Mental Health Coaching can either be preventative or a means of maintaining a new level of mental health.  Mental health coaching is not for someone who is actively struggling with moderate to severe mental health symptoms.  Mild mental health symptoms can often be alleviated with mental health coaching strategies or pass with time and self-care.  If there is any question or uncertainty regarding the readiness for coaching, or if an active coaching client begins to have moderate or severe mental health symptoms, a client will either be referred to a mental health counselor or can schedule a mental health assessment with Ellen (if the client resides in California and is not already in the process of coaching with Ellen).  If the client resides outside of California, I would need to refer you to someone who is licensed in your state for an evaluation.  If you already have a therapist and you feel you can benefit from coaching as well, a letter from your therapist would be requested to be sure that the coaching process does not interfere with or conflict with your current plan of care with your therapist.

Prevention of Mental Health issues is important for everyone.  There are times when life circumstances can become so overwhelming that extra support that is objective can be extremely beneficial.  Stress can cause people to lose perspective and become stuck in unhealthy patterns of coping such as overeating, drinking, shopping, and other types of addictions that ease the stress of the moment yet cause additional problems and can often make things worse.  Healthy coping strategies, exploring more meaningful ways of navigating through the chaos, strategies to re-prioritize according to your values, and learning how to activate a TRIAGE schedule to give yourself time to recover, are some of the ways coaching can help you stay mentally healthy and/or rebound from a season of trials.