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
"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 work, and the attainment of relevant goals." (The International Coach Federation www.coachfederation.org)
Kathleen is a graduate of the College of Executive Coaching, which requires students to have a master's degree in psychology to register and complete their Advanced Certified Personal and Executive Coach training.
She's an objective, attentive listener who provides honest feedback and thoughtful support. As your career coach, she commits to being your personal strategic thinking collaborator, trusted advisor and accountability partner. She will help you examine your current situation, your unique aspirations and goals. She will encourage you to think beyond your usual range of ideas and challenge you to listen to your true Self as you design a personally meaningful career-life journey..
Contact Kathleen @ 780-951-7780 to make an appointment for a 30 minute complimentary phone consultation.
Strategic Career Management
Your career deserves your commitment. In simple terms it’s your life so you get to decide how to advance, change and/or measure success.
Consider how you could benefit from exploring the following with your coach:
- Reflect on your unique personality, natural talents, motivators, interests, values, knowledge, skills and experience.
- Explore how you are living and working true to your essence - the core of who you are.
- Ensure your authentic self is a good fit with your current work context.
- Manage your brand: Cultivate a management/leadership style that operates from integrity. Effortlessly apply adaptive coping strategies for transitions and change. Build and maintain relationships that matter with people who know your signature strengths.
- Be clear and consistent about your professional growth and development plan.
- Live true to your personal health and well-being strategies.
Through Kathleen's supportive process, you will feel the power of a proactive approach to managing your career-life journey.
Coaching for a Career Transition
Are you feeling boxed in by your current role?
Making a career transition can feel overwhelming. Some people think they're too old to train for a new field, or may feel afraid to take on a post-secondary program. Or they hesitate to let go of the financial security of their current job, despite their desperate yearning for change.
Regardless of the false barriers we may put in front of ourselves, the truth is when we really want something bad enough, we will find a way to do it.
As an experienced career development coach Kathleen will guide you through a process designed specifically to meet your unique situation. You will enjoy in-depth reflection and discussions plus a variety of psychometric assessments to help you answer the following career questions:
- Who am I? Exploration of personality traits, natural talents, motivators, life purpose/philosophy/principles, interests, values, priorities, competencies, knowledge, training and experience.
- Where Am I Going / What is the Most Meaningful Work For Me? Discover occupational fit for the highest level of satisfaction and success based on what matters most to you.
- How will I get there? Plan the actions you need to implement to reach your desired career goal(s).
Work / Life Integration Coaching
The reality for many people is that the boundaries between work and personal roles have become increasingly permeable.
A role is a comprehensive pattern of behavior that is socially recognized, providing a means of identifying and placing an individual in society.
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 don’t leave the office; and when we do we take our devices with us.
Rather than worrying about how to balance your commitments, coaching can help you implement strategies to integrate your priorities based on current commitments and goals within each of your roles.
Work / life integration coaching can help you develop excellent boundaries that will keep you feeling happy and healthy for years to come.
Stress Coaching
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 long term negative effects on the immune system and one's health are insidious.
The good news is Chronic Stress Overload is completely preventable and reversible! An individuals’ response to stress is determined by his/her personality and mental attitude, along with the situation.
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
Counselling Therapy and Coaching are discrete professions with separate skill sets. 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. Counselling therapy may 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.
In the counselling process, historical information may be used to better understand and resolve current issues. A general rule is that while a therapist may sometimes use coaching techniques, a coach does not provide psychotherapy.
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, self-image, or distressing work-life situations).
Kathleen's counselling clients are typically experiencing high levels of dissatisfaction as a result of overwhelming or debilitating work-related 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 the issues and improve the situation.
My worldview is that 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 not to try to "fix" but rather to serve.
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 equality. I use a strength-based approach, supporting and empowering the individual to create the change s/he needs to make.
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?
I offer a 30 min. complimentary consultation by phone. Give me a call @780-951-7780 and we can have a chat.
Clinical Counselling Hypnotherapy
When we enter a state of hypnosis, we can utilize thoughts, talents, and experiences in ways not usually accessible to us. 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 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.
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.”
Services for Organizations
Professional Coaching
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 [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 Engagement / Advancement / Career Satisfaction
Professional coaching helps high potential employees stay engaged and energized, move into new management roles with increased responsibilities or simply feel higher levels of work satisfaction. The process typically takes place over a 3 to 12 month period.
