I provide life coaching and career counselling from Perth. Focusing on wellness for life and work, this service draws on my experience in existential counselling and stress management. The central topics of my practice model are the mainstays of wellbeing – your life purpose, self-acceptance, positive relations with others, personal growth, autonomy and environmental mastery.
Life coaching
I started life coaching while a PhD student in Applied Philosophy. Learning how to create an authentic way of living and philosophical counselling were core topics in that research. That study, combined with decades of engagement with existential philosophy, became the foundation for my service.
When we moved to Adelaide, like many dual career couples, we experienced a range of tensions due to the unexpected transitions generated by changes in our roles and geography. There I explored on-line businesses for a time, while completing formal qualifications in counselling and career development. Those studies in counselling reinforced my view that eschewing the pathology focused medical model of counselling psychology for a coaching practice with a philosophical foundation is the most respectful approach to client issues.
To my mind, wellness for life and work is enhanced by identifying your strengths and making sure they are serving you in all elements of your life. The one thing I wish I had discovered much earlier was a focus on strengths. After running two small businesses in my twenties I chose to focus on sales jobs in other people’s businesses for a time. A great deal of angst would have been avoided if I’d known what strengths to use as a foundation for a sales skill set that would serve my clients and me.
Career counselling
Career counselling should be about gaining a conscious understanding of the skills and values you can use to build an income. Understanding something of career strategies is also gold. Outcomes like that can make a substantial improvement to your income as you build a business or professional career. My studies in career development also provided the basis for a workable method to help anyone with the often vexing question of what niche to start an online side-hustle, as a way to gain more control over your life.
Many people are held back from pursuing their own small business because of a fear of sales. That may have been a valid concern in the past but things have changed now. With new technologies and the approaches to business they have engendered, it is easier for you to be successful in sales. No longer do you have to run the risk of burnout because you are using tactics that are not compatible with your values, personality and strengths.
My view is that for career counselling to be a successful investment it needs to do much more than spit out a list of jobs you might be suited to. That approach might work for someone in high school or uni but not if you’ve been around the block a few times. If you are going to pour your heart into creative work, then it is important to include your real world understanding of the difficulties of living in an uncertain economic times, to ensure you receive nuanced and individualised career guidance.
An avid learner my education includes:
- a Bachelor of Arts and Honours degree in Philosophy from Murdoch University.
- 5 years of PhD research in Applied Philosophy and Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne.
- a Graduate Certificate in Career Development from the University of Queensland
- a Diploma of Counselling from Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors
You can see more about my experience and qualifications at Linkedin.
