May 22, 2024 • 29 mins
We are visiting pre-covid 2018 in today's encore episode, an amazing show exploring how animals can be used as therapeutic ways to get past blocks, heal trauma, and improve our physical and mental health. Julie has a wonderful convo with Equine Assisted Learning specialist Sandra Dee Robinson in this special two-part encore presentation of Brain Lady Speaks.
Connect with Sandra:
Connect with Brain Lady Julie
Do you have a great question or topic you'd like Brain Lady Julie to cover? Think you'd be a great guest? Message our producer Kelli@BrainLadySpeaker.com and let us know.
PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this podcast is not at any time and for any reason meant to replace the guidance and/or treatment of any health professional. Whether it be a medical doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or anyone in the medical field. If you are under the care of such a health professional, remember this is an “added value” and not designed to replace any care you are currently under.
Connect with Sandra:
Connect with Brain Lady Julie
Do you have a great question or topic you'd like Brain Lady Julie to cover? Think you'd be a great guest? Message our producer Kelli@BrainLadySpeaker.com and let us know.
PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this podcast is not at any time and for any reason meant to replace the guidance and/or treatment of any health professional. Whether it be a medical doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or anyone in the medical field. If you are under the care of such a health professional, remember this is an “added value” and not designed to replace any care you are currently under.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, Hello, and welcome toanother Brain Lady Speaks podcast episode. This
is not your Brain Lady, JulieAnderson. Brain Lady Julie Anderson, let
her pinky. Kelly Cooper here bringingyou another encore episode. We are reaching
the way back time machine to Januaryof twenty eighteen. That is pre COVID.
(00:26):
My friends, do we even rememberthat time? This is May twenty
second, twenty twenty four, sosix years ago, and a lot of
people that have come to brain LadySpeaks recently and has not gone back and
listened to all of the classic episodes. This is a great one. This
is one I personally wanted to revisitbecause of my love with animals, especially
(00:50):
horses and cats I was raised withand dogs for that matter. I was
raised with a lot of the differentanimals. I had the honor, the
pleasure, the blessing of always havinganimals in my life and some of my
earliest memories are at horses. They'rea big deal in our family. Julie
herself has horses, and we visitthe topic of equine therapy in today's podcast
(01:18):
Equine Assisted Learning with Miss Sandra dRobinson, and these ladies have a great
conversation. They spoke for an hour, so we are cutting this episode into
two parts. Remember this podcast issix over six years old, so this
(01:38):
is before a lot of the technology, the better equipment that we have gained
for a Brain Lady Speaks. Soplease forgive the audio not being the sharpest,
but just just turn up that volumeand enjoy the show. It's a
really good one. Remember to comeback next week and join us for part
two. But for right now,let's go into part one of Brain Lady
(02:02):
Speaks from twenty eighteen with Sandra g. Robinson. I am so excited for
the show today. It is anotheramazing Wednesday morning. Every morning is amazing
(02:25):
when you're up and moving and breathingright, and I am really stoked.
I often have some amazing guests onthe show, and today is no exception.
Not only is it no exception,is someone I personally am so looking
forward to doing an interview with becausewe have a few common threads and you'll
find out more about that as weget into the program. Without any further
(02:47):
ado, I want to tell youa little bit about the topic and our
guest, as well as the reasonwhy I am so soaked and enthused about
having her on the program today.So the topic is my therapist paid in
hay a surprising way Horse's help us. And some people may be looking at
that, going what on earth doesthis have to do with the brain?
(03:13):
Right? Well, let me tellyou it has a ton ton ton ton
to do with the brain, andyou will find out as you go on,
as you listen on to the programtoday, because our expert is Sandra
D. Robinson, and some ofyou may recognize that name from some of
the events and programs or shows thatshe has been in because she is a
(03:35):
successful actress. So I'm going togive you real quick a little bit of
her background. She's got a verylong bio, so I'm going to kind
of paraphrase some of it, butI do want you to understand where she
came from and that will give yousome understand the impact of the value of
the information that she brings. Soshe is an acclaimed charisma coach, actress,
actress, speaker, spokesperson, host, author, CEO, passionate equine
(04:00):
owner and wildlife confirmation advocate. Shehas been on in the past. She
for more than two decades, shehad leading roles on programs such as Another
World, Sunset, Beach, Boldand Beautiful, General Hospital, Days of
Our Lives, and the Now inan Emmy nominated series of Bay So.
(04:20):
A lot of people might just assumethat her confidence comes naturally from being a
soap opera, but that couldn't befurther from the truth. She says that
when people see her on stage,it's hard for them to believe that she
was once a shy girl, onethat feared nothing more than being herself in
public and in public speaking spotlight.So she hid behind these characters that she
(04:46):
played on camera and that led herdown. She dealing with this and struggling
with us, she made a decisionthat she could be happy with success that
she had achieved and accept the acceptwhat it is, but dig or she
could dig deeper and uncover what itwas that held her back, and that's
what she did. So she'll probablyshare a little bit of her personal journey
(05:08):
on the program today because all ofthat led her to found to be the
founder and owner of two companies Charismaon camera, helping other people step into
the spotlight, so to speak,and own their own charisma and be comfortable
in that position. As well aswhat I'm excited about the horse powered consulting.
(05:30):
Both of these are ventures that aredesigned to help people to achieve true
confidence and communicate more effectively so theycan get their message out in a big
way. I have had a fewconversations with this amazing woman and she has,
we needless to say, clicked overthe equine thing. When you are
a horse crazy person, you area horse crazy person. And let me
(05:50):
tell you, Sandra is like myselfa horse crazy person. So without eating
further ado, let me bring onSandra onto the program. Thank you Sandra
for being on the program with ustoday. All I'm excited to be here,
thanks so much, and it's alwaysfun to hang out with horse crazy
girls. But right, I thinkour goal, both your in mind today
(06:11):
is to introduce people to the possibilitiesof you know what these horses introduced,
which is what nature can do forour brains, and how truthful and how
effective it is. And it's fun. Right, we have to tell them
it's fun, so absolutely absolutely,And I've often said to people, and
someone who hasn't been around horses willalways give me this a really strange look.
