My passion is walking alongside people as they tap into their intuitive selves connecting to inner wisdom and moving beyond the stories of how life ‘should’ be.

Our conversations will be hopeful, uplifting and inspiring. We will respectfully explore what is possible and how to move towards a more inspiring future as easily and swiftly as possible. I work with people who are wanting to move on, wanting to understand themselves better, or like themselves more.

Counselling deals with healing emotional pain and/or conflict within or in relationships. Making sense of, understanding the past, how you got to where you are now and using that knowledge to strengthen you, whilst healing continues. The growth is often introspective and subtle. The Approaches we use allows us to respectfully explore what may be possible and how you can move towards a more inspiring future.

Thank you Liz, for walking beside me on this journey. I always felt understood. So much growth in so little time, Liz it is always such a pleasure working with you. Thank you.

Coaching works with people who are ready, striving to improve their circumstances in order to enrich their future. New skills and tools are used to build a more satisfying successful future. The focus is on maximizing strengths that will lead to a healthier, happier and more fulfilled life. Coaching is future led with specific strategies, plans, actions and accountability for achieving a specified goal, intention. These approaches are often weaved together depending where we are in the journey. There is always a sense of moving forwards.

It was an amazing journey of discovery. It was tough and it was worthwhile. I recommend the process and I recommend Liz Gow as a Life Coach if you want to get results.

I have a special interest in working with people who are ready to heal their relationship with food and their body.

I specialize in working with adults and youth who experience disordered eating: Binge Eating Disorder (BED), compulsive overeating, chronic dieting and/or challenges with body image/body acceptance. People who are ready to leave the diet culture behind, who want to reclaim the world of ‘normal’ eating.

You can expect absolute belief in you. Compassion and an understanding, empathy of what it takes to have journeyed with blame and shame, feeling like a failure for so long when in fact you have been failed, repeatedly. My role is to introduce you to a different way of thinking and be a guide as you tap into your intuition, your relationship with you, your body and food as you take back the agency of you.

The Body Trust® Paradigm of healing may be for you if:

• you’ve made some progress and don’t understand why you still hate your body
• you still don’t feel like you trust yourself around food
• you don’t want to eat according to labels any more
• no matter how successful you are, the relationship with food and your body is still uncomfortable
• you’ve repeatedly tried diets and exercise regimes in the hope of feeling better about who you are
• you’ve lost weight, then put on even more
• you believe by changing the shape and size of your body you will be happier and healthier
• you feel exasperated and lost
• you no longer know what to do
• you are tired and want peace

Body Trust® is a reclamation is a process of reclaiming our bodies after they’ve been harmed by stigma, diet culture, shame, difference, and othering, and then further distanced by our attempts to mitigate that harm by trying to control the size, shape or appearance of our body.

A shift into a new relationship with your body doesn’t happen overnight. It’s complex, connected to every aspect of life, and looks different for everybody. We believe in the part of you that is knowing, strong and capable. Body Trust® means you become your own expert and learn to read the wisdom of your own embodied experience. It is about finding joy and pleasure again.

I was born in England and as a young adult I worked in private business/administration. However, I have always loved working with people, and believed in people’s ability to achieve for themselves. This led to qualifying as an Occupational Therapist, as a 'mature' student aged 28, at Glasgow Caledonian University. Over 18 years I had a wonderful variety of OT roles both in the UK and NZ, working in mental health, an eating disorder service, hospice and neuro rehabilitation.

I moved to make my home in New Zealand in 2003. I have worked as a counsellor since xxx both as a School Guidance Counsellor and in private practice. I have also been a Life Coach since 2006. I have personally experienced counselling, coaching and creative therapies on a number of occasions and know how it can impact on your life.

On a personal note I am married and enjoy our blended and extended families. I love anything to do with water, enjoy rock'n'roll, love walking, African drumming and am curious enough to try most things. I enjoy socialising in more peaceful ways these days and have a strong practice of wellbeing. I hold gratitude for the privileges that enable me to have the life I have.
 

Memberships

  Member of New Zealand Association of Counsellors (MNZAC)
  Australian & NZ Association for Contextual Behavioural Science
  Australian Center for Eating Disorders (ACFED)
  Australian and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association (ANZATA)
  Creative Therapies Association Aotearoa (CTAA)

Qualifications & Certificates

  Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling
  Certified Supervisor (WellTec)
  Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy
  Certified in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
  Australian Center for Eating Disorders Practitioner (Gold Level)
  Certified Body Trust® Provider
  Certified Results Coaching Systems (now Neuroleadership) Coach
  Certifiied Travellers Program Facilitator
  Certified Advanced ARTbundance™ Coach and Practitioner
  SoulCollage® Facilitator and NZ Regional Co-ordinator
  Certified Master Kaizen Muse Creativity Coach
  KMCC Certified Modern-Day Muse Group Facilitator
  Certified Nourish Facilitator (EDEN)
 

Discover what really matters to you, what you value and what works for you both in a Professional and Personal context.

I am skilled in providing professional supervision and mentoring to life coaches, occupational therapists and other health professionals, both one to one and groups/peers. I bring more than 20 years’ experience supervising health professionals working in private practice, NGOs and in the public sector. I use this, my own varied experience as a clinician and a large toolbox of approaches to support health professionals develop well in their life and work.

Types of approaches and models I use in supervision include:

• Reflective Model of Supervision
• Supervision Process: Six Modes of Supervision
• TAPES Model – Theory, Assessment, Parallel Process, Ethics, Strategies
• WHOA Model – framework for mentoring sessions
• Results Coaching Systems
• Kaizen Muse Creativity Coaching