Welcome to Dr Sue Binks Website
Dr SUE BINKS
I am an accomplished learning and development consultant and trusted partner, with extensive experience of successfully creating nationally recognised talent development solutions.
As an occupational psychologist I have over 20 years experience of working with L&D, OD and talent specialists to co-create unique, credible and effective development programmes. My first love though is Equine Assisted Leadership Development, which I am professionalising through a recently completed PhD.
I came across the idea of having horses as partners in development at a taster session after a fateful conversation with a taxi driver. It was late at night in 2010, I had been picked up at the airport after a work trip and got chatting with the taxi driver. He asked me a question he normally asked young people on his project called 'finding your genius'. "What is it you do now that you could do until the day you die?" Taken aback, my response was "I'm not sure, but it has got to have something to do with horses."
Within a couple of days, I was standing in an arena with colleagues and a couple of horses having a taster experience of equine assisted learning. I can still remember standing there in boots and jeans with the sun on my skin, totally at home, thinking "this is it; this is what I could do until the day I die."
As powerful as that experience was, I realised that for it to have the right kind of impact on leaders, it needed to be facilitated skillfully.
Horses get to the heart of someone's leadership issue within 20 mins
EDUCATION
I have always be fascinated by people and knew from a reasonably early age that I wanted to be a psychologist. It also helped that I have a stubborn streak, and when a career advisor said “Psychologist? That’s not a proper job!” my course was set! It was only in my final year of my undergraduate degree did I come across occupational psychology.
From assessment and selection to ergonomics, this branch of psychology looks at how the principles of psychology apply in the workplace. My particular focus, has been on learning and development, in a leadership development context. I took that to the next level when I completed my professional doctorate in 2019. That research (Facilitating Leadership Development with Horses: Underpinnings of Practice) is the foundation for what I do now.
CAREER
The practical application of psychology in the work place has been the core of my career. I am not necessarily a traditional occupational psychologist in that, whilst I do some assessment and selection work, it has always been in the context of development and learning.
I have worked for a leading management institute for 15 years. Throughout that time I have supported clients to understand how learning, particularly leadership development, can help them meet their organisational objectives.
I have worked with private sector organisations, national charities and large government departments. Whether it was supporting top level talent initiatives or developing the skill set and mind set to lead change effectively,
I have always taken a wider, organisation development perspective, but never forgetting that each leader is unique within their context. So many of those organisations and their leaders where looking for an alternative approach to development. Simply knowing the latest thinking was rarely enough.
That is why I started to look at the power of Equine Assisted Leadership Development
Testimonials
Dr Paula Hearsum
PRINCIPAL LECTURER
Client of Dr Sue's
“Fresh from a morning of an Equine Assisted Leadership taster with Sue I was blown away by the profound impact and resonance the facilitated session has had. I can not recommend Sue's highly attuned professionalism and emotional intelligence in moving us through the session was. To hold that attention, care and depth both with those present individually, as a group and with the horse was quite something... care both inside the session and debriefing afterwards was excellent and I went from outright fear of horses to having a cuddle with ours - an outcome I really wasn't expecting! Thank you so much Sue.”
Gary Miles
PROGRAMME DIRECTOR
London Buiness School
“I have had the pleasure of co-facilitating with Sue on a number of in-company programmes including those with a large majority of international participants. Sue brings a lot of energy, enthusiasm and presence in the way in which she works with groups and I admire her highly pragmatic and down to earth facilitation style, which enables her to tune into what is relevant and current for her audience. She is particularly strong at understanding different cultural nuances from working with a multi-national group and has a valuable Occupational Psychology background, which gives her a real edge in Assessment and Development Centre work. ”
The Equine Facilitator
What I offer
What I bring is an in depth appreciation of both the theory and the practice of learning with horses, and, perhaps uniquely, extensive experience of developing other developers. What that allows me to do is translate complex ideas into everyday language, helping practitioners to deepen their knowledge, skills and confidence.
What I offer to practitioners is:
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A supportive community of practice where they can access information to support their own ongoing development
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Programmes designed to lay solid foundations for those practitioners who want to ground their practice in the well established approaches to facilitating experiential learning
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Advanced programmes for those who want to deepen and extend their knowledge
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Master classes to stimulate thinking and community collaboration
What I offer organisations who are looking to include equine assisted approaches into their leadership development:
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A thorough understanding of learning design to ensure the equine assisted element is well integrated into a wider programme
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Bespoke approach to meeting your learning outcomes
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Highly experienced and credible facilitator with potentially sceptical leaders