(06:35):
But I have known many people timeand again that my horses are my
therapy, Like if I'm stressed,if I'm wound, if I just need
to bring myself back down to earthand ground myself, one of the best
things for me to do is togo bury my nose in my horse's neck
(06:55):
and shovel manure and just simply bewith them. And it sounds crazy,
but it has to do with endorphins, and it has to do with the
brain, and it has to dowith all kinds of different things that are
connected between us and the animals.And you specifically work in understanding how horses
(07:17):
as a breed can help you toactually, in the long run, get
past blocks that may be holding youback in your sales, or your leadership
or in your business. So it'sgoing to be a fascinating, fascinating topic
to discuss today. But give usa little bit in your words. We'll
start off with this question. Giveus a little bit in your words.
(07:40):
I've kind of read, you know, a brief synopsis of your background and
your bio. Really tell us howyou felt in your words, how did
what led you into understanding? Because, like you say in your bio,
a lot of people would look atyou and say, oh my gosh,
she's gorgeous, been an actress's onprograms. You know, why, what
(08:03):
do you mean she had any problemin this area? So let us a
little less that's been less a numberof insight. Insight number one, never
judge by what you see. Verygood, point, very good. Tell
us a little bit about that journeyinto this. Uh. Well, it's
interesting that I'm now working with horsesand empowering people because it's been a parallel
(08:26):
animals. Wildlife. Nature has beenparalleling my journey. Really, you know,
since I've been studying animals, thishas gone. Sin's not crazy,
but I've been studying them since Iwas about three or four. My brother
was eighteen years older than me.He was already working with wildlife and as
a wildlife biologist, and so hewould send things home to me and my
(08:48):
my mother. If you've ever heardthe story, my mom didn't spend much
time with me, so I waskind of on my own to leave my
imagination hence the acting in the characterdevelopment behind those things, and also to
go explore. And we lived kindof in a rural area. That was
no internet or video games that Iwas allowed to have, so I was
(09:11):
outside, so I always had thisfascination with horses, but all animals,
nature specifically, and I think atmy core, I always knew that some
of the things that my mother wasfeeding me over the years was not true.
But yeah, you know, weown those lives sometimes anyway, but
it kind of knew that it wasn't. There was always something that I could
(09:31):
count on going to nature that wastrue and kind of like you describe going
to see your horse, and everythingjust kind of, you know, falls
kind of into place and stress isrelieved. There's a few reasons for that,
and that's what I experienced. Assoon as women show up here at
the farm, and we can getinto that for sure, and just a
little bit of why the science behindwhy that actually happened. But for me,
(09:54):
it was always kind of an escape, and then I maintained that as
two parallel interests in my life.I know that this is part of the
E Women network, and I've beenaround and you know, Sandra always talks
about follow your passion, be passionateabout what you do, and not everybody
has the ability or the privilege ofbeing able to do something that they love,
but having passion in your life isso so important. I am now
(10:16):
fortunate enough that I have been ableto put both of those passions together,
working with the horses and working withnature, and then also empowering women,
which is as I became an actor. As you said, I hid behind
those characters. My mother had toldme some some pretty awful things growing up.
I wasn't an expected child. Myclosest sibling is fourteen years older than
(10:37):
me, and in her later years, we have now discovered Mom really wasn't
too crazy about having kids at all, let alone having one fourteen year later.
So if I say I was abonus baby, I jokingly say,
mom wouldever have a cash back thenhad to deal with me. So part
of that left me with the selfesteem that was really negative, a duo.
Hence the shineess of not wanting tobe seen becoming someone else on stage
(11:00):
at school showed me that I didn'thave to be me. Well that worked
for a while. It actually gotme because I was so focused on not
being me and so broken, whicha lot of artists a lot of brokenness.
We were talking about this last nightin a writer's group that I'm in,
and that brokenness sometimes can create beautifulart, and not that I was
the most award winning actress ever byany means. But that is I think
(11:22):
what said, the artistic, thecreative part of me there. But as
I started to heal that, Istarted to realize that I can share what
I was going through with other people. I started teaching television hosts, and
then I started to move into workingwith women really years ago, working with
a lot of e women in factand people from elown network and helping them
(11:43):
get confidence in front of a videocamera. Then it went to public speaking,
and then I realized that the peoplethat I was working with, we
were working in a much deeper capacitybecause I worked with them like I had
found my way, which is workingfrom the inside out. And I'm a
brain nerd, which is why whenI met you, Julie, do you
speak? I was like, yay, this is like this is like candy
for me. You know, ifanybody talked at my table when you were
(12:07):
when you were speaking, I'm like, sh So you know, give me
the purple brain. Just give meall the information you got. And I
love that you make saying so funand understandable. It all makes sense pun
intended right to the people that aretrying to figure out why they can't do
certain things that they're really good atother things. So, like you,
I am fascinated and always have beenwith finding people's natural strengths. So even
(12:31):
when I was teaching people, andstill I still do this, teach people
how to work the stage, todo a keynote or a small presentation,
and work their space and connect withpeople. You will never ever be able
to tell that somebody has worked withme. I never work with somebody so
that my clients go out and theygo, oh, I can tell you
(12:52):
work with so and so. Asa coach, I never want that that
means that I have made them intome. I want to tell people,
hey, this is where you shine. Can you feel that? Yes,
great, do more of that.So I've got speakers that I've trained that
are conversational speakers because they don't feelcomfortable calling themselves a quote unquote speaker.
