Individual Counseling

Individual Counseling

Find your path to personal power

Sarah Breidenbach, director at FOCUS², offers her understanding of holistic mental health and 3 different ways of working with someone.

COUNSELOR

Counseling is client-centered. The starting place of this work is that you are the expert on your experience and the counseling makes room for your own truth and opinions and solutions. The counselor may support conversations with alternative perspectives and new ways of understanding yourself or your challenges. They say 50% of the success in counseling comes from the rapport and trust you feel with your counsellor. The relationship itself can create changes in you, and it is important to find a good fit for your personality.

 Counseling at Focus² may also include homework exercises and new tools to manage the ups and downs of difficult emotions or negative thinking.

PSYCHOTHERAPIST

You can come to Focus² for help with physical symptoms or long-term patterns in your life. We can treat the root causes that often originate in the past. This is not about digging up the negativity of the past and dwelling on it. It’s about seeing the ways your past is still controlling your present. It’s deep work. It’s healing. It’s life changing. Sarah is known for creating hope in places where clients have tried many things already and had believed change was not possible.

 This therapy may include modalities like EMDR or somatic work. Like counselling, psychotherapy and trauma resolution therapies depend largely on the relationship you have with the therapist. Because psychotherapy is likely to move into more complex layers of a person’s life, it is best suited for a longer process, usually a minimum of 12 sessions.

COACH

You do not need to be unwell or mentally ill to benefit from support. You can also meet with the team at Focus² to work on an area of life like your professional identity or relationship wishes.Coaching emphasizes the present moment and future. These sessions may involve worksheets or writing exercises to identify your values and future vision. Coaching may also include education and the open opinion of best practices. Coaching can be great for habit changing and goal completion for personal life fulfilment.


Upcoming new tool for coaching in 2024: iEQ9 Enneagram Integrative Approach

 

I was a totally different person when I began this journey with Sarah. I was so lucky to meet a therapist who would lead with love. She follows the lead of your emotions as they come up and is so sensitive in the way she leads you to discover more of yourself. I never once felt pushed or forced to see things a certain way if I didn’t feel ready. I lacked self love and was so very hard on myself. My greatest take away since meeting her is that I have learned to walk with my inner critic and be soft with myself.
Natalie
I learned how to stand up for myself and take care of my own needs versus being passive was typical. I do a better job in my relationships being honest. I also listen to my spouse better and have learned more about how to be supportive in a healthier way. I feel literally saner, calmer, more present. I love my husband more and I am a nicer person to him and I gained a deeper understanding of being present.
Jane