Prior to working with you, Saundra, I was poorly managing my own personal affairs; essentially neglecting myself. I struggled with setting appropriate self-care boundaries for myself and easily became depressed and overwhelmed with all of the responsibilities that I have in my life. One of the most difficult thing to cope with has been the onset of my oldest son’s severe mental illness; requiring 6+ acute psychiatric admissions in less than two years. With each episode he experienced, I felt as if I was losing my own personal sanity and it would exacerbate my depressive symptoms that also began with the onset of my son’s SMI. Stress has commonly made me feel as if I was going to spiral out of control and many times has made me feel like just giving up on and allowing everything to just go by the wayside; such as appointments, work, any responsibilities that didn’t apply to my children, and the last of my concerns would be my health.

The coaching I have received from you Saundra, has been one of the most influential and refreshing experiences I have had truly since the onset of my son’s SMI and my depression. I met with a therapist for about 2 months and quit because I could not establish rapport nor did I feel safe in sessions. I have not resumed therapy since and although I remain committed now to re-establishing counseling for myself, I don’t know that I would be as motivated had it not been for my coaching sessions with you. The coaching not only helped me gain insight and a new perspective on self-care, but the safety that you established in our coaching sessions I believe was pivotal to my progress. The weekly goal and objective settings and your interventions throughout our sessions, allowed me to see how effective breaking those things down can be so that I don’t get overwhelmed trying to make changes. I was able to see how healing and empowering caring for myself, first and foremost, can be to my overall well-being. It also allowed me to set realistic goals that felt great to accomplish.

I enjoyed working with you so much! What I enjoyed and appreciated most about our sessions was the compassionate and graceful space you created for me to be vulnerable with you. That in turn allowed me to work on things that mattered most to me. I would recommend your coaching to anyone. With or without a diagnosed mental illness. I think we can all use coaching sessions to allow us to explore and learn better ways of managing stress in our lives. No one is immune to stressors; however, we do not have to allow those stressors to decompensate our well-being. This is probably how many illnesses are triggered to begin with; poor habits in managing our health.