(13:13):
So I say, great, you'rea talker. You're going to get up
and have a conversation with the audience. Suddenly they're okay. So I think
letting people live and appreciate their naturalgifts and seeing what their strengths are and
being aware of their weaknesses and replacingthem with something more powerful is one of
the best things that we can do, especially at this time. I work
(13:33):
primarily with women with the Charismatic CowgirlProgram, and I'm just so excited that
I launched this and now we havejust more and more influence, more and
more attention on the power of womenand we can see how strong women can
lead but danger. And what Itry to work on is getting that balance
of success minded women and what cansometimes be masculine world of business, not
(13:56):
losing their feminine advantage, the compassion, the empathy, and making sure that
self care and self appreciation stay upthere, that they live in their gifts
and they don't get lost in tryingto be masculine in that masculine world.
So that's a big part of whatI do too, is helping women really
stay in that gift of being agirl. You know. That's awesome.
(14:22):
That's awesome, And what better wayto do so by bringing in horses.
Yeah, I know, I knowevery little girl wants a pony. Somebody
said to me, I said,well, I didn't have a Well,
I guess I did have a ponyfor about ten seconds when I was little.
I do have a pony now,I actually own a pony, and
she's her name is Princess Coco Chanel. She's the ranch acessory. I love
(14:46):
it. I love it. She'sour greeter. So if anybody shows up
it's afraid of horses, the firstone they meet is three and a half
be tall, right, pretty easy, right, a little less intimidating than
been big one. Yeah. Yeah, and this So this just really naturally
leads me into that first question.So you've been doing this and you were
(15:09):
working, as you said, withI think you said, producers and with
other individuals to help them to findthat confidence. So based on your experience
in Hollywood, you know, inthe world of being an actress and doing
that, it seemed like it seemslike pretty obvious fits that you'd be teaching
(15:30):
people to be comfortable in their ownskin. But whyrses the listeners understand what
the equine connection is? For me, it was a personal experience with my
first horse that I owned. Andalthough I rode and loved horses and took
sarious classes on horses and such atrail ride whenever I could, as an
(15:50):
actor, I was going moving somuch and working so much I couldn't have.
I used to bring my dog intowork with me because that's the only
way I could actually have relationship withan animal that they went with me.
A little tough to bring a horsein so, you know, into the
studio. So I never owned ahorse until I was thirty almost thirty eight,
So I didn't grow up like someof the folks here around me in
(16:14):
Texas grew up with horses in thebackyard. That wasn't me. But as
I got my first horse, Ihad to learn how to deal with her.
And you know, my husband alwayssays, you get the animal that
you need. So the dog thatyou need will have a personality quirk that
may, you know, push yourbuttons. You're like, what have I
(16:36):
done? And in the end theypushed you through an awareness. This horse
had plenty of buttons that we pushedon each other and she was absolutely awesome.
We lost her last year and Istill miss her every day. But
she was so reactive to energy horsesor prey animals for those yeah you know
this, But for the folks thatdon't realize it, as big as they
(16:56):
are, they are in their ownlines like giant bunnies or deer, so
they think that everything out there couldpotentially kill them because they're a really big
meal in the wild for some predators, and that's where they are in the
food chain. So people are afraidof them, and yes, you can
get hurt by them, think thatyou're going to consume them whole. So
(17:18):
yeah, you know, that's somethingpeople don't realize. And when I think,
no, no, no, youhave to realize you're It's about relationship
building, right what I do.And I said, you have to put
yourself in the other, in theother the brain, and in this case,
when you're working with a horse,you have to take on the outlook
on life, the world view thatyou're going to be eaten. Everything can
(17:41):
hurt you. So they're very reactiveto energy. And I would walk up
to my horse anxious from just tryingto start a business or maybe at that
point not even knowing what my businesswas going to be. We was it
was a time that the economy wastaking a dive. I had a bunch
people had been removed, the mostexpensive folks had been fired from the soap
(18:03):
opera that I was on. Iwas in the storylines with them, so
I found myself out of the job. So my anxiety was super high.
But I walked in with appearances likeI was calm, and she was so
reactive to me, and I wouldget mad, like why are you like
this? I don't understand why you'relike this. Is this a dysfunctional relationship?
Yes? It was. It tookme time to realize that she was
(18:25):
reacting off the energy that I wastrying to hide. She was reading that
so that anxiety in order for meto connect with her. And she's the
only horse I have, right,I can't turn her back in like she's
it. I would make it work. It's like when you get married,
you really should try to make itwork. Figure out what the deal is.
(18:45):
I am now married to this highstrung animal, and the only way
that I realized that I could doit was if I wasn't high strung.
So I had to learn how tocalm myself and get into that present space
with her. I would worried aboutthe next thing. I was not present,
and horses are present one percent ifyou're not going to deal with you,
(19:07):
and that's what I was dealing with. Fascinated by that, I started
to delve more into add adhd.That went into a bunch of other things.
So then I became like, Ihave so many books on my shelf
I might even rival you. I'mnot sure about brain psychology. And then
I started following and learning different differentmodalities. That got introduced to horse therapy
(19:30):
by a woman that was taking inand rescuing children from sexual trafficking from all
around the world. And that samewoman also worked with adults using horses.
