Services — SARAH JEFFREY COUNSELLING

SARAH JEFFREY COUNSELLING

Counselling

During the counselling process, a strong emphasis is placed on the relationship between counsellor and client. It’s used in a skillful way to offer emotional support and guidance while things are being worked out. The ultimate aim of counselling is to create an opportunity for clients to enhance their self-awareness, increase their resilience, and connect with what brings meaning and value to their lives. The counsellor will provide insight, acceptance and non-judgement, and will act as a sounding board. By definition, counselling tends to be more short term and focuses on specific topics and life areas. Support and guidance will be offered by the counsellor specific to these areas.

landscape-photo-of-green-trees-and-mountains-2088167.jpg — Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy tends to be more long-term and explores overall patterns and behaviours causing challenge and struggle in an individual’s life.
Understanding how past experiences influence current behaviors and worldview is key to the therapeutic process. Family history and substantial life events and adversities are often considered.
Although counselling and psychotherapy overlap in many areas, a common distinction between these two approaches is duration and content. It could be likened to the difference between an oil change versus coming in for a new transmission!
Nonetheless, the aim of both psychotherapy and counselling is shared, and foundational to both is the therapist’s capacity to hold each client’s unique set of circumstances with kindness, curiosity and non-judgement.

Therapeutic Coaching

When the way forward isn’t in focus, this type of coaching offers a high level of therapeutic sensitivity in addition to skillful coaching. Its therapeutic nature sets it apart from standard coaching. Insight and guidance is given in a more direct manner and action items and resources are offered. This is for individuals who have stumbled on an impasse in a specific life area, but are on an otherwise forward moving, high caliber path. It puts ‘now what’ into action.
*To be human is to be dynamic, given this, it's not uncommon to enter coaching, counselling or psychotherapy for one particular reason, only to discover other areas of your life calling for attention. For this reason, these various practices can often resemble each other and overlap.

Mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness Meditation has proven to decrease stress levels, improve overall life satisfaction, and is an incredible catalyst for change.
Mindfulness has been described as paying attention to the present moment, on purpose and without judgement.
Guided meditation is a process of being led through mindfulness awareness, and is an opportunity to become familiar with our internal landscape. This creates space to make contact with current, felt experiences, whereby improving our self-awareness and our relationship to self.
In session, when appropriate, I’ll often invite us to practice being mindful together. This involves me guiding you through meditation, in a therapeutic manner, in order to notice what’s calling for attention and to offer an opportunity to practice regulating your nervous system. This tends to be a favorite with clients!

‘It isn’t the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it’s how we relate to the things that happen to us that cause us to suffer’.

-Pema Chodron