F.A.Q

A number of benefits are available from participating in coaching. Recovery coaches can provide support, problem-solving skills, and enhanced coping strategies for issues such as depression, anxiety, relationship troubles, unresolved childhood issues, grief, stress management, body image issues and creative blocks. Many people also find that coaches can be a tremendous asset to managing personal growth, recovery skills, interpersonal relationships, family concerns, marriage issues, and the hassles of daily life.

Coaching can provide a fresh perspective on a difficult problem and point you in the direction of a solution. The benefits you obtain from coaching depend on how well you use the process and put into practice what you learn. Some of the benefits available from coaching include:

• Attaining a better understanding of yourself, your goals and values
• Developing skills for improving your relationships
• Finding resolution to the issues or concerns around recovery.
• Learning new ways to cope with stress and anxiety
• Managing anger, grief, depression, and other emotional pressures
• Improving communications and listening skills
• Changing old behavior patterns and developing new ones
• Discovering new ways to solve problems in your family or marriage
• Improving your self-esteem and boosting self-confidence

Everyone goes through challenging situations in life, and while you may have successfully navigated through other difficulties you’ve faced, there’s nothing wrong with seeking out extra support when you need it. In fact, coaching is for people who have enough self-awareness to realize they need a helping hand, and that is something to be admired. You are taking responsibility by accepting where you’re at in life and making a commitment to change the situation by seeking a coach. A recovery coach provides long-lasting benefits and support, giving you the tools you need to avoid triggers, re-direct damaging patterns, and overcome whatever challenges you face. Recovery coaching provides something a therapist does not. A coach can be more personable and give advice. He/she is a consultant on your recovery process. A therapist will work on family history and delve into the hows and whys of your issues, which might be more appropriate later on in your recovery process. If you are in therapy, a coach is there to give extra support and a boost between sessions with your therapist.

People have many different motivations for coming to a recovery coach. Some may be going through a major life transition (unemployment, divorce, new job, etc.), or are not handling stressful circumstances well. Some people have difficulty staying sober. Some people need assistance managing a range of other issues such as low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, addictions, relationship problems, spiritual conflicts and creative blocks. Coaching can help provide some much needed encouragement and help with skills to get them through these periods. In short, people who hire coaches are ready to meet the challenges in their lives and ready to make changes in their lives.

While some recovering addicts/alcoholics are able to stop using on their own, or after treatment through a program or a 12-step process, many people find themselves chronically relapsing or living sober with lots of cravings and emotional or physical distress. Our program believes that there are specific reasons for relapse which can be pinpointed and successfully addressed. Your coach will help you do this, and give you specific tools to overcome your blocks to sobriety.

As every person has different goals, so too will their coaching sessions look different from one another. In general, you can expect to discuss the current events happening in your life, your personal history relevant to your issue, and report progress (or any new insights gained) from the previous session. Depending on your specific needs, coaching can be short-term, for a specific issue, or longer-term, to deal with more difficult patterns or your desire for more personal development. Either way, it is most common to schedule regular sessions with your coach.

It is important to understand that you will get more results from coaching if you actively participate in the process. The ultimate purpose of coaching is to help you bring what you learn in session back into your life. Many will also have a therapist. Beyond the work you do in therapy sessions, your coach may suggest some things you can do outside of therapy to support your recovery. – such as reading a pertinent book, journaling on specific topics, noting particular behaviors or taking action on your goals. People seeking recovery coaching are ready to make positive changes in their lives, are open to new perspectives and take responsibility for their lives.

It is well established that the long-term solution to mental and emotional problems and the pain they cause cannot be solved solely by medication. Instead of just treating the symptom, coaching and psychotherapy address the cause of our distress and the behavior patterns that curb our progress. You can best achieve sustainable growth and a greater sense of well-being with an integrative approach to wellness. Mental Health Nutrition addresses the underlying biochemical imbalances that may drive symptoms using over-the-counter nutrients such as amino acids and dietary change. Working with your medical doctor, nutritionist, and coach or psychotherapist in conjunction will help you determine what’s best for you, and in some cases, a combination of nutrients, medication, and coaching is the right course of action. When symptoms are biochemically driven, the nutritionist may also do lab testing to uncover these biochemical drivers. This is an approach that conventional psychiatrists generally don’t know about.

NLP is an approach to effective communication and healing that uses perceptual, behavioral, and communication techniques to make it easier for people to change their thoughts and actions. NLP was developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, who believed it was possible to identify the patterns of language,  thoughts and behaviors of successful individuals and to teach them to others. NLP tries to detect and modify unconscious biases or limitations of an individual’s map of the world. NLP is not hypnotherapy. Instead, it operates through the conscious use of language to bring about changes in someone’s thoughts and behavior. It is used as a method of personal development through promoting skills, such as self-reflection, confidence, and communication. Practitioners have applied NLP commercially to achieve work-orientated goals, such as improved productivity or job progression. More widely, it has been applied as a therapy for psychological disorders, including phobias, depression, generalized anxiety disorders or GAD, and post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. (From Medical News Today)

At its core, amino acid therapy is the use of supplemental amino acids to help balance the neurotransmitters in your brain. Amino acids are building blocks for our neurotransmitters, and usually in under 15 minutes of using these inexpensive nutraceuticals (which are found at any vitamin store), they can often lift the mood, increase energy, reduce anxiety and pain, and help you quickly dose off to sleep. Amino acids are non-addictive and even help people withdraw off addictive drugs and sugar with little to no withdrawal symptoms or cravings. As a Mental Health Nutritionist, Christina has extensive experience using amino acids and other nutrients to treat anxiety, depression, hypoglycemia, acute withdrawal symptoms, and much more.

The staff at Garden Gate Counseling do not  take insurance.

Confidentiality is one of the most important components between a client and coach. Successful coaching requires a high degree of trust with highly sensitive subject matter that is usually not discussed anywhere but the office or phone etc. Every coach should provide a written copy of their confidential disclosure agreement, and you can expect that what you discuss in session will not be shared with anyone. This is called “Informed Consent”. Sometimes, however, you may want your coach to share information or give an update to someone on your healthcare team (your Physician, Naturopath, Attorney), but by law, your coach cannot release this information without obtaining your written permission.

However, state law and professional ethics require therapists to maintain confidentiality except for the following situations:

* Suspected past or present abuse or neglect of children, adults, and elders to the authorities, including Child Protection and law enforcement, based on information provided by the client or collateral sources.
* If the therapist has reason to suspect the client is seriously in danger of harming him/herself or has threatened to harm another person.