And when she told me some ofthe stories and I witnessed her working with
an adult woman and what the horseswere able to do, again, my
intrigue was peaued because I had naturallygone through this process without knowing that you
(19:55):
could have a facilitator actually do this. So then I just continued to get
educated on it. I took severalcertification courses. I will plat out how
you. I didn't finish a coupleof them because I didn't agree with it
one hundred percent. And when Idid find something that I agreed with,
I then took that ran with itand created what I'm doing now. The
(20:15):
basis of what I do is atherapy model, but it is based on
brain science, and it's based onneurology, and it's based on biology and
measuring of electromenic fields. And understandingthat all of these things affect us no
matter where we are working with thehorses, it just becomes that much more
clear because when you change your energy, they change in reaction to you,
(20:38):
and you now have a twelve hundredpounds billboard showing you that you have changed
your energy, usually for the better. So it's very it's very cool,
it's super effective, and it's it'sfascinating for some people. People either find
horses a little frightening and they wantto get over that, or they find
them romantic, or they find themstrong and all inspiring. There's something about
(21:02):
this particular animal that really opens thedoor for a lot of people to be
able to go into something. Listento feedback, and horses will be brutally
honest in their feedback and oh yeah, no getting But it's easier sometimes for
people to hear it from an animalthat doesn't speak your language than from a
(21:22):
coach or another human that well meaningthough we may be, there might be
a wall of defense that goes up. I don't find that so much when
people are in nature and they're workingwith the horses. Yeah, yeah,
I agree, one hundred percent.It is amazing to watch a horse and
watch a person react with a horse, and then watch that horse react to
(21:45):
the person reacting, and the entirething is just incredible. And I like,
I admire in you that you sawthings in certain programs that you didn't
agree with, and so you didn'tjust ignore those You went forward, did
your own research, took that informationwith the research you had done, and
created the amazing things that you're doingnow. So you kind of explain that
(22:10):
it's a little different than the equineassistant therapy. Is that what kind of
what I wouldn't call it therapy?Yeah, And I think that's a good
that's you know, this is agood thing to mention because you may have
people that saw the topic today andare listening that may be familiar with different
types of equine assisted therapies. Andthere's everything from autism disabled children PTSD,
(22:36):
obviously psychotherapy. There's so many differentways that we use horses, so I
really want to distinguish. It canget super confusing and there are different reasons
why this particular species works so wellwith autistic children. And that would be
a great shoot. That'd be agreat conversation for you, you know,
for another gas to friend somebody talkabout that. It's really fascinating. There's
(22:56):
reasons why putting a disabled child ona horse on their back. All our
work is done on the ground,putting a horse on. Putting a disabled
child on the back of a horsehas incredible results. They're different attributes to
these animals that work in those capacities. What I do is labeled equiness just
(23:17):
as learning. So if someone comesto me, usually I'm working with success
mind and women. I do workprivately with men, and I'll work with
groups. They don't want to bea charismatic cowgirl if there's boys, so
for the boys, we call ithorsepowered, it's cool if they don't want
to be a charismatic cowgirl. Sowe do work with men, but primarily
(23:38):
this program is developed for women.So charismatic cowgirl is specifically for that.
And so we create this safe environment. It's emotionally safe environment. But in
that environment, I see somebody thatreally is in need of deeper work.
Maybe they've got some trauma that hascome up, or they've got some really
serious fear or something that they needa psychotherapist to work with. Then I
(24:00):
will actually refer them out so theycan work with somebody that is an equine
specialist pairing with a doctor of psychology, and that is that's the true therapy
models doing is helping people that aresuccess minded. Everybody has blocks. Everybody
has self confidence that fails at sometime, even the most successful women.
(24:26):
And I can tell you can Itell you what anecdote and make people understand
I had a woman And I willsay this even when I'm just working with
people getting them savvy for being oncamera. I started Charisma and Camera years
ago, and I would even saythen, I love I get excited when
I hang up the phone and I'vesigned a client that scares the the Jesus
out of me. By that,I mean I signed somebody that maybe has
(24:52):
a bunch of letters behind their nameand they're super educated. I went back
to college four times because I wascurious about different topics. I never grow
situated, so I don't have thatright. They may have a title that
is on inspiring to me. Theymay just be super successful financially, they
may be famous. There may besomething about them that I think, oh
(25:14):
my gosh, I'm a little intimidated. Everybody will have somebody in your life
or in your work environment that maydo that too. And then I get
excited because even the people that Ithink, oh my gosh, I don't
know what I can do to servethem God through nature, and what I
do with the horses will absolutely takecare of that. I had one woman
that show up, that showed up, and she was intimidating to me all
(25:37):
of the above. She was wellknown, she had a good position,
she had a lot of money,She had horses which she competed with.
And I mean this woman flew herhorses in from like Europe. Okay,
I have most of mine are rescuedhorses. I mean, it's a very
different environment. So I'm a littlenervous with her there. She did not
respond well. We do something calleda Wine and Equine, which is an
(25:59):
introduction evening during the summer. It'sin the afternoon because of the early sunset,
but it's a few hours introductory towhat we do. It's fun.
We end with a glass of wineand some cheese and we kind of talk
about how this worked, why itworked, and how people can get more
of it or apply it to theirlife if they don't want to go any
further, and at least get moreout of their life than their experience,
So that's what the whole day shebarely spoke. She actually said, I
(26:22):
don't want to go in with ahorse, and I convinced her to.
She went in, got frustrated andcame out and sat with her arms folded
across her chest, which, ifyou know body language spokes, that's not
a really open and happy person.So I was a little disturbed at the
end of it, and I thought, why did I, you know,
take it on herselves as we womendo. What did I do? What
did I miss? So I followup as I usually do. No response.
(26:47):
I'm thinking, oh, she's justshe's so unhappy. Three days go
by, she responds and says,I'm sorry if I was less than responsive,
and I'm waiting for the next lineto say that she disliked it.
She does agree with that. Iread the next line in her email and
it says, I'm still trying tofigure out why I couldn't do the exercise.
Do you know what the exercise was? What? Go in and build
(27:08):
a relationship with somebody you don't knowthat doesn't speak your language, go in
and meet this horse. That wasit. That was it. And because
she didn't have an itinerary, shegot stuck. But here's the interesting thing.
This is affecting her, I'm surein her life, in her work
life and her personal life, becausethat's what shows up when you're working with
(27:30):
the horses. It's the stuff thatis in your way, and that because
she wouldn't want to try, thatis what is in her way, and
she knew it. And three daysshe was ruminating on it before she called
me and reached out to me.So and we're still working on that.
She and I are still working onthat. And she has, you know,
(27:52):
someone like her comes and she justhas to change some of her energy,
change the way she's looking at,change your approach to people. Okay,
I don't know about anybody else,but I wish I had a pony
that I could wrap my arms aroundright now. I will have to settle
for some kitty cuddles. I willchase down my feline friends and force some
(28:18):
cuddle therapy as I like to do. That was part one of my therapist
is paid in Hay The Surprising wayhorses can help us With Sandra d Robinson,
I'd like to remind everybody to followthe show on social media. Julie
(28:38):
is brain Lady Julie just about everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, even TikTok.
