“Do I need a therapist or a coach?”
There can be overlap.
Coaching can be very useful when the focus is primarily on goals, strategy, performance, decision making or accountability.
Therapy may be more appropriate when you recognise that something deeper is affecting your ability to move forward: recurring relationship dynamics, trauma, nervous system responses, emotional patterns, family conditioning, identity, grief or ways of functioning that you understand but cannot simply think your way out of.
Some people come to me because they are highly functional and don’t feel “unwell”, but want a depth of psychological and somatic work that they are not finding in conventional coaching.
I want something deeper than executive coaching
Many people initially think they need a coach because they are high-functioning and successful.
What they actually want may be deeper psychological work: someone capable of working simultaneously with history, trauma, nervous-system responses, relational dynamics, family systems, identity, meaning and the body.
You may be thinking things such as:
“I don’t need another productivity coach. I need to understand what is driving this.”
“I want something deeper than coaching but I don’t necessarily feel that I need conventional mental-health treatment.”
You do not need to identify as damaged or disordered in order to work with me.
Who can help me work out why I keep living in ways I know aren’t good for me?
A great deal of self improvement is based on consciously overriding ourselves.
Try harder.
Set better boundaries.
Stop overthinking.
Choose better partners.
Be more confident.
Regulate yourself.
Think differently.
Sometimes that is useful.
But sometimes it leaves people working incredibly hard to manage responses that are still being generated by the deeper system underneath.
I am interested in what happens when we work closer to the source of the response.
You can understand something intellectually and still have an operating system generating the old response.
My interest is in working with that deeper system so that change does not rely entirely on forcing yourself to think or behave differently.
You are not looking for another person to tell you how to live your life.
You are looking for someone who can sit beside you, help you understand what is shaping it, and support you in creating more freedom to decide for yourself.
Testimonials
"Renee has a fresh, no-nonsense approach to life that has helped me see things in a practical way. In addition, however, she has done all the emotional hand-holding I have needed to deal with some of life's biggest challenges. She has sensible advice on relationships and parenting, as well as tremendous experience dealing with addiction and food issues. I can't thank her enough for her humour and warmth, and for 'giving it to me straight' when I needed it."