Services

Kathleen draws on her formal education training and professional experience to help identify each client’s unique needs and most beneficial outcomes.

Services for individuals and organizations.

Services for Individuals

Personal Executive Coaching | Counselling Therapy | Clinical Counselling Hypnotherapy

Counselling Therapy and Coaching are discrete professions with separate skill sets and different specialized training:

Coaching begins in the present and focuses on moving the client forward to identified goals. It is about designing the future not getting over the past.
In the counselling therapy process, historical information can be used to better understand and resolve current issues.
Counselling therapy can be a slower process, focusing on resolving issues/problems resulting from lived experiences, learned behavior, family of origin patterns, and/or self-limiting beliefs and actions that undermine well-being.
An ethical guideline is that while a therapist may sometimes use coaching techniques, a coach does not provide psychotherapy.
Kathleen consults with each individual client to ascertain the process they wish to engage in and uses a different registration process for each.

Personal or Executive Coaching

“Professional coaching brings many wonderful benefits: fresh perspectives on personal challenges, enhanced decision-making skills, greater interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence….Those who undertake coaching also can expect appreciable improvement in productivity, satisfaction with life and career, and the attainment of relevant goals.” (www.coachfederation.org)

Kathleen Johnston is a graduate of the College of Executive Coaching (2016) which requires students to have a master’s degree in psychology to complete their Advanced Certified Personal and Executive Coach training.

Kathleen is an objective, attentive listener who provides honest feedback and thoughtful support. As your coach, she commits to being your personal strategic thinking collaborator, trusted advisor, and accountability partner.

Kathleen helps her clients examine their current situation, identify unique goals and aspirations, and encourages them to think beyond their usual range of ideas.

Contact her today @ 780-951-7780 to make an appointment for a 30-minute complimentary phone consultation.

Career/Life Essence-Based Coaching

A person’s essence is the real and ultimate nature of the individual—the yearning of one’s heart and soul. Every human being has the inner wisdom to manage their egoic drives and function authentically true to their Essence.

Kathleen will challenge you to listen to your true Self as you design a career-life journey guided by your Essence.

Consider exploring the following with your coach:

Discover whether your authentic self is flourishing within your current career-life context.
Reflect on your unique personality, natural talents, motivators, and character strengths.
Intentionally manage your Ego: Cultivate a way of being that operates from integrity.
Effortlessly apply adaptive coping strategies for transitions and change.
Build and maintain relationships that matter with people who know your essence-based strengths.
Be clear and consistent about your professional growth and development plan.
Live true to your identified personal health and well-being goals.

Career-Life Transition Coaching

Are you feeling boxed in by your current roles?

Making significant life changes can feel overwhelming.

Some people believe they’re too old to transition to a new field that may require engaging in formal education. Or they may fear the change of financial security from their current situation despite experiencing desperate dissatisfaction.

Regardless of the false barriers we put in front of ourselves, the truth is when we really want something bad enough, we can find a way to do it.

Kathleen’s own story of many career/life changes, despite the life stage she and her family were in, acts as a powerful encouragement for clients.

As an experienced career-life specialist, Kathleen guides clients through a process designed specifically to meet their unique situation.

Clients enjoy in-depth reflection and discussions plus a variety of psychometric assessments to help them answer the following important questions:

Who am I? Exploration of personality traits, natural talents, motivators, character strengths, life purpose/philosophy/principles, values, priorities, competencies, knowledge, training, and experience.
Where Am I Headed? Discover the career-life choices best suited to provide the highest level of satisfaction and success based on what matters most to you.
How will I get there? Plan the specific actions you need to implement to reach your desired goal(s).

Career / Life Integration Coaching

The reality for many people today is that the boundaries between their career and personal lives have become increasingly permeable.

There are behavioral expectations for every role we carry in life – both our own and other’s expectations. It’s these expectations that can lead to the unhealthy guilt experienced by overloaded and overcommitted individuals.

We check our emails in the evenings and weekends. We delay or miss family events because we feel obligated to work late; and when we do we take our devices with us.

Rather than worrying about how to balance your commitments, coaching will help you implement strategies to integrate your priorities based on current commitments and goals.

Career / life integration coaching can help you develop excellent boundaries that will allow you to be true to your Essence, keeping you feeling happy and healthy for years to come.

Chronic Stress Overload/Burnout Prevention

In today’s complex world, chronic stress overload has become the leading contributor to chaotic living, diminished productivity, and high dissatisfaction.

More than 25 years of clinical studies research at the Hans Selye Foundation/Canadian Institute of Stress in their Body Age program, shows that when stress runs out of control it weakens the immune system often leading to physical and mental illness.

The Institute’s research on more than 3,000 individuals demonstrates how stress overload not only undermines health over the long term, but also increases the aging process.

The good news is that both Chronic Stress Overload and Burnout are completely preventable and reversible!

Stress coaching requires your commitment to implementing new lifestyle habits to mitigate stress. The stress coaching program includes the Canadian Institute of Stress Personal StressType© Assessment, the development of a Personal Wellness Action Plan to build stress resiliency, intentional commitment for making lifestyle changes and ongoing support from your coach.

Counselling Therapy

Kathleen is a Canadian Certified Counsellor registered with the Canadian Counselling & Psychotherapy Association.

She offers counselling therapy to help individuals resolve issues interfering with their emotional health, build healthier relationships and be more productive and satisfied.

What does counselling therapy address?

In counselling, we can talk about any topic that is troubling you. We can address the symptoms you are feeling (anxiety, anger, frustration, chronic stress) as well as the underlying issues that may be contributing to those symptoms (such as core beliefs, boundaries, family of origin, self-image, or distressing career-life situations).