She is quickly becoming the brain Ladyof TikTok, so if you enjoy that
platform, please follow her there andplease also follow Sandra. We of course
have all of her information linked inthe show notes as well as Julie's information.
(29:00):
Please reach out to us at infoat brain Lady Speaker. If you
would like to be considered as aguest or have a topic you would like
the Brain Lady to cover, reachout to her. We'd love to hear
from you. And as Julie likesto close out all of her shows,
everybody, let's take a nice deepbreath and go out there and enjoy every
(29:26):
moment. We'll see you next week. Full Part two
Hello, Hello, and welcome toanother Brain Lady Speaks podcast episode. This
is not your Brain Lady, JulieAnderson. Brain Lady Julie Anderson, let
her pinky. Kelly Cooper here bringingyou another encore episode. We are reaching
the way back time machine to Januaryof twenty eighteen. That is pre COVID.
(00:26):
My friends, do we even rememberthat time? This is May twenty
second, twenty twenty four, sosix years ago, and a lot of
people that have come to brain LadySpeaks recently and has not gone back and
listened to all of the classic episodes. This is a great one. This
is one I personally wanted to revisitbecause of my love with animals, especially
(00:50):
horses and cats I was raised withand dogs for that matter. I was
raised with a lot of the differentanimals. I had the honor, the
pleasure, the blessing of always havinganimals in my life and some of my
earliest memories are at horses. They'rea big deal in our family. Julie
herself has horses, and we visitthe topic of equine therapy in today's podcast
(01:18):
Equine Assisted Learning with Miss Sandra dRobinson, and these ladies have a great
conversation. They spoke for an hour, so we are cutting this episode into
two parts. Remember this podcast issix over six years old, so this
(01:38):
is before a lot of the technology, the better equipment that we have gained
for a Brain Lady Speaks. Soplease forgive the audio not being the sharpest,
but just just turn up that volumeand enjoy the show. It's a
really good one. Remember to comeback next week and join us for part
two. But for right now,let's go into part one of Brain Lady
(02:02):
Speaks from twenty eighteen with Sandra g. Robinson. I am so excited for
the show today. It is anotheramazing Wednesday morning. Every morning is amazing
(02:25):
when you're up and moving and breathingright, and I am really stoked.
I often have some amazing guests onthe show, and today is no exception.
Not only is it no exception,is someone I personally am so looking
forward to doing an interview with becausewe have a few common threads and you'll
find out more about that as weget into the program. Without any further
(02:47):
ado, I want to tell youa little bit about the topic and our
guest, as well as the reasonwhy I am so soaked and enthused about
having her on the program today.So the topic is my therapist paid in
hay a surprising way Horse's help us. And some people may be looking at
that, going what on earth doesthis have to do with the brain?
(03:13):
Right? Well, let me tellyou it has a ton ton ton ton
to do with the brain, andyou will find out as you go on,
as you listen on to the programtoday, because our expert is Sandra
D. Robinson, and some ofyou may recognize that name from some of
the events and programs or shows thatshe has been in because she is a
(03:35):
successful actress. So I'm going togive you real quick a little bit of
her background. She's got a verylong bio, so I'm going to kind
of paraphrase some of it, butI do want you to understand where she
came from and that will give yousome understand the impact of the value of
the information that she brings. Soshe is an acclaimed charisma coach, actress,
actress, speaker, spokesperson, host, author, CEO, passionate equine
(04:00):
owner and wildlife confirmation advocate. Shehas been on in the past. She
for more than two decades, shehad leading roles on programs such as Another
World, Sunset, Beach, Boldand Beautiful, General Hospital, Days of
Our Lives, and the Now inan Emmy nominated series of Bay So.
(04:20):
A lot of people might just assumethat her confidence comes naturally from being a
soap opera, but that couldn't befurther from the truth. She says that
when people see her on stage,it's hard for them to believe that she
was once a shy girl, onethat feared nothing more than being herself in
public and in public speaking spotlight.So she hid behind these characters that she
(04:46):
played on camera and that led herdown. She dealing with this and struggling
with us, she made a decisionthat she could be happy with success that
she had achieved and accept the acceptwhat it is, but dig or she
could dig deeper and uncover what itwas that held her back, and that's
what she did. So she'll probablyshare a little bit of her personal journey
(05:08):
on the program today because all ofthat led her to found to be the
founder and owner of two companies Charismaon camera, helping other people step into
the spotlight, so to speak,and own their own charisma and be comfortable
in that position. As well aswhat I'm excited about the horse powered consulting.
(05:30):
Both of these are ventures that aredesigned to help people to achieve true
confidence and communicate more effectively so theycan get their message out in a big
way. I have had a fewconversations with this amazing woman and she has,
we needless to say, clicked overthe equine thing. When you are
a horse crazy person, you area horse crazy person. And let me
(05:50):
tell you, Sandra is like myselfa horse crazy person. So without eating
further ado, let me bring onSandra onto the program. Thank you Sandra
for being on the program with ustoday. All I'm excited to be here,
thanks so much, and it's alwaysfun to hang out with horse crazy
girls. But right, I thinkour goal, both your in mind today
(06:11):
is to introduce people to the possibilitiesof you know what these horses introduced,
which is what nature can do forour brains, and how truthful and how
effective it is. And it's fun. Right, we have to tell them
it's fun, so absolutely absolutely,And I've often said to people, and
someone who hasn't been around horses willalways give me this a really strange look.
(06:35):
But I have known many people timeand again that my horses are my
therapy, Like if I'm stressed,if I'm wound, if I just need
to bring myself back down to earthand ground myself, one of the best
things for me to do is togo bury my nose in my horse's neck
(06:55):
and shovel manure and just simply bewith them. And it sounds crazy,
but it has to do with endorphins, and it has to do with the
brain, and it has to dowith all kinds of different things that are
connected between us and the animals.And you specifically work in understanding how horses
(07:17):
as a breed can help you toactually, in the long run, get
past blocks that may be holding youback in your sales, or your leadership
or in your business. So it'sgoing to be a fascinating, fascinating topic
to discuss today. But give usa little bit in your words. We'll
start off with this question. Giveus a little bit in your words.
