How Counselling & Life Coaching Works

I pride myself in providing you with the highest quality assessment and counselling and life coaching services geared to your convenience and comfort level.

I offer two confidential and convenient counselling and life coaching options: face-to-face or telephone based. My counselling and life coaching model is highly supportive, flexible, interactive and fun.

In the first session we will assess your needs. You will be asked about your present concerns, present family situation, personal history (only when necessary), and/or relationships. After the assessment, you and I will work together and establish a helping approach that will work best for you.

I will work on behalf of your interests and you will determine what your goals are. My role is to help you reach them. You will be actively involved in setting specific goals and working through the issues.

I will provide empathy, support, structure, guidance, coaching, education, skills training and/or insight to help you successfully enhance your well-being.

Since our counselling and life coaching approach incorporates the emotional, intellectual, physical, spiritual and interpersonal characteristics of a person, medication may be recommended whenever indicated by your doctor. You are highly encouraged to discuss any questions or concerns you may have about our meetings at any stage of counselling.

Counselling sessions may be done in three or more than six sessions. Complex issues may take ten to twelve sessions or more.

How is counselling different from life coaching?

Traditional counselling focuses on healing unresolved psychological issues of the past. Modern solution oriented counselling focuses less on past life issues, but on present and future goals. A modern counsellor may view your situation as a problem, often stemming from the past (i.e. childhood), but will help you work on your present concerns, issues or problems. Insight and understanding of the problem is important here.

A Life-coach is not concerned about your life problems, but will help you enhance your performance (sometimes reach excellence) in a given area of your life. You may want to develop advanced communication skills or a healthy life/work lifestyle balance. This approach is less interested in understanding your life issues, but will help you take action in enhancing your well-being.

My counselling approach takes both helping styles into consideration. I will adjust the approaches according to your needs, goals, and interests. Some people may want to better understand their present problem (i.e. anger, unhappiness) by looking into their past. Others may want to enhance life skills, without spending time focusing on insight building. Yet, others may want to do both. The choice will always be yours.

Does counselling and life coaching work?

Yes. Over 90% of people who have completed counselling and life coaching report to enjoy a healthier self. It does not mean that you are abnormal or have a mental illness, but it does mean that you want to work on your own life: to understand your stress, to enhance your coping tools and to feel your very best.

What are the rules around confidentiality?

Information about you or your conversation with me will not be released to anyone without your informed, voluntary and written consent, except as outlined:

1) When a counsellor assesses that you may be a danger to yourself or others, and

2) When disclosure is required by law, as in suspicion of child abuse or by court order.

Counsellors have a legal responsibility to notify the proper authorities under these circumstances.