My Counselling Style
I provide an environment of acceptance and encouragement
where you will choose the direction we take as we work together.
Ideologically, my counselling and coaching styles share most in
common with Humanistic and Existential psychological theories
and the Co-Active Coaching model as described below.
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Humanistic Psychology
Humanistic Psychology focuses on self-actualization. Simply
put, “What a man can be, he must be.”[1] It is the idea that we
cannot ignore an inherent need to realize our full potential and
to become all that we are capable of becoming. These are the
kinds of needs we address in personal growth counselling.
Abraham Maslow asserts that once we mostly master needs
such as physiological, safety, belonging and esteem needs –
those typically addressed in traditional counselling – we begin to
concern ourselves with self-actualization needs.Carl Rogers spoke of the “real self” as that aspect of our being
that strives for authentic fulfillment (as opposed to the self we
think we should be when we are trying to please others). Rogers
emphasized the human need for unconditional positive regard.
He also cited qualities such as openness to experience, living in
the here and now, and trust in self as necessary to the process
of self-actualization.
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Existential Psychology
Existential Psychology emphasizes freedom, responsibility and
the quest for meaning. Victor Frankl asserts that we all have an
indominable internal freedom and by the choices we make, we
decide the meaning of our lives. In Frankl’s words: “man should not
ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that
it is he who is asked…he can only answer to life by answering for his
own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” [2]
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Co-Active Coaching
"[Co-Active] coaching holds that people are naturally creative, resourceful and
whole - completely capable of finding their own answers to whatever
challenges they face. The job of a Co-Active Coach® is to ask powerful
questions, listen and empower to elicit the skills and creativity a client already
possesses, rather than instruct or advise." [3]
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1 Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and personality. Harper and Row, New York, New York 1954.
2 Frankl, Victor E. Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts 1959.
3 Coaches Training Institute. www.thecoaches.com.
E-mail Heather HennenburgHeather Hennenburg, M.Ed., CCC, Authentic Life Personal Growth Counselling, 1885 Venables Street, Vancouver, BC