(07:40):
I've kind of read, you know, a brief synopsis of your background and
your bio. Really tell us howyou felt in your words, how did
what led you into understanding? Because, like you say in your bio,
a lot of people would look atyou and say, oh my gosh,
she's gorgeous, been an actress's onprograms. You know, why, what
(08:03):
do you mean she had any problemin this area? So let us a
little less that's been less a numberof insight. Insight number one, never
judge by what you see. Verygood, point, very good. Tell
us a little bit about that journeyinto this. Uh. Well, it's
interesting that I'm now working with horsesand empowering people because it's been a parallel
(08:26):
animals. Wildlife. Nature has beenparalleling my journey. Really, you know,
since I've been studying animals, thishas gone. Sin's not crazy,
but I've been studying them since Iwas about three or four. My brother
was eighteen years older than me.He was already working with wildlife and as
a wildlife biologist, and so hewould send things home to me and my
(08:48):
my mother. If you've ever heardthe story, my mom didn't spend much
time with me, so I waskind of on my own to leave my
imagination hence the acting in the characterdevelopment behind those things, and also to
go explore. And we lived kindof in a rural area. That was
no internet or video games that Iwas allowed to have, so I was
(09:11):
outside, so I always had thisfascination with horses, but all animals,
nature specifically, and I think atmy core, I always knew that some
of the things that my mother wasfeeding me over the years was not true.
But yeah, you know, weown those lives sometimes anyway, but
it kind of knew that it wasn't. There was always something that I could
(09:31):
count on going to nature that wastrue and kind of like you describe going
to see your horse, and everythingjust kind of, you know, falls
kind of into place and stress isrelieved. There's a few reasons for that,
and that's what I experienced. Assoon as women show up here at
the farm, and we can getinto that for sure, and just a
little bit of why the science behindwhy that actually happened. But for me,
(09:54):
it was always kind of an escape, and then I maintained that as
two parallel interests in my life.I know that this is part of the
E Women network, and I've beenaround and you know, Sandra always talks
about follow your passion, be passionateabout what you do, and not everybody
has the ability or the privilege ofbeing able to do something that they love,
but having passion in your life isso so important. I am now
(10:16):
fortunate enough that I have been ableto put both of those passions together,
working with the horses and working withnature, and then also empowering women,
which is as I became an actor. As you said, I hid behind
those characters. My mother had toldme some some pretty awful things growing up.
I wasn't an expected child. Myclosest sibling is fourteen years older than
(10:37):
me, and in her later years, we have now discovered Mom really wasn't
too crazy about having kids at all, let alone having one fourteen year later.
So if I say I was abonus baby, I jokingly say,
mom wouldever have a cash back thenhad to deal with me. So part
of that left me with the selfesteem that was really negative, a duo.
Hence the shineess of not wanting tobe seen becoming someone else on stage
(11:00):
at school showed me that I didn'thave to be me. Well that worked
for a while. It actually gotme because I was so focused on not
being me and so broken, whicha lot of artists a lot of brokenness.
We were talking about this last nightin a writer's group that I'm in,
and that brokenness sometimes can create beautifulart, and not that I was
the most award winning actress ever byany means. But that is I think
(11:22):
what said, the artistic, thecreative part of me there. But as
I started to heal that, Istarted to realize that I can share what
I was going through with other people. I started teaching television hosts, and
then I started to move into workingwith women really years ago, working with
a lot of e women in factand people from elown network and helping them
(11:43):
get confidence in front of a videocamera. Then it went to public speaking,
and then I realized that the peoplethat I was working with, we
were working in a much deeper capacitybecause I worked with them like I had
found my way, which is workingfrom the inside out. And I'm a
brain nerd, which is why whenI met you, Julie, do you
speak? I was like, yay, this is like this is like candy
for me. You know, ifanybody talked at my table when you were
(12:07):
when you were speaking, I'm like, sh So you know, give me
the purple brain. Just give meall the information you got. And I
love that you make saying so funand understandable. It all makes sense pun
intended right to the people that aretrying to figure out why they can't do
certain things that they're really good atother things. So, like you,
I am fascinated and always have beenwith finding people's natural strengths. So even
(12:31):
when I was teaching people, andstill I still do this, teach people
how to work the stage, todo a keynote or a small presentation,
and work their space and connect withpeople. You will never ever be able
to tell that somebody has worked withme. I never work with somebody so
that my clients go out and theygo, oh, I can tell you
(12:52):
work with so and so. Asa coach, I never want that that
means that I have made them intome. I want to tell people,
hey, this is where you shine. Can you feel that? Yes,
great, do more of that.So I've got speakers that I've trained that
are conversational speakers because they don't feelcomfortable calling themselves a quote unquote speaker.
(13:13):
So I say, great, you'rea talker. You're going to get up
and have a conversation with the audience. Suddenly they're okay. So I think
letting people live and appreciate their naturalgifts and seeing what their strengths are and
being aware of their weaknesses and replacingthem with something more powerful is one of
the best things that we can do, especially at this time. I work
(13:33):
primarily with women with the Charismatic CowgirlProgram, and I'm just so excited that
I launched this and now we havejust more and more influence, more and
more attention on the power of womenand we can see how strong women can
lead but danger. And what Itry to work on is getting that balance
of success minded women and what cansometimes be masculine world of business, not
(13:56):
losing their feminine advantage, the compassion, the empathy, and making sure that
self care and self appreciation stay upthere, that they live in their gifts
and they don't get lost in tryingto be masculine in that masculine world.
So that's a big part of whatI do too, is helping women really
stay in that gift of being agirl. You know. That's awesome.
(14:22):
That's awesome, And what better wayto do so by bringing in horses.
