About
Relationship & Communication Coach · Certified Professional Coach
Before I coached parents and couples, I worked in school-based therapy, outpatient substance abuse services and domestic violence support. That's where I learned what actually helps when a family is coming apart, and what only sounds like it will.
School-based therapy
Drug and alcohol use, academic struggle, peer conflict, anxiety, depression and anger. Underneath all of it, the relationships with parents and siblings, and a young person's relationship with their own self-worth.
Non-profit outpatient services
Helping teens and their parents manage substance abuse and self-harming behaviour. Alongside it, outpatient work with clients facing substance use, and facilitation of domestic violence, anxiety and women's groups.
Private practice
One-to-one coaching for individuals and couples, group parenting and co-parenting work, anger management classes, mentorship for students, and consulting for coaches starting out.
A parenting and co-parenting program I developed and teach, built on Non-Violent Communication and needs-based approaches. It's the same framework behind the five-step method on my home page.
My style is collaborative and direct. I ask real questions, I won't nod along while you spin, and I won't hand you a worksheet and call it progress. What we build together has to survive contact with a Tuesday night.
Confidentiality and ethics come first, and the approach is solution-focused. We're looking for what changes this week, not only for what explains the past.
Coaching requires specialised training and is built to help you reach goals. It draws on therapeutic technique, but it is not psychotherapy, and I don't practise psychotherapy with coaching clients. If you're in real emotional distress, therapy is the more appropriate place to be.
If I decide during our work that you'd be better served by therapy or medical care, I'll tell you. Sometimes that means seeing a therapist alongside coaching; sometimes it means pausing until something else is addressed. If you're already seeing a therapist, let me know, and if you'd like us to speak, that needs written authorisation from you.
I can provide a statement of attendance, and for parenting and anger management programs, a description of what was covered. I don't prepare letters, forms or reports for insurers, employers, schools, medical bodies, government or legal entities, and I don't provide recommendations or testimony on a client's behalf.
Tell me what's happening in a sentence or two. If I'm not the right person for it, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.