I see you do a lot of telehealth and virtual work- can I work with you anywhere?

For Life Coaching and Health and Fitness coaching, yes! If you’re looking to take a yoga class, I am primarily teaching in Central New Jersey. If you are looking for counseling services, I am licensed in the state of New Jersey, which means you must reside in New Jersey.

You provide mental health counseling and life coaching?  What’s the difference? 

Great question!  A simple way to differentiate between coaching and therapy/counseling is by identifying two different variables: 

1- What tense are we focused on?  Present/Future, or Past/Present/Future? 

• If the answer is Past/Present/Future, it is more likely to be therapy.  In a therapeutic setting we are taking a detailed history of your past, talking about those relationships and events, processing and exploring how you feel about them, what impact they have had on you, and what impact they presently have on your life, and doing a degree of reprocessing (in most cases). 

• If the answer is Present/Future, we are more likely to be engaged in coaching.  While there are some moments were we will briefly discuss the past, the focus is far more on present thoughts/behaviors/feelings, identifying what is standing in the way of the life that you want to lead, and bridging the gap between the two. 

2- Medical necessity. 

• In coaching, your coach is NOT providing a diagnosis, they are not treating a diagnosis, they are not preventing a recurrence of a diagnostic episode.  This does not mean that if you have been diagnoses with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or example, that you can’t work with a life coach in any capacity.  What it does mean, is that that coach’s focus is not going to be on treating your anxiety.  That coach’s focus might instead be helping you to identify when it’s time to go see your therapist more.  It might mean looking at behaviors that are associated with your anxiety and how you can challenge these behaviors.  It might mean that you have had anxiety in the past, and presently it doesn’t factor into your coaching at all!   

• As a therapist and a life coach, this is a professional frustration of mine. If your coach is talking to you about treating a mental health diagnosis,  find a new coach. Sometimes good intentions are enough to help a situation, but if we are talking about digging around in previous life experiences that often hold a lot of pain and psychological challenge… find yourself someone who took the time to get the training to support *you* in the best way possible.  Go ahead.  You deserve it.  

Is Therapy better than Coaching, or vice versa? 

Nope!  These are separate services, which each have their own benefit.  Many of my coaching clients also have therapists, and many of my therapist clients also have coaches that they use!  From time to time, we all need a little bit of help.  As long as everyone is in agreement about what the help is, and you are seeking help from the appropriate individual for the task, one is not better than the other.  Sometimes these are entirely different services!  

For example, in therapy I might talk to clients about the benefits of exercise on their mental health.  I’ll maybe even talk through a few basic tasks to do with the goal of improving mental health like going for a walk, doing a handful of jumping jacks if feeling nervous, etc.  If I am working as a fitness coach with a client, I’m going to break down the exercises, monitor for safety, guide a client through a circuit, and maybe I’ll mention the mental health benefits of what we do.  Is there some overlap?  Yes.  But the focus is entirely different.  And both are great! It’s a great big world, and it takes all kinds of people to help us all keep going in the direction of our best selves.

What’s a dual relationship, and why does it matter?

A dual relationship is something we specifically focus on when it comes to mental health counseling.  It’s the ethical rule that says if we work together in a therapist-client relationship, that relationship should be the only relationship we have.  It can be very tempting to work together in a variety of ways at the same time, especially when your therapist offers multiple treatment and wellness modalities, but in general, if you are engaged in a therapeutic relationship with your therapist, that is the only type of relationship that should exist. 

Do you take insurance? 

We do not currently accept insurance, but your insurance company may reimburse for medical expenses (therapy) that are out of network.  

I see so many titles and labels in mental health and general wellness. What do some of them mean?

Mental Health Counselor/Therapist/Psychotherapist: 

• Master’s Degree, Licensed professional, who has undergone the educational, internship, and supervisory experiences required by the state in order to practice mental health counseling.  

Life Coach:

• Accredited or certified, but NOT licensed.  Coaching does not have education, internship, or supervisory experience requirements.  Coaches cannot and should not practice mental health counseling, and can be subject to disciplinary action for operation as therapists without the training to do so. 

• Life coaches can have a variety of focuses and niche offerings. These are still all different from therapy services.

• Did you know: Therapists *also* should not practice therapy while they are in a coaching role! 

Psychologist: 

• PhD level mental health professional who has undergone additional education, internship, and supervisory requirements.  Sometimes these individuals have an extra focus on research, or psychological testing. 

Psychiatrist: 

• MD level mental health professional who has undergone additional education, internship, and supervisory requirements.  These mental health professionals can prescribe and are medical professionals.  They often do less ‘therapy’, and will usually meet with patients less frequently.