Yeah, I know, I knowevery little girl wants a pony. Somebody
said to me, I said,well, I didn't have a Well,
I guess I did have a ponyfor about ten seconds when I was little.
I do have a pony now,I actually own a pony, and
she's her name is Princess Coco Chanel. She's the ranch acessory. I love
(14:46):
it. I love it. She'sour greeter. So if anybody shows up
it's afraid of horses, the firstone they meet is three and a half
be tall, right, pretty easy, right, a little less intimidating than
been big one. Yeah. Yeah, and this So this just really naturally
leads me into that first question.So you've been doing this and you were
(15:09):
working, as you said, withI think you said, producers and with
other individuals to help them to findthat confidence. So based on your experience
in Hollywood, you know, inthe world of being an actress and doing
that, it seemed like it seemslike pretty obvious fits that you'd be teaching
(15:30):
people to be comfortable in their ownskin. But whyrses the listeners understand what
the equine connection is? For me, it was a personal experience with my
first horse that I owned. Andalthough I rode and loved horses and took
sarious classes on horses and such atrail ride whenever I could, as an
(15:50):
actor, I was going moving somuch and working so much I couldn't have.
I used to bring my dog intowork with me because that's the only
way I could actually have relationship withan animal that they went with me.
A little tough to bring a horsein so, you know, into the
studio. So I never owned ahorse until I was thirty almost thirty eight,
So I didn't grow up like someof the folks here around me in
(16:14):
Texas grew up with horses in thebackyard. That wasn't me. But as
I got my first horse, Ihad to learn how to deal with her.
And you know, my husband alwayssays, you get the animal that
you need. So the dog thatyou need will have a personality quirk that
may, you know, push yourbuttons. You're like, what have I
(16:36):
done? And in the end theypushed you through an awareness. This horse
had plenty of buttons that we pushedon each other and she was absolutely awesome.
We lost her last year and Istill miss her every day. But
she was so reactive to energy horsesor prey animals for those yeah you know
this, But for the folks thatdon't realize it, as big as they
(16:56):
are, they are in their ownlines like giant bunnies or deer, so
they think that everything out there couldpotentially kill them because they're a really big
meal in the wild for some predators, and that's where they are in the
food chain. So people are afraidof them, and yes, you can
get hurt by them, think thatyou're going to consume them whole. So
(17:18):
yeah, you know, that's somethingpeople don't realize. And when I think,
no, no, no, youhave to realize you're It's about relationship
building, right what I do.And I said, you have to put
yourself in the other, in theother the brain, and in this case,
when you're working with a horse,you have to take on the outlook
on life, the world view thatyou're going to be eaten. Everything can
(17:41):
hurt you. So they're very reactiveto energy. And I would walk up
to my horse anxious from just tryingto start a business or maybe at that
point not even knowing what my businesswas going to be. We was it
was a time that the economy wastaking a dive. I had a bunch
people had been removed, the mostexpensive folks had been fired from the soap
(18:03):
opera that I was on. Iwas in the storylines with them, so
I found myself out of the job. So my anxiety was super high.
But I walked in with appearances likeI was calm, and she was so
reactive to me, and I wouldget mad, like why are you like
this? I don't understand why you'relike this. Is this a dysfunctional relationship?
Yes? It was. It tookme time to realize that she was
(18:25):
reacting off the energy that I wastrying to hide. She was reading that
so that anxiety in order for meto connect with her. And she's the
only horse I have, right,I can't turn her back in like she's
it. I would make it work. It's like when you get married,
you really should try to make itwork. Figure out what the deal is.
(18:45):
I am now married to this highstrung animal, and the only way
that I realized that I could doit was if I wasn't high strung.
So I had to learn how tocalm myself and get into that present space
with her. I would worried aboutthe next thing. I was not present,
and horses are present one percent ifyou're not going to deal with you,
(19:07):
and that's what I was dealing with. Fascinated by that, I started
to delve more into add adhd.That went into a bunch of other things.
So then I became like, Ihave so many books on my shelf
I might even rival you. I'mnot sure about brain psychology. And then
I started following and learning different differentmodalities. That got introduced to horse therapy
(19:30):
by a woman that was taking inand rescuing children from sexual trafficking from all
around the world. And that samewoman also worked with adults using horses.
And when she told me some ofthe stories and I witnessed her working with
an adult woman and what the horseswere able to do, again, my
intrigue was peaued because I had naturallygone through this process without knowing that you
(19:55):
could have a facilitator actually do this. So then I just continued to get
educated on it. I took severalcertification courses. I will plat out how
you. I didn't finish a coupleof them because I didn't agree with it
one hundred percent. And when Idid find something that I agreed with,
I then took that ran with itand created what I'm doing now. The
(20:15):
basis of what I do is atherapy model, but it is based on
brain science, and it's based onneurology, and it's based on biology and
measuring of electromenic fields. And understandingthat all of these things affect us no
matter where we are working with thehorses, it just becomes that much more
clear because when you change your energy, they change in reaction to you,
(20:38):
and you now have a twelve hundredpounds billboard showing you that you have changed
your energy, usually for the better. So it's very it's very cool,
it's super effective, and it's it'sfascinating for some people. People either find
horses a little frightening and they wantto get over that, or they find
them romantic, or they find themstrong and all inspiring. There's something about
(21:02):
this particular animal that really opens thedoor for a lot of people to be
able to go into something. Listento feedback, and horses will be brutally
honest in their feedback and oh yeah, no getting But it's easier sometimes for
people to hear it from an animalthat doesn't speak your language than from a
(21:22):
coach or another human that well meaningthough we may be, there might be
a wall of defense that goes up. I don't find that so much when
people are in nature and they're workingwith the horses. Yeah, yeah,
I agree, one hundred percent.It is amazing to watch a horse and
watch a person react with a horse, and then watch that horse react to
(21:45):
the person reacting, and the entirething is just incredible. And I like,
I admire in you that you sawthings in certain programs that you didn't
agree with, and so you didn'tjust ignore those You went forward, did
your own research, took that informationwith the research you had done, and
created the amazing things that you're doingnow. So you kind of explain that
(22:10):
it's a little different than the equineassistant therapy. Is that what kind of
what I wouldn't call it therapy?Yeah, And I think that's a good
that's you know, this is agood thing to mention because you may have
people that saw the topic today andare listening that may be familiar with different
types of equine assisted therapies. Andthere's everything from autism disabled children PTSD,
(22:36):
obviously psychotherapy. There's so many differentways that we use horses, so I
really want to distinguish. It canget super confusing and there are different reasons
why this particular species works so wellwith autistic children. And that would be
a great shoot. That'd be agreat conversation for you, you know,
for another gas to friend somebody talkabout that. It's really fascinating. There's
(22:56):
reasons why putting a disabled child ona horse on their back. All our
work is done on the ground,putting a horse on. Putting a disabled
child on the back of a horsehas incredible results. They're different attributes to
these animals that work in those capacities. What I do is labeled equiness just
(23:17):
as learning. So if someone comesto me, usually I'm working with success
mind and women. I do workprivately with men, and I'll work with
groups. They don't want to bea charismatic cowgirl if there's boys, so
for the boys, we call ithorsepowered, it's cool if they don't want
to be a charismatic cowgirl. Sowe do work with men, but primarily
(23:38):
this program is developed for women.So charismatic cowgirl is specifically for that.
