Exploring Life & Business with Dr. Vallerie Coleman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Vallerie Coleman.

Hi Dr. Coleman, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Having gotten 2 doctorates – one in psychology and one in psychoanalysis I imagined I’d settle into my busy office practice; instead, I found that while I enjoyed my clients, there was something missing and sitting in an office day after day just wasn’t the right fit for me. When I started riding horses again and got introduced to Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, I was very skeptical…then I began to notice how spot on the horses’ instinctual wisdom was in reaction to their experience of humans and their energy.

I realized that the missing piece for me was that I needed to be outside in a natural environment and have the ability to provide powerful and effective experiential psychotherapy. Gradually, I shifted from my traditional office practice to owning a ranch and developing Stand InBalance into the company it is today.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Definitely, there have been bumps and lots of learning opportunities along the way!

Working as an individual psychologist didn’t really translate to building and running a company. And being a cutting-edge professional services business meant constantly explaining and demonstrating the effectiveness of our Equine Assisted Programs for many years. Fortunately, I found a great business coach who was indispensable.

We started out small by borrowing space and equines and it wasn’t easy to have consistency or a professional atmosphere in our first year. Once we were leading a workshop and there were tree trimmers with extremely loud chainsaws right next to us for hours…that didn’t go so well.

The biggest struggle was figuring out how to have a viable company with the enormous overhead that goes along with owning and caring for equines…especially when many of them are rescues. We are unique in that we don’t do the kinds of things that typically support a horse facility such as breeding, boarding or providing riding lessons. We’ve had to become very flexible and creative in utilizing our space and our equines so that we are maximizing workflow and income — it’s often quite a balancing act. Fortunately, I’ve been able to develop a great team who works together really well.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Located in the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains in Westlake Village, Stand InBalance is a leader in providing Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) for individuals, couples and families, as well as Equine Assisted Growth and Learning (EAGL) workshops and retreats for individuals, groups and teams. Using interaction with horses and donkeys (we have a herd of 13 equines), our professionals provide opportunities for participants to develop greater self-awareness, increased self-confidence and improved communication & relationships.

Horses and donkeys are really like big biofeedback beings with a heart and a soul, which makes them perfect partners and teachers for us humans. Their keen awareness of, and ability to interpret, the body language and emotions of the animals around them not only makes them successful herd animals but enables them to be steadfast interpreters of our underlying, true feelings.

Due to their unique animal nature, the equines respond to our inner selves and provide immediate, non-judgmental feedback that can help identify strengths and stuck points. Through guided interactions with them, they provide opportunities for us to develop greater self-awareness, increased self-confidence, and improved relationships – both personally and professionally.

Our programs are not about riding or horsemanship, they’re about gaining the tools to face life’s challenges from a place of calm, inner strength. And you just might fall in love with a horse or a donkey!

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I think moving forward in life always involves some level of risk. You have to be willing to let go of where you are to get to the next level – whether that means taking a small step or a big leap. However, it doesn’t mean being reckless, although sometimes you have to manage uncertainty by having faith that you’ll figure it out when you land.

Deciding to sell our home and buy a ranch so that I could do this full-time was a huge leap! Fortunately, I had a lot of emotional support. It took a year for us to find the right property and then I had to build the horse facilities from the ground up. I didn’t have any financing and no client contracts when we started so it was really done bit by bit and involved a lot of creativity with credit card debt. I was really going on the principle of “build it and they will come”.

There were lots of times that I wasn’t sure it was going to work out but I continued to persevere and trust in the power of this work, my abilities, and my team – humans and equine. That is still what gets me through when I hit a rough patch.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.standinbalance.com
• Instagram: @standinbalance
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/StandInBalanceEquines

Image Credits
Alessandro Gentile of Gentile Images