Digging Deeper

Jocelyn’s mission is to assist women in clarifying their values and defining a coherent code of conduct for themselves and those around them.

Jocelyn grew up in the city, and spent her young adult years climbing the corporate ladder. She found her love of rural life in her late twenties. Horses taught her about living in the moment and being a cherished member of a herd. She completed a two-year program to become a Certified Practitioner of the Equine Gestalt Coaching Method and began a hobby business partnering with her horses to help people identify and remove obstacles that got in the way of living their dreams.

When she was 52, Jocelyn thought she had the world by the tail. She had been working for ten years as Finance Manager at a natural gas processing facility ten minutes from home, four days per week. She planned to be there until she retired. She’d built an equine facility from raw land, and had an ongoing contract with a horse trainer from Peru to work with her horses each summer.

She partnered with her horses to help a few private clients in her equine facilitated coaching side business. She ran small groups helping women to develop self-awareness and draw open-hearted boundaries. She had overcome an upbringing that discouraged risk-taking and learned to ride a motorcycle.

It was early June, and her chiropractor asked her about a marble-sized lump on her neck. It had been there for a few months, and she felt terrific, so she’d ignored it. At her chiropractor’s request, she followed up with her family doctor, then an endocrinologist and finally an ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeon who gave her the news no one ever wants to hear. “It’s cancer.”

Before year-end, Jocelyn underwent two minor surgical biopsies, 33 radiation treatments, chemotherapy, and antibody therapy. She lost her salivary function, sense of taste, and the ability to eat. She was tube fed for two months, then on a primarily liquid diet for a year. It was one more year before she got her sense of taste back and could eat almost normally again, although her salivary function remains limited.

During this two-year treatment and recovery period, many of the horses found new homes. Jocelyn’s gradual return to work program started about six months post-treatment, and eighteen months after diagnosis, she was declared “fit to work” and ineligible for any further long-term disability benefits. That same day, the natural gas processing facility that had been her employer for thirteen years declared bankruptcy and was shuttered.

Jocelyn knew she couldn’t return to work in downtown Calgary. She didn’t have the energy she’d once had, and two and a half hours of day of commuting from the ranch and preparation of complicated financial statements were beyond her capabilities. She looked for a new career.

Her mission became guiding women to develop self-awareness and resilience.  She joined Toastmasters to learn how to present herself better. She began to develop the women’s programs.

Then she met a retired rodeo cowboy. She thought they’d share their love of horses and ride off into the sunset together. Her program ideas changed to incorporate his cowboy mystique and fabulous skill with horses into executive coaching programs. She made excuses for the many times he failed to complete his contributions to the partnership, both in business and in relationship. Finally, she surrendered to reality and used her experiences to write a cautionary novel about the experience.

Today, she has realigned her goals. She took her core values of integrity, courage, compassion and community to  develop The Cowgirl’s Code – a code of conduct guiding herself and her relationships. She presents Compassionate Leadership as both a keynote and personal development program, and finds peace and fulfillment as she lives her days in congruence with her core values and inspires others do the same.