Meet the Practitioner
Susan Bloom
Connection And Synergy
I believe that every little girl has a love of horses. Some of us are lucky enough to be able to enjoy that passion hands-on and even carry it on into adulthood.
Horses
My passion for horses started at a very young age. I can’t remember a time that horses weren’t a part of my life. My grandpa got me my first pony at about five, I started showing in lead pony and I was hooked. As a youth, I showed in 4-H and AQHA shows and High School Rodeos.
Grandpa had been an athlete and coach. When he quit coaching to move back to Kansas to farm, he started to raise and race some Thoroughbreds but mostly Quarter Race Horses to feed his competitive spirit. Some of my fondest memories are of traveling to the races and to breeding farms to look at stallions with him as a child. He would pour over the stud books and write out pedigrees on his horses. He was a big, kind man who was loved by all and a great mentor.
Equine Gestalt Coaching Method®
In late January 2013, my husband was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disease. Thus, started my journey as a caregiver. We traveled over 57,000 miles and I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly in the healthcare system.
Then in January of 2016, my job as the Oakley Area Tourism Director was combined with another full-time job. I didn’t feel like I could manage the two full-time jobs and my caregiver role, so I passed on taking the combined position. Instead, I enrolled in the Touched By A Horse Equine Gestalt Coaching Method program.
The Universe had something else for me to learn and in November of 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My journey continues with medical professionals as both a caregiver and patient.
I combine my love of horses with a desire to create more connection between doctors, patients, and caregivers through Equine Gestalt Coaching.
Why I Feel Connections in Health Care are Important
Being a caregiver for my husband for five-and-a-half years, a breast cancer survivor and the daughter of the only doctor in a small rural community I’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly in health care. This along with my Equine Gestalt Coaching® certification and education in communications has left me with a passion to help doctors, patients, and caregivers form stronger connections.
As a doctor’s daughter, I learned early that doctors are not superhuman, they are people with human failings. This helped me to communicate with several different specialists during my husband’s five-and-a-half years of chronic illness.
Being a caregiver, I understand the emotions and frustrations that go along with caregiving. For my own personal experience, I feel that the Equine Gestalt Coaching program put me in the best emotional state I could be during the last half of caregiving, being diagnosed with breast cancer, treatment, and losing my husband.
I feel that forming deeper connections will have benefits for the patients, caregivers, and doctors alike. Giving the patients and caregivers the feeling of being heard. And the doctors the feeling of helping their patients at a deeper level.
Why Gestalt
We are all whole. Some of us have unfinished business in our lives that create a reaction within us. Gestalt is living in the present moment in serenity and joy. The Gestaltist helps finish that business and bring people back to serenity and joy, being in the present moment.
Why Horses
Horses have always been a source of solace for me. I would go tell them my problems, especially as a teenager. Now I know why. They are always in the moment. They want to increase our vibrations and make us feel better or maybe feel anything. They are the perfect Gestaltists. They are whole and always in the moment. When humans have discord or dissonance in their lives the horses would like to heal what causes it.