And so we create this safe environment. It's emotionally safe environment. But in
that environment, I see somebody thatreally is in need of deeper work.
Maybe they've got some trauma that hascome up, or they've got some really
serious fear or something that they needa psychotherapist to work with. Then I
(24:00):
will actually refer them out so theycan work with somebody that is an equine
specialist pairing with a doctor of psychology, and that is that's the true therapy
models doing is helping people that aresuccess minded. Everybody has blocks. Everybody
has self confidence that fails at sometime, even the most successful women.
(24:26):
And I can tell you can Itell you what anecdote and make people understand
I had a woman And I willsay this even when I'm just working with
people getting them savvy for being oncamera. I started Charisma and Camera years
ago, and I would even saythen, I love I get excited when
I hang up the phone and I'vesigned a client that scares the the Jesus
out of me. By that,I mean I signed somebody that maybe has
(24:52):
a bunch of letters behind their nameand they're super educated. I went back
to college four times because I wascurious about different topics. I never grow
situated, so I don't have thatright. They may have a title that
is on inspiring to me. Theymay just be super successful financially, they
may be famous. There may besomething about them that I think, oh
(25:14):
my gosh, I'm a little intimidated. Everybody will have somebody in your life
or in your work environment that maydo that too. And then I get
excited because even the people that Ithink, oh my gosh, I don't
know what I can do to servethem God through nature, and what I
do with the horses will absolutely takecare of that. I had one woman
that show up, that showed up, and she was intimidating to me all
(25:37):
of the above. She was wellknown, she had a good position,
she had a lot of money,She had horses which she competed with.
And I mean this woman flew herhorses in from like Europe. Okay,
I have most of mine are rescuedhorses. I mean, it's a very
different environment. So I'm a littlenervous with her there. She did not
respond well. We do something calleda Wine and Equine, which is an
(25:59):
introduction evening during the summer. It'sin the afternoon because of the early sunset,
but it's a few hours introductory towhat we do. It's fun.
We end with a glass of wineand some cheese and we kind of talk
about how this worked, why itworked, and how people can get more
of it or apply it to theirlife if they don't want to go any
further, and at least get moreout of their life than their experience,
So that's what the whole day shebarely spoke. She actually said, I
(26:22):
don't want to go in with ahorse, and I convinced her to.
She went in, got frustrated andcame out and sat with her arms folded
across her chest, which, ifyou know body language spokes, that's not
a really open and happy person.So I was a little disturbed at the
end of it, and I thought, why did I, you know,
take it on herselves as we womendo. What did I do? What
did I miss? So I followup as I usually do. No response.
(26:47):
I'm thinking, oh, she's justshe's so unhappy. Three days go
by, she responds and says,I'm sorry if I was less than responsive,
and I'm waiting for the next lineto say that she disliked it.
She does agree with that. Iread the next line in her email and
it says, I'm still trying tofigure out why I couldn't do the exercise.
Do you know what the exercise was? What? Go in and build
(27:08):
a relationship with somebody you don't knowthat doesn't speak your language, go in
and meet this horse. That wasit. That was it. And because
she didn't have an itinerary, shegot stuck. But here's the interesting thing.
This is affecting her, I'm surein her life, in her work
life and her personal life, becausethat's what shows up when you're working with
(27:30):
the horses. It's the stuff thatis in your way, and that because
she wouldn't want to try, thatis what is in her way, and
she knew it. And three daysshe was ruminating on it before she called
me and reached out to me.So and we're still working on that.
She and I are still working onthat. And she has, you know,
(27:52):
someone like her comes and she justhas to change some of her energy,
change the way she's looking at,change your approach to people. Okay,
I don't know about anybody else,but I wish I had a pony
that I could wrap my arms aroundright now. I will have to settle
for some kitty cuddles. I willchase down my feline friends and force some
(28:18):
cuddle therapy as I like to do. That was part one of my therapist
is paid in Hay The Surprising wayhorses can help us With Sandra d Robinson,
I'd like to remind everybody to followthe show on social media. Julie
(28:38):
is brain Lady Julie just about everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, even TikTok.
She is quickly becoming the brain Ladyof TikTok, so if you enjoy that
platform, please follow her there andplease also follow Sandra. We of course
have all of her information linked inthe show notes as well as Julie's information.
(29:00):
Please reach out to us at infoat brain Lady Speaker. If you
would like to be considered as aguest or have a topic you would like
the Brain Lady to cover, reachout to her. We'd love to hear
from you. And as Julie likesto close out all of her shows,
everybody, let's take a nice deepbreath and go out there and enjoy every
(29:26):
moment. We'll see you next week. Full Part two
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