“ One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
- Henry Miller
Who we are
Spiegelbild is German for mirror image. It can also be translated as reflection, and we interpret it as self-awareness.
We utilize the inherent benefits of being around horses to enhance your personal, professional and leadership development. Horses provide a caring, safe environment for humans to reflect, explore and work on moving forward in their lives. Our equine-assisted coaching programs are a good fit for individuals, couples and teams who find themselves at a crossroads in their life or career, or are seeking to explore a new chapter in their life. We also seek to support the next generation of leaders by building leadership skills and competence - especially through embracing empathy in leadership.
We live by our core values of creativity, excellence, honesty and integrity. Building lasting connections and relationships is a cornerstone of Spiegelbild’s work. This includes the equine partners in our programs. Their physical, emotional and mental well-being is paramount, and our programs have been designed to reflect the respect we have for these amazing beings.
Why horses?
To survive in the wild, horses depend on a fine-tuned awareness of their environment. Horses possess a unique sensitivity for the energy, emotions and intentions of other beings around them (including humans). This makes them talented teachers. Horses are entirely unbiased towards a person’s level of education, age, gender, rank or cultural background.
Horses do not lie. They provide honest, in-the-moment feedback of an individual’s ability to communicate with, relate to, and provide direction to others. Horses instinctively respond to a person’s non-verbal signals and intentions. They surface subconscious behaviours and reveal to our participants subtle aspects of themselves that they may not be aware of, but that influence how they are perceived by others.
How does it work?
Your first session is always an equine-assisted coaching session. No riding is involved and you do not need to have previous horse experience.
We pair you or your team with a horse partner and coach you through several activities. You will explore how to use influence over authority, adjust in the moment, improve your active listening skills, and increase your awareness for non-verbal communication.
What shows up in the horse-human relationship is highly relevant and directly transferable to human-human interactions. Discoveries made during equine-assisted sessions are deepened during subsequent, traditional private, couple or team coaching sessions. By building upon your key reflections you will transform your understanding of who you are.
Nicole Schaefer
is the founder of Spiegelbild, a research-driven social enterprise.
She has over twenty years of international experience working for local, national and international governments and organizations.
Nicole has led complex multi-cultural teams and projects. She has completed over 130 hours of coaching training, both with the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), and CRR Global’s Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC), and is an ORSC trained coach for individuals, couples, and teams.
Combined with her passion for horses, and the special connection she has with her equine partners, Nicole brings her extensive leadership experience to our programs.
As a research-driven social enterprise, Spiegelbild seeks to build credible evidence of the benefits and effectiveness of equine-assisted coaching for personal and professional development, and the strengthening of leadership skills; one human-equine partnership at a time.
To achieve this goal we are collaborating with post-secondary institutions and other organizations in various research projects.
