership with horses and what they have to teach us. She is deeply honored to share and teach this path with her herd of horses and grow this beautiful community of horse medicine leadership.