Speaker: Haley Norris , Equestrian
What did you come to me for help with?
Haley Norris : Hi. I came to Sam, initially because I was suffering with anxiety with my horse riding and not wanting to get on my horse and ride, particularly at home alone. But quite quickly, I realised that my anxiety probably went a little bit deeper than that.
And how has working with me helped you?
Haley Norris : So working with Sam has allowed me to realise how my body reacts to situations, particularly stresses and has helped me understand how I need to get myself in an overall better position so that when something stressful does come up that I am in a much better position to to deal with it. That obviously has helped with my horse riding, because in general, where I was probably already on high alert, and my body was in that kind of red zone, as it gets described, I'm already below that now, and it takes an awful lot more before I get stressed. So I can take that into my horse riding, I'm already in a calmer state. If I do get a bit more anxious, I have tips to help combat that. The biggest thing I've probably taken away from it is like I said, my overall day to day management of myself. Self care. Sam very kindly probably pointed out a few things that I realised, but it helped having someone else identify that and made me make a few changes in my life. Which has ultimately helped me get to my goal of being much more happy to ride my horse and enjoy the whole experience. I've learned how to not worry about things that aren't there and deal with those things as they as they come up and how to get those thoughts out of my head if they do come up, which they don't as often, which is brilliant. But overall, just really made me a much more chilled out, happier person and one that enjoys getting on their horse and is not worried anymore.
What would you say to anyone thinking of working with me?
Haley Norris : So I would say, if you are thinking about working with Sam, I'd highly recommend it. What I've taken away is the toolkit that Sam's given me. All those things that I have slightly adapted to my lifestyle. But I took on board what Sam said and worked with that and adapted it. And definitely give it a go. I am not the kind of person that ever thought that I'd suffer with being scared or worried about riding my horse. I have a high, quite high pressured job where I'm expected to deal with quite a lot of stressful situations, which I do. But I found that now, in my own life, I can manage, and I've got back to enjoying my horse and not only enjoying my horse and riding and thinking differently and being that person that looks at other people when they're starting to get worried about something or overthink something can be like, Oh, no. Why? Why are you thinking that? So definitely do it. It's definitely worth it. And it will make you think differently about lots of things and hopefully improve the aspects that you're looking for.
