From Luxury Hospitality to Horses and Applied-Neuroscience: Why I Built Maria Ollero
For more than ten years, my work in Dubai was about how people feel. In luxury hospitality marketing, at houses such as Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah and Pullman Dubai, I learned that guests rarely remember the details they can name. They remember how a place made them feel: welcome, safe, seen.
Today, through equine-assisted coaching in Dubai, applied neuroscience and meditation, I ask a similar question with a different focus. How do you feel in yourself? And what does it actually take to change that, in a way that lasts?
This is the story of Maria Ollero: where it comes from, what I offer, and who it is for.
Where I come from
I grew up in Es Mercadal, a small village in the heart of Menorca, and built my career in the UAE. Hospitality taught me three things that still shape everything I do: presence, care in the details, and the idea that every meaningful experience is designed with intention.
What I learned along the way
I trained as a meditation coach. In 2021, I certified in Horse Guided Empowerment® and began working as an equine-assisted coach. In 2024, I became a certified NeuroChangeSolutions trainer, part of a global network delivering Change Your Mind… Create New Results, a programme based on the work of Dr Joe Dispenza. Alongside these, I trained in emotional intelligence.
Each method worked. But on its own, each one reached only one part of the person.
Insight helps you understand why you react the way you do. Yet when your nervous system reads a situation as a threat, it falls back on familiar patterns, however well you understand them. Calm helps, but calm without understanding tends to fade under pressure. And neither holds unless it becomes part of how you live on an ordinary Tuesday.
Why I brought them together
Lasting change needs three levels to move together:
- Your body and nervous system: the sense of safety everything else depends on
- Your mind: how you understand yourself, and why you react the way you do
- Your everyday life: the practices that carry the change into your days
Work on only one, and the change doesn’t hold. That belief is the foundation of Maria Ollero: a practice that combines coaching with horses, applied neuroscience and self-regulation techniques, so the body, mind and daily life can change as one.
What Maria Ollero is today
Since 2019 I have worked with individuals, private companies and government entities. I am based in Dubai, spend time in Menorca throughout the year, and work online with clients worldwide. Since 2021, I have also designed and led retreats in Spain, Georgia, Oman and the UAE.
What I offer
Argulut, my signature journey
When I was a child, I gave trees a name: Argulut. A tree grows in two directions at once, with roots deep enough to hold it and branches open to the light. People grow the same way. Argulut is a six-session journey built around you, combining one to three of my modalities. After every session you receive a written summary with recommended actions, and you can choose to measure your progress before and after.
Neuroleadership training for teams
Change Your Mind… Create New Results is a two-day programme based on the work of Dr Joe Dispenza, delivered online or in person. It can be split into shorter sessions or held as a retreat. For companies across the UAE and the GCC, I also offer one-hour talks, two-hour workshops and half-day corporate wellness workshops on how the brain creates change.
Equine-assisted coaching in Dubai and Menorca
Horses are prey animals, finely tuned to the state of the nervous system around them. They respond to what you feel and where your attention is, not to how you look or what you say. That makes equine-assisted coaching an honest, immediate mirror for presence and calm. All work happens on the ground: no riding or previous experience with horses is needed. I am also co-founder of Heal with Horses in the UAE.
Mindfulness and self-regulation
Meditation sits at the core of my work, alongside breathing techniques, body awareness and journaling. These are simple, evidence-informed tools for self-regulation: ways to shift your state when stress narrows your attention, and to return to the present moment. They can be learned on their own or combined.
Retreats and events
From retreats with horses to neuroleadership weekends, each retreat is curated with purpose and intention, in places chosen for how they make you feel.
Who I work with
Most of my clients are women who know, underneath, what they are capable of, but have lost sight of it. Sometimes life happened. Sometimes one part of life stopped working, and the rest followed. Many come to me after burnout, a big transition, or years of putting everyone else first.
I also work with leaders and teams who want people who think clearly under pressure, not just people who work harder.
What I offer is not about becoming someone else. It is about coming back to who you already are, and building from there.
An invitation
If something here feels familiar, let’s talk. Book a free discovery call and we will explore what you need, and whether working together is the right fit.
Warmly,
Maria
Maria Ollero is a Dubai-based meditation coach, equine-assisted coach and certified NeuroChangeSolutions trainer. She works with individuals and organisations across the UAE, Menorca and online.
Frequently asked questions
How is your coaching different? I work with the body, the mind and everyday life together, rather than one area in isolation. My work combines applied neuroscience, self-regulation techniques and, where it fits, coaching with horses.
What is equine-assisted coaching, and do I need to ride? Equine-assisted coaching uses the horse’s natural sensitivity to human emotion as live feedback on your presence and calm. All work is on the ground, so no riding or experience with horses is needed.
Do you offer coaching online? Yes. Every modality except the work with horses is available online, worldwide.
Do you work with companies in the UAE and the GCC? Yes. I offer neuroleadership training, talks and corporate wellness workshops for teams, online or in person.
Where do sessions take place? In person in Dubai and in Menorca, and online.