Objectives may include identifying and leveraging strengths, recognizing barriers and blind spots, and closing those gaps, while serving to enhance potential for success.
Working with the coachee and his/her supervisor, objectives and expectations are clear and well defined. This is achieved by:
- Understanding job expectations and required capabilities.
- Involving the coachee's manager (and other key stakeholders as required) so the coachee has the right support, feedback and guidance.
- Giving high potential employees "stretch assignments" in order to learn; placing the emphasis on practical experience.
- Including measurement in the coaching plan to evaluate progress.
- The coach acting as a trusted sounding board while providing focus, feedback and guidance.
Stress Coaching
In today’s complex world, stress 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. Addressing stress-related issues before they impact the bottom line is a sound investment for any organization. Stress resiliency is unique for each individual, as an individuals’ response to stress is determined by his/her personality and mental attitude along with 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. Stress coaching pays for itself in increased productivity and higher employee satisfaction rates.
Remedial Intervention
Struggling employees need help to improve performance. Coaching starts with a comprehensive assessment of the situation. This includes discussions with management, use of individual assessment tools to identify strengths and development areas, and if necessary, includes stakeholder feedback.
Coaching activities are tailored to enhance performance. These may include individual assigned readings for discussions, role-plays, and in depth coaching work. Facilitated meetings are used to share feedback between and individual and manager. Those who participate are held accountable for actions taken to generate meaningful change. This process requires the involvement of the individual and manager from the onset, with progress checkpoints along the way to ensure the desirable results are being achieved.
Kathleen uses a direct approach while supporting and maintaining the wellbeing of each client.
Speaking & Training
Keynote Speaking
Kathleen is a gifted and entertaining speaker. She delights audiences both large and small, while sharing her conviction for how to achieve greater career satisfaction with reduced stress. Her lively approach, including a touch of humour, make her a powerful presenter at conferences or for special groups.
Many of Kathleen’s topics are available as keynote speeches or as half-day workshops.
Popular examples of keynote speeches include Preventing Work-Related Burnout; Work/Life Role Integration; Your Career: Who's in Charge; Women Redefining Career Success in the 21st Century.
If you have a particular career development topic, a keynote speech can be created and customized for your group.
Seminars & Workshops
Satisfied, engaged employees contribute to successful business operations. Organizations who recognize their people as an important resource regularly invest in training. The benefits speak for themselves: increased energy and engagement, better outcomes, enhanced health and well-being, and reduced absenteeism—good news for employers and employees.
With a focus on understanding personal competencies and strengths, Kathleen's captivating training motivates both individuals and teams toward their best selves. The result is increased energy and productivity and enhanced interpersonal effectiveness. Half or full day workshops are custom-designed to address unique organizational needs.
Workshop topics include:
- Conversations That Matter: Training for Supervisors - explore the role of the supervisor with its complex range of responsibilities and the importance of communication and relationships with direct reports.
- Preventing Job Burnout – understand the warning signs of burnout and learn strategies for reversal.
- Personality And Relationships – understand your personality type and learn to build tolerant, understanding relationships.
- Leadership Development Training – an indepth exploration of leading self, leading others and leading within the organization.
- Satisfied or Stressed: How to Thrive in Chaotic Times – learn the health risks from stress overload, complete a stress assessment, identify current coping strategies, and learn strategies for building stress resiliency.
- Assertiveness: A Powerful Communication Skill for Career Success – learn the difference between assertive, passive and aggressive behaviours and how to confidently apply assertive skills.
- Identifying Strengths – use Gallup's Strengthsfinder 2.0 assessment to explore natural talents and how to leverage strengths.
- Conflict Resolution Skills – discover your personal conflict style and learn strategies to manage conflict in the workplace.
- Work/Life Role Integration – learn strategies for effectively merging personal and professional lives based on current priorities.
- Your Career: Who's In Charge? – examine purpose and values, explore interests and motivation; create a plan for career satisfaction.
- Supervisor/Manager as Coach - introduces the basics of how to develop and apply a coach approach to the role of supervising and managing.
- Discovering and Communicating Your Brand - introduces participants to the increase in career satisfaction and improved engagement at work experienced by envisioning, communicating and managing a strong personal brand.
For more detailed information on seminar/workshop content and learning objectives, click here.