We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle Holling-Brooks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle below.
Michelle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
Probably the biggest risk I took since deciding to start my own business back in 2008, would be in summer of 2019, before the wheels came to a stop with the pandemic, I had been feeling a nudge in my meditations to switch from having my business, Unbridled Change, from being mainly focused on one-on-one face to face offerings to including more online and group offerings. I had a few online teaching courses here and there; however, they were mainly through guest teaching opportunities on other people’s platforms. And the truth was I loved one-on-one client work, teaching, and mentoring, it was my comfort zone and it allowed me to do my work out at the barn and with the horses. However, in almost every visioning meditation I did on what would best serve Unbridled Change in the coming years, I kept getting the guidance to develop and offer multi-level online teaching and mentoring courses in the Healing Arts. When I set with the guidance it made a lot of sense, the on-line space would be more accessible, and I could make our offerings more affordable to clients that might not be able to do either in person or private mentoring sessions. This shift would allow me an opportunity to help more people and also grow my practice as a Teacher in addition to a Practitioner. It sounded great on paper. However, I was really nervous about rocking the boat of my current business model because it was finally at a good cruising altitude – I had established a wonderful client referral network and had steady streams of income that I could count on. Going more into the online space was a big risk, it was going to require me to figure out new technology, find new clients, and also invest in equipment and platforms for housing everything.
I had a list a mile long as to why I should just kick the can down the road, find a good online coach in how to do online marketing strategies and do the best content recording and so on. Plus when I shared my thoughts with my friends, I was met with statements like, “Good luck, the online space is really tough.” Or “You know it takes a lot of time to do that, maybe make it a goal for 2 years out, don’t rush it.” I was starting to question my nudges and maybe the “timing of it”. Maybe I do need to do more research and see what was out there and wait and see what next year brings. Anytime I started down that road, instantly my gut feeling was, “No, that was not in alignment with what Unbridled Change really wants to do.” So, I took a deep breath, walked into my staff meeting and shared the good news that we were going to take the next three months to shift gears and develop an online school for mentoring and teaching the Healing Arts in addition to our in-person work. I do have to say my staff wasn’t overjoyed. Over the next three months I swapped my calendar around to make space for developing and recording content, invested in a new website and platform that could house more online courses with greater ease and took my whole business from being heavily in-person to online in a matter of months. All the time crossing my fingers and hoping I was single handedly crashing my business into the ground at the same time. In February of 2020 I launched the enrollments for our first cohorts of online teaching and personal healing courses, started a podcast, and walked into the online space without a clue what I was doing tech wise, but I was doing it. In March of 2020 when the ability to meet in person was suddenly taken off the table for Covid-19 safety reasons, Unbridled Change was ready and able to effortless shift gears to meet the demands of clients needing help and support and to offer community even if it wasn’t at the barn. I would never have guessed how that guidance was going to turn out. Everything I valued – providing accessible services that provide a sacred healing space for finding hope, healing, and growth was right there and ready to go in a totally new way. Going on 4 years later we now offer a beautiful variation of in-person and online services that bring sacred healing spaces to people across the globe. The switch in services also gave me the space to develop and write my 2nd book, which I would not have really struggled to find the space to do if I was still in the 100% one-on-one services. When I look back at the choice to take the leap and follow my guidance, wow! It is hard to imagine all the growth opportunities that came from that one choice.
Now, when I get those types of nudges, I don’t hesitate, I just leap and see what amazing things are going to come from it!
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?
In September of 2008, I founded Unbridled Change, a non-profit organization with the mission to provide a sanctuary for our clients and the community to find the hope, healing, and growth they have been searching for. As a lifelong equestrian, horses are a huge part of my personal healing and growth journey. After a life-threatening illness in my early teens, I was left forever changed. The trauma to my brain ripped me of control of my body, wiped my sense of self, and left me retreating from life. I didn’t trust people to help me heal, but I would trust a horse. Horses gave me a safe place to discover all the pieces of self – body, mind, and soul–I had lost. Through their support, I was willing to embark on the journey of self-healing and transformation. I would say that pretty much everything I teach and share no matter what healing modality it is, a horse taught it to me first.
