Meet Melisa Pearce

Melisa Pearce is a teacher, author, psychotherapist and pioneer in the field of the human/horse healing. Over the last three decades, she has coached and helped others through her private psychotherapy practice and partnership with horses. This partnership with horses led her to create the certified by Melisa Pearce Equine Gestalt Coaching Method™

Expert in Gestalt

At the core of her approach lies her deep understanding of the transformative power of one of the most important contributions of humanistic psychology – Gestalt therapy. As a Gestaltist, Melisa has guided thousands of clients through their unfinished business to a level of self-awareness that allows room for personal responsibility and a life of self-compassion.

Melisa has received over 300 advanced Gestalt training hours with two of the biggest names in Gestalt therapy; Joseph Zinker Ph.D. the co-founder of the Gestalt Institute who trained with Fritz Perls, the creator of Gestalt Therapy; and Sonia Nevis Ph.D, the co-founder of the Gestalt International Study Center.

Melisa’s more recent book, “What the Heck Is Gestalt?”, makes the theory and practice of Gestalt accessible to anyone interested in Gestalt.

Equine Knowledge

Melisa has bred, shown and raised horses for over 30 years, giving her a deep understanding of their natures. She won two World Championship American Paint Horse Association awards, has bred over 200 foals, and owns multiple ranches. She continues to lecture nationally at major equine events such as the Midwest Horse Fair, Equine Affaire and Equine Extravaganza.

Horses have always been Melisa’s most trusted confidants and she believes that their true purpose on this planet is to be healers. Early in her training in Gestalt, she recognized what supreme, embodied Gestaltists horses are in their own right. They never ask why. They live in the present moment. They are not interested in what we think, and they are highly tuned in to how we feel. They have deep somatic understanding and can read the human body on several energy levels.

Melisa lives on her ranch near Elizabeth, Colorado, with her husband Dane Cheek, her herd of equine partners, and a veritable menagerie of animals.

Equine Gestalt Coaching Method™

Melisa developed the Equine Gestalt Coaching Method™, where there are two Gestaltists present with the client—one human and one equine. Together they provide a therapeutic approach to deep-process emotional healing through the experiential nature of Gestalt work. Contrary to talk therapy, Gestalt work is experiential in nature and offers one of the most efficient means of working with past trauma and finding wholeness.

As of early 2019, there are close to two hundred certified Equine Gestalt Coaching Method® practitioners worldwide from countries as far away as South Africa and Singapore. These graduates, along with their equine partners, help their clients find positive futures and personal happiness.