Kathleen’s counselling clients are typically experiencing high levels of dissatisfaction because of overwhelming or debilitating career-related and/or personal issues.

What’s Kathleen’s counselling approach?

As a therapist, I approach the counselling process from the premise that there are always innovative options and strategies to be explored and implemented to resolve issues and improve situations.

I also hold the belief that the client often has the answer “inside” and that the therapist’s role is to help her/him do the necessary “inside-out” work to reveal the best solution and implement the required changes.

Each of us has been blessed with free will, the capacity to reason, and the ability to make choices about how we want to live. This is the basis from which the person’s story is explored in the counselling room. The therapist’s role is always to serve, never to try to “fix.”

I believe that life consistently presents us with challenges, and that within one’s emotional state, belief system, thinking process and attitude, there is a lot to explore that can help us move toward healing.

The theoretical models that inform my counselling work include family systems theory, solution-focused counselling, and cognitive behavioral theory, all with a feminist philosophical foundation of fairness.

I use a strength-based approach, supporting and empowering the individual to create the change(s) that need to be made.

To determine whether counselling therapy may be helpful to you, try asking yourself these questions:

Have I experienced unwanted life changes and found my usual coping skills are not working?
Am I consistently feeling anxious, stressed, dissatisfied, angry, unhappy?
Have I tried to help myself, but the problem is still there?
Are my issues too intimate to discuss with friends or family?
Do I think it’s time to work through (rather than around) past hurts, relationships, or negative life situations?
Would I benefit from an objective, nonjudgmental professional’s point of view to help sort out my problems/difficulties/decisions?

Kathleen offers a 30 min. complimentary consultation by phone. Give me a call @780-951-7780 and we can have a chat to see if we are a good fit.

Clinical Counselling Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis can be defined as a trance state of “inner absorption, concentration and focused attention.”

Clinical Hypnotherapy can be defined as the “utilization of the trance state to assist people in altering and/or deepening their awareness of thought, emotions, behaviours and perceptions.”

When we enter a state of hypnosis, we become able to utilize thoughts, talents, and experiences in ways not usually accessible to our conscious state.

Our ability to enter this unique state of consciousness opens the door to endless possibilities for self-exploration, change and healing.

Although hypnotic trance is a very natural, peaceful state of mind that most of us experience almost daily (e.g., while daydreaming), it has often been portrayed in films and television in ways that have been inaccurate, even alarming.

All health professionals practicing Clinical Counselling Hypnotherapy must be trained and certified to use clinical hypnosis which is applied in conformance with their profession’s training and licensing laws.

The use of clinical hypnosis is restricted to specially trained psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers, and other health professionals such as physicians, dentists, and masters prepared nurses, or marital/family therapists.

Clinical hypnotherapy is used successfully in the mental health area by trained professionals to treat numerous psychological problems, e.g., phobias, anxiety, self-esteem/ego strengthening, concentration improvement and behaviour changes.

Kathleen completed her clinical hypnotherapy through Daybreak Therapy and is certified as a Clinical Counselling Hypnotherapist. She continues to engage in training provided by the organization.

Services for Organizations

Professional coaching is intended to help people draw on their strengths and develop and maintain behaviours that allow them to fully meet their obligations and responsibilities.

Organizations who sponsor professional coaching for their employees can enhance the development of their employees, helping to ensure they perform at their optimum.

The following coaching programs are designed in collaboration with the organization with their most valuable asset (their people) in mind.

You can expect to see a positive change in a person’s behaviour within just a few months following commencement of a professional coaching engagement with Kathleen.

Coaching for Advancement / Career-Life Wellbeing

Executive coaching helps high potential employees stay engaged and energized, move into new management roles with increased responsibilities or simply feel higher levels of career satisfaction.

The process typically takes place over a 12-month period. The coachee, in conjunction with their employer, creates an overview of goals for the coaching engagement which is finalized with the coach.

Objectives may include identifying and leveraging strengths, recognizing blind spots or barriers and closing any gaps, while serving to enhance satisfaction and success.

Objectives and expectations are clear and well defined and outlined in a formal agreement. Kathleen typically meets with the coachee’s supervisor and the coachee to ensure that the process is clearly understood.

Kathleen operates from the perspective that the coachee is responsible for providing feedback to the employer.

The best results are achieved by:

Clearly identifying and agreeing to expectations and outcomes
Involving the coachee’s manager to ensure the coachee has the support, feedback, and guidance required for development.
Consistent monitoring of progress, including measurement in the coaching plan to evaluate progress.
Encouraging “stretch assignments” be given to high potential employees placing the emphasis on practical experience.
The coach acting as a trusted sounding board while providing focus, feedback, and guidance.

Stress Coaching & Burnout Prevention

In today’s complex world, stress overload has become the leading contributor to absenteeism and diminished productivity in the workplace.

More than 25 years of research at the Hans Selye Foundation/Canadian Institute of Stress provides research-based evidence that when stress runs out of control it saps vitality, weakens the immune system, and rapidly increases the aging process. The impact is pervasive affecting one’s personal and professional life.

Most employers understand the hidden costs of employee stress overload: decreased productivity, interpersonal conflict, sick leave; even long-term disability.

Stress resiliency is unique for everyone, as an individuals’ response to stress is determined by his/her personality and mental attitude along with the reality of the situation.

As a Certified Stress & Wellness Consultant trained through the Canadian Institute of Stress, Kathleen uses assessments administered on an individual basis and includes coaching of a personal wellness program.

Addressing stress-related issues before they impact the bottom line is a sound investment for any organization.

Stress coaching pays for itself in increased productivity and higher employee satisfaction rates.