I share pieces of my early healing journey and the role horses played in it, along with the stories of how horses have helped others find their way back from trauma in the book, The Horse Cure – True Stories, Remarkable Horses Bringing Miraculous Change to Humankind.
I consider myself a bit of a Healing Rebel! My mom used to say I swam upstream on everything! However, I would say what I really do is embrace coloring outside the lines when it comes to healing, growth, and I guess well even what it means to be human! I believe that healing and growth come through addressing the whole self – mind, body, and soul to create lasting change and true healing. The illness I had in my teens set my life on a path that opened me to living outside the conventional lines all across the board. As a result, I am now a devoted student of learning “how” to unbridle healing, growth, and evolution for all Beings.
As a student of the Healing Arts, I have spent over 20 years developing a “toolbox” that infuses many different modalities, approaches, training, and techniques. All training and education aside, I have one core belief that creates the foundation of Unbridled Change and my approach. I believe that there are many different paths or doorways one can walk through on their healing and growth journey, but there is only one destination. I believe the destination we are all searching for is connecting into and aligning with our Divine Soul and sense of purpose. I also believe that everyone’s healing and growth path needs to match their individual needs. As a Practitioner and Teacher in the Healing Arts, it is my job to support my clients on their path that is right for them.
Every day I’m blessed with the opportunity to serve my divine purpose through the support of my staff (human and horses) and working with our amazing clients!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One of the biggest lesson I wrestled to unlearn as a Practitioner was to let go of my attachments to the biggest cultural idea that as a “practitioner” or “teacher” we always needed to know the answer or have the right response ready to go. I had an amazing teacher, Misa Hopkins, that once said to me, “Michelle, you have to be willing to be wrong, so your client can be right.” I remember thinking, “What, I don’t understand, that is the whole reason I’m taking your course so I don’t get it wrong when I’m with my client!” Luckily, I was puzzled enough and had deep respect for her as teacher to not just gloss over this statement.
As I unpacked this I realized that in my willingness to say the words, “I don’t know, let’s lean and and see what is there.” when I client’s asked for guidance gave my clients the space to explore to linger with their own process instead of me jumping to a “place” I thought or felt was the answer. This lingering was not throwing them into the dark void on their own. I was right there with them, holding sacred space, and willing to not know what answer will be so that theirs could come forward. Coming through this approach allowing my client’s system to guide them to the perfect “right” answer for them. I am also in awe of the brilliance and innate healing wisdom our system has if we can trust it to guide us in, through, and out. My big take away from that unlearning moment, I can release the pressure of me being right and knowing the answer, that is my ego getting in the way, the true role as a Healing Practitioner is allow the client’s own system to guiding us and discovering their own “right” medicine within.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
I often ask myself this question, “Should I have pursued becoming a licenses professional counselor or social worker, would it have helped more business wise?”
While I love my college education in law and master level classes in social work, I believe that path as the Healing Arts practitioner is what serves myself and my business the best. I love being in the role that lets my own type of Medicine shine. It also helps me work in collaboration. I love partnering with other professionals in their field and bringing together a beautiful healing team for our clients that honors everyone’s roles and talents. Most of my clients have brought together a healing team of medical professionals, licensed mental health professionals, and other certified Wellness and Healing Arts professionals. I’m not sure I would have been so open to collaboration as easily is I had gone the full route of licensure.
However, having master level classes in Social Work and understanding the impact of trauma has been a huge plus for me on the Healing Arts side, so while you do not have it to be an amazing Practitioner, it is something that I highly encourage all Healing Arts practitioners to learn and study in some form or fashion because it does help us hold space in alignment with trauma informed care.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.unbridledchange.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Unbridled.Change/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unbridledchange/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@unbridledchange54
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