By working with Freedom Reigns Ranch, Beverly Powers has not only nurtured her passion for horses but also found a sense of value following her divorce.
Beverly relocated to Nashville three years ago after escaping an abusive marriage. There, she started a life coaching business in hopes of helping newly-divorced women discover their sense of self-worth. Beverly focused on growing her business for a few years while following signs that pointed her toward Freedom Reigns Ranch, a non-profit organization that provides equine-assisted mentor sessions for kids and young adults who have experienced trauma and other life challenges. Before Beverly’s divorce, she considered volunteering to be a means of escape.
Beverly explains, “Feeling visible in the volunteer world meant so much to me,” as she did not feel visible in her marriage. “While I started going through my divorce, what I learned was I also added value to people.”
Through this perception, Beverly’s purpose for volunteerism morphed. By bringing significance to other people through volunteerism, she rediscovered her own sense of utility.
“Volunteering was always a part of my life, it just wasn’t with the same intention when I started becoming a single person and rediscovering that I did have something to offer the world,” she says. “The value I could bring to other people, the smile on their faces, the way I could help people, the way I could change lives started taking on a meaning for me.”
Beverly always had a love for horses. As a child, she dreamt of owning one, and the dream remained well into adulthood. While married, she and her husband lived on 22 acres of land.
“I had wanted horses when we bought that property, but life didn’t happen that way,” she says.
During the divorce, she fostered a horse for three months and grew fond of it. The bond had reached its end when she returned it upon moving to Nashville. Thankfully, Beverly got a chance to reignite this sentiment as she says, “God led me right to Freedom Reigns,” thus continuing her volunteerism and nurturing her affection for horses.
For the past year, Beverly has offered much of her time as a ranch assistant at Freedom Reigns, an organization that heals through equine interaction. She explains that they are interactive, nurturing, comforting animals that sync themselves to your heartbeat.
During her training with Freedom Reigns, Beverly says, “I needed to calm my nervous system to be around them.”
Practicing calmness with the horses helped her personal healing journey. She even incorporated this self-calming idea into her life coaching business. Beverly has also witnessed the effect of equine interaction on kids and teens during their sessions at Freedom Reigns. Having spent most of her early volunteer years helping to create positive experiences for youths, she says, “Seeing the satisfaction of what they’re doing on these horses means so much for me.”
To hear more about Beverly and her volunteerism, listen to her interview on our podcast.
