"What's the difference between Life Coaching and Counselling?" 

I believe that Life Coaching and Counselling share some of the important core principles, e.g. confidentiality, an unconditional positive regard for the client, an empathetic approach and a code of ethics to be adhered to.

As both a qualified Counsellor and a Life Coach, I believe Life Coaching differs from Counselling in that, in a Counselling situation we may focus on problems from your past.  As a Life Coach I will often come to an understanding of how your past has shaped your present but the focus is on where you are now and where you are aiming to be in the future that we would work towards.

Life Coaching is about goal setting and achievement and enabling you to take control of your life by accepting responsibility for all that you are and all that you do now.  This ensures that we work together to enable you to make more informed choices on what it is that you want to do in your future.   

Life Coaching works to motivate people to a higher level of functioning by working with the conscious mind to solve problems, thus enabling you to focus on goal-orientated actions for your future. 

Life Coaching and Counselling work in very different ways.  I would assess your needs in your Initial Consultation and then we would agree our method of working.

Life Coaching sessions can be conducted face to face or for reasons of logistical convenience, over the telephone as you can see from one of the Testimonials below.   These testimonials are printed with the permission of my clients.

"Approaching redundancy, it was suggested to me that I should go through a series of Life Coaching sessions.  I am generally a positive person and did not realise how stressful and de-motivating redundancy can be.  In a word, I felt discarded!  The Life Coaching sessions have been beneficial, if nothing else, it was a relief to confide in someone I could trust outside the family, as I did not want to worry them any more than they were!  Not only have the sessions kept up morale but also given me the confidence to approach interviews.
 
Sonia Willmot is a friendly, open and warm personality who has been a pleasure to deal with.  Having the benefit of life-changing experiences herself, she could identify with my situation which made working with her easy. I am pleased to say that not only am I now employed, I am doing something I always wanted to do. 
Sonia helped to steady my nerves while waiting for the right opportunity and made me feel that I am worth it.
 
Sonia, thank you again for your patience!!!!  Enjoy the pictures and keep in touch"  

MG from Scotland

"Working with Sonia was an absolute pleasure.  Over the weeks she helped me calmly work out what I needed to do to move on with my life and I'm much happier for it.  She was a friend as well as a Life Coach." 

JB from Berkshire

Having lacked motivation at work for some time and the inspiration to do anything about it, Sonia helped me to talk through and identify all the issues I was having. It was then possible to address each issue and make rational decisions on what I needed to do to improve both my personal and business life. Being able to talk through a jumble of thoughts and emotions with someone who is objective and can ask those questions you have been avoiding answering, allowed me to focus on the important things and make an informed choice. 
Ultimately, it made it very easy to resign from my job and provide me with the confidence to start my own business which has now been running successfully since 2004.

DR from Oxfordshire