The fact you’re reading this is a sign from the universe that a part of you is ready to heal. You will develop awareness about your emotional unmet needs and by applying the five key steps, you’ll be empowered to start conversations with coaches and therapists.

There’s a high possibility, you’re trying to enlist a service for yourself, or for someone you care about. When you’re feeling emotionally vulnerable, it’s incredibly hard to recognise and accept you need professional support. What’s even more challenging, is the next step, finding the expertise for your personal situation especially when the critical voice in your head is louder than ever.

No matter your vulnerability, navigating the type of professional help you need shouldn’t be adding even more to your mental load. I’ve been in the same overwhelming confusing place, so I’m well-positioned to help you to take out the guess work and navigate you towards clarity.

Let’s define what we mean by coaching and therapy.

Coaching develops mental fitness.

Under the umbrella of mental fitness, feelings, thoughts, behaviours, beliefs, and identity are explored. Coaching is for people who are mentally and emotionally stable in life. They’ve created success in some areas of their life and now they want to do better, be better. They recognise they have unexplored potential. They may want to create more consistency in certain areas of life. They aspire for better focus, a higher level of self-belief and to take more risks to improve the quality of their life. They may be looking to improve their health, relationships, finances, or career. In fact, whatever a client desires are possible as long as they are willing to grow their mental fitness.

Coaches must be qualified, use evidence-based methods of Positive Psychology and should belong to a governing body.

Therapy heals mental illness.

Under the umbrella of mental illness, symptoms, feelings, thoughts, behaviours, beliefs, and identity are explored. Therapy is for people who feel unstable emotionally or mentally most of the time. The mental instability can be caused by a bio-chemical imbalance. It can also be caused by unprocessed or unresolved trauma from your past. People who live with unexpressed or unresolved past wounds are affected regularly, spontaneously and/or circumstantially. It’s the way your mind and body weren’t able to process the event(s) so they continue to affect you even though it may have been long ago.

Therapists are usually qualified at degree level or above, use evidence-based modalities and belong to a governing body. They also have regular clinical supervision to ensure good practice.

Let’s help you get started

In all cases, it’s always a good idea to inform your GP of your symptoms. They will carry out an assessment and make recommendations. The GP may recommend medication to stabilise moderate to severe symptoms, this can give you the mental break you need. It is of course, up to you to follow their recommendations. If you have a mental illness disorder, you’ll be displaying significant mental disturbances. The GP will be refer you to Clinical Psychologists or Psychiatrists who diagnose conditions such as Bipolar, Schizophrenia, Personality Disorders etc.

Mental health is a spectrum. For example, some people living with General Anxiety Disorders (GAD) can be treated effectively with conscious coaching techniques such as tapping or NLP and subconscious techniques such as Hypnotherapy. Others, with severe symptoms will require clinical intervention as well as medication. Once stabilisation is achieved, they can enlist the support of a coach or therapist.

There isn’t a clear fork in the road moment when it comes to coaching and therapy. You don’t have to make a definitive decision and find yourself stuck.

Five key steps before hiring a coach or therapist

• Develop an understanding of your issue. How often and to what extent it affects you. You can start journaling your thoughts to include recent episodes. Have conversations with family and friends to broaden your perspective and learn your blind spots.
• Use an online DASS (Depression, Anxiety, Stress) calculator to give you a score. This provides an indication for areas of priority. Although these scores are useful, they don’t provide a full picture. A conversation with a coach or therapist is useful.
• Make a list of the recurring thoughts, feelings and behaviours you have about yourself in a given area of your life.  For example, to improve health, start writing all negative thoughts, negative feelings you have about yourself and list the behaviours you’re trying to stop or trying to make more consistent.
• Do you have a preference of one-to-one session, group session or online sessions?
• What is your budget? Coaches and therapist charge according to their qualification and experience. They are free to set their own price. You are likely to require eight to twelve sessions depending on the extent of your issue. Be realistic about your affordability. In the past, I have saved up to work with a particular coach. It’s also a good idea to subscribe to their newsletter as they may share offers from time to time.

The BIG benefit of enlisting Roksana

Hi, I’m Roksana! As a Transformation Coach (Trauma Informed), I am a Coach and a Therapist. Ideal for those who consider their mental health on the mild to moderate spectrum. I applies both conscious coaching techniques as well as therapeutic techniques to enable clients to heal from wounds and go on to develop their mental fitness with coaching.

Roksana is qualified and experienced in these modalities:

• Master Life Coach

• Master Hypnotherapist

• Master Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner

• EMDR Practitioner

• EFT Practitioner

• Guided Meditation Practitioner

I collaborates with my clients, enabling them to dictate pace and priorities. I apply coaching and therapeutic techniques to shift the intensity of wounds, teaching clients to better manage their emotional well-being and creates identity level shifts to ensure transformational sustainable improvements, to your quality of life.

Roksana supports with:

• Building Confidence and Self Esteem

• Anxiety and Stress Management

• Eliminate Fears and Phobias

• Heal Trauma

• Heal Parental Wound

With me, you don’t have to choose between a coach or therapist. You’ll get the transformational benefit of both with a clear road map for your unique situation, prioritise and desired outcome. A judgement free space with a transformation coach who has lived through most of life’s challenges, and possess the professional acumen to be your coach, therapist, guide, teacher, and accountability partner. My cultural context adds a further dynamic which means, I understand your nuances from the outset.

I’m a life coach for women in St Albans, Hertfordshire. I run face to face and online sessions via Zoom. I’m always happy to answer your questions around any of my methods or approaches. Long term changes begin with a guide who has walked a similar path, has a blueprint, will give you support and accountability every step of the way. If you’re interested to know more then please book a FREE call with me.