We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Annie Young a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Annie, thanks for joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

One of my biggest defining moments came at a time when my integrity, ethics, professional knowledge and competence were challenged. I was many years into my career as a Registered Pediatric Dietitian specializing in children with special needs and medically complicated.

I had been working with a family whose daughter was born with a chromosomal abnormality. The only child known to live past a few hours after birth, there was very little medical knowledge around how to best support this innocent little being. From the very beginning of working with this family I sensed an exorbitant amount of stress. After trying and retrying different sources of nutrition to support growth and development, sadly, she ended up in the hospital with protein malnourishment. Reaching a peak to her already built up anxiety, the mom filed a complant of incompetence to my ethics board.

There is never a good time for such a blow to anyone’s ego and I was no exception. I was in the middle of sorting out postpartum depression. Plus already questioning if I had enough in me to continue serving a population where stress and anxiety were always at high levels while raising a family of my own.

I had a few things in my favor at the time. I had medical professionals who supported me and my craft. I had a best friend, also in the medical profession, who happened to be an exceptional writer and presenter to medical boards. And, as a person who took painstaking efforts to document my every thought and reason for medical decisions made around nutrition, I had everything already at my fingertips to defend my involvement in this patient’s course and plan. My case was thrown out at the first pass through the ethics board stating that all standards of practice were followed above and beyond with an unfortunate outcome.

This experience brought several gifts. The most remarkable one was a new and surprising discovery of my ability to remain in complete compassion for the mother of this child. It would have been so easy to be upset at being challenged after all the long hours of worrying and strategizing care for this patient. And with the mother bad-mouthing to other medical professionals, I could have turned to my own anger to comfort me. Instead, I leaned into my compassionate side. I remember having my first thoughts that this might be one of my superpowers. The first sign that I was heading to another career. It was too early for me to understand how important this career was to being able to serve in my ultimate calling.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Being a registered pediatric dietitian was a rewarding experience. Now I am a certified Equine Gestaltist® and I am finding it just as fulfilling as my first career.

After the defining experience I mentioned before, I continued practicing in the field of special needs for a bit longer. Eventually I stepped away from Dietetics. I focused on raising my family. I heavily volunteered in our elementary school. As I was nearing the end of my youngest’s days in elementary I was searching for my next move. Wondering how I could go back to the families I served as a dietitian but in a different capacity? The universe answered. A friend of mine shared a program she was going through that was training her to partner with horses and support clients with emotional healing and personal development. The program was a perfect fit for me as well.

As a graduate of Touched By A Horse® I am now a certified Equine Gestaltist® and I serve all parents at my facility, Sawubona Ranch™, in Littleton, Colorado.

Today I assist parents of children who struggle, whether emotional, physically, or medically, to release the stress they hold in their bodies, even if it is from the distant past. I help parents get reconnected to who they are today and who they want to be in the future. I support empty nesters who are looking for their next steps in life. I walk with those who want to be their best selves and shine their brightest light in the world.

I am most proud of my superpower of standing unyielding in compassion and designing a career and facility to support parents who deserve self-compassion. Parenting changes a person and I provide a safe space without judgment to look at all the ways change has occurred. The good, the bad, the ugly and I help bring forward the strengths of each individual through self discovery. My unique background gives me an edge to understanding the nuances of parenting at a much deeper level than most.

The thing to know about a Gestaltist is that in order to be certified, a Master Gestaltist® must witness the student doing their work, healing their wounds, and completing their unfinished business. If a Certified Gestaltist® is coaching a client, that client can have confidence that the coach is not bringing forward their own baggage into the session.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Absolutely, no question about it! I would not change a thing from my past career and how I got to my new career. All of my experiences that led me to today, albeit painful to witness and in some cases go through, has given me insight to the impact parenting has on an individual. An edge that sets me apart from other practitioners.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

During training to become an Equine Gestaltist® I took a long hard look at my complete and deep commitment to never, ever let ANYone see me as anything but positive.

Upon first glance one might think,”Why change that? The world needs more positive people!” it’s what I thought for sure. Turns out that when I was really young, probably around 6 or so years of age, I made this convenient to myself. Which meant that “positive” was defined as a 6 year old as well. So now as a grown adult I was running my outer appearance as someone who was positive from a 6 years old eyes. Which also does not sound too bad. So what’s the problem?

A couple of things did not go well for me stuck in this mindset…

First, no one can stay positive 24/7. Which meant that I had to develop strategies to offset this. One was an unhealthy guilt muscle. I was able to pour guilt onto myself at the drop of a hat. If I leaked out any emotion other than a positive one, guilt was hot on it’s heals. So to avoid guilt I would get moving. If I was overly busy I didn’t have time to be focused on any non-positive emotions. Remember I was still defining “positive emotions” as a 6 year old. Ultimately, I was an overly committed, sometimes fakely positive, and detached from my authentic self person. Very unhealthy.

Second, I was setting an example to my kids that constant positive attitudes were what was expected in the house. Inadvertently, I gave them the message that anything other than positive outlooks meant failure. They had no example on how to handle upset. A skill set needed to thrive out in the world.

Lastly, hiding all other emotions from everyone, including myself, meant that no one could truly know the real me. My mentor, Melisa Pearce of Touched By A Horse ®, dubbed me “The Energizer Bunny” and openly wondered who I was under it all.

By doing my personal work with a Gestaltist, I learned that being authentic was far better than a strict 6-year-old-version of “positive”. Now dubbed “A Real Rabbit” I get to be free to be whatever I feel whenever I feel it. Turns out I AM a positive person at the core. And upset is upset…without any other label. Even in anger I get to choose to be kind and respectful. Nothing negative about that. I am closer to my husband and children. And I am a healthier human now. Living even a “positive” lie can bring on all kinds of yucky things, like cancer, in my case.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sawubonaranch.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sawubonaranch/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SawubonaRanch
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-young-3a8b8792/

Image Credits
Lilo Photography & Branding provided: Sawubona Ranch_Annie_002.jpeg, Sawubona Ranch_Annie_003.jpeg, Sawubona Ranch_Annie_004.jpeg, & Sawubona Ranch_Annie_006.jpeg,