Gemma Sheppard

Mindset Coach

Gemma is the founder of More Than Human, a welfare-first animal care and education business, and the creator of Animals Make Us Human, a Skool community exploring the psychology of human-animal relationships. She is a multi-passionate, feral woman who feels most at home outside in nature.

After years of addiction, Gemma rebuilt her life following sobriety in 2021. She knows firsthand what it feels like to look in the mirror and not recognise the person staring back. Losing her father at 23, living in Vietnam for four years, adopting a rescue dog, starting (and closing) multiple businesses, and returning to academia all became chapters in a long process of identity rebirth. Her mantra is simple: fck fitting in*. After years of trying to live by other people’s rules, she realised she could make her own and thus created a personal brand sharing her unique human experience.

With a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Human-Animal Interaction and Wellbeing, Gemma brings both academic grounding and lived experience to her writing, workshops, and coaching work. Her approach blends psychology, nervous system regulation, spirituality, and straight-talking honesty. She isn’t afraid to ask difficult questions, holding up a mirror to reveal where people may be abandoning themselves and offering practical tools to support change that actually sticks.

Alongside her education and community work, Gemma offers pet relationship coaching, helping people understand the psychological patterns, beliefs, and nervous system dynamics that shape how they relate to their animals. Her work centres on welfare-first principles, mutual regulation, and the idea that animals are not just companions, but powerful mirrors for human growth.

Everything Gemma does is grounded in her relationship with her rescue dog Nelly and her horse Mr Kipps, whom she credits with saving her life and teaching her how to live with greater presence, responsibility, and compassion. When she isn’t outside with her boys, she’s likely daydreaming about a farmhouse full of rescue animals: a place where humans and animals can heal, grow, and reconnect to what really matters.