Leadchanges... lets you take the lead from within
Leadchanges offers workshops for both corporate groups and groups of private individuals, using dogs as our teachers, and tailor courses for each group's specific needs. Animals have a way of helping humans in a non-confrontational, clear and non-judgemental way and this is what we are able to offer to both corporate groups and groups of private individuals, including families and friends who want to learn more about themselves or their animals while at the same time having fun doing it.
We are also happy to work with life coaches, wellness coaches, personal growth coaches and executive and business trainers, in order to offer them something unique for their clients.
Animals are our mirrors, reflecting back to us what we need to see in ourselves. Sometimes this may be an inner fear, our ego, an over assertiveness, a timidity or ineffectiveness. In these courses, our canine friends are the teachers, helping us to see who we need to be by showing us how we really are.
This happens in a mostly non verbal way, speech actually being something us humans rely on too much! Participants get to see for themselves what they need to see. The courses help us find a way back to our more instinctual side, allowing us to learn by “doing” and “observing”. This is something we did easily as children but an ability we often lose as we reach adulthood. This way of learning is of course the only way our animals can learn because they don't rely on verbal communication, studying from books or attending school.
Animals don’t live in a world of thought, logic, past regrets or future worries but interact with each other and with us in the NOW, purely on an instinctual level. By becoming more observant and developing our awareness, we too can live more in the moment. This is what our dogs can offer us - the lesson that because of the way they are, they do not hold onto negativities - and neither should we.
Dogs need us to be calm, effective leaders giving guidance and direction. Often this is what we need to do in our personal lives and our working lives. Too often we let others push our boundaries and if we allow this with our dogs, it soon becomes very obvious. For every response we get from our dogs we can guarantee this is the kind of cause and effect we have with humans too. The skill is to try and apply what we learn to our every day lives. This of course is the difficult part - maintaining consistency in everything we do.
The workshops offer some clues as to how we can go about this. The idea is to help us start the thinking process so that ultimately we will purposefully respond to things (rather than react) - not only independently and outside the box, but more instinctively too.
Tamasine has been working with horses for over twenty years and teaching and studying horsemanship for around half that time. For for a number of years has also been a teacher and trainer of horsemanship at her own centre, around South Africa and other countries. Often those coming to the centre would meet the resident Ridgebacks and ask if she also trained dogs - to which the answer would be "no, only horses". However, over time, it became clearer that although horses are considered "prey" animals and dogs "predators" they actually both need the same thing when it comes to the humans in their lives - leadership and consistency given with calmness, confidence and compassion. She discovered that what she taught in horsemanship lessons - that it's more about "who we need to be" than a method of training - also applied to dogs. This led to her taking up studies in dog behaviour and starting on a training programme for dogs. After working with Carl Bronner of Horseplay in Natal to create a self-development course called "Inner Game" using Carl's horses as the teachers, Carl suggested that it might work just as well with dogs. From this, Leadchanges was born.
Tamasine is currently studying for her Diploma in Dog Behaviour with the British College of Canine Studies in the UK and is also an "Affiliate" member of the IACP (International Association of Canine Professionals). Affiliates show an active interest in a career as canine professionals but are still gaining experience - ie they are apprentices, students of canine professions, trainees, volunteers or devotees of canine related occupations.
Liesl spent 11 years in the corporate environment after completing her university studies. However, over time she came to realise that, in spite of career success, there was something lacking in her life and she made the decision to give up full-time employment in order to follow her true passion, which is working with animals. In particular, she finds interacting with horses and dogs most rewarding. Dogs are not considered "man's best friend" for no reason - their capacity to provide unconditional love and loyalty fulfills a deep purpose in our lives. Animals are, however, never fooled by pretense and incongruent behaviour. As a result, when dealing with animals, being in the moment and acting from a place of honesty and truth is something most humans find challenging to say the least! Liesl also has a passion for animal healing work and in addition to qualifying as a Reiki Master, she has also studied modalities such as crystal healing and the Bach Flower remedies and in this regard plans to establish an animal rehabilitation centre in future.
Liesl and Tamasine met in 2008 when Liesl came to look at a horse Tamasine was selling and when she started studying horsemanship, they found they had a number of things in common, including their passion for dogs. As is sometimes the case, serendipity occurs and Tamasine and Liesl found themselves living on neighbouring farms, sharing in both horsemanship and dog training activities. It therefore seemed a logical step to set up Leadchanges together.
