Rachel Newton is an Integrative Career Counsellor and Coach. Her credentials include Master Therapeutic Counsellor (#1051) with the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada (ACCT), Certified Body Centred Coach, Certified Practitioner of Coherence Therapy, studying her Masters in Chinese Medical Qigong and Master Health and Wellness Coach Certification. She is a member of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), the Work and Meaning Group, British Columbia Career Development Association (BCCDA) and International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM). Her diverse background includes growing up in various cities in Australia. She is a graduate of Monash University near Melbourne, Australia with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology and Italian. After travelling widely in 1994, she arrived in the beautiful city of Vancouver, B.C. Canada in 1996.
Her diverse employment history includes the fields of counselling, coaching, education, health, executive recruitment, information technology and hospitality, leading to the development of her excellent interpersonal, communication and organizational skills. She has worked in various cities in Australia, South-East Asia, Europe and North America.
In March 2011, she graduated from the Vancouver College of Counsellor Training (VCCT) with a Diploma in Professional Counselling with a Certificate in Career Exploration & Development Skills. Her professional career began at the Course and Careers Centre of Monash University after graduation. Responsibilities included advising international and mature age prospective students regarding applications and admissions procedures for the largest university in the Southern Hemisphere. She also facilitated the creation and delivery of career skills workshops and conferences for students and graduates. The various industries and roles in her background include student adviser, office administration, customer service, technical support, sales, marketing and management.
Working with a career coach/counsellor for six months in 2009, she arrived at the surprising conclusion that she would feel more fulfilled in pursuing a meaningful and very different role from that of Marketing Events Manager at a start-up technology company. She resumed her journey to become a career counsellor. A journey that had started almost 20 years ago prior to travelling, while at the Course and Careers Centre at Monash University.
Rachel’s approach today as an Integrative Career Counsellor and Coach working with clients is informed from her vast work experience. With over two decades spent in several different industries and cities, she combines a genuine curiosity in people and what motivates their choices and decisions in aspects of their life and career. She recognizes that career and life themes are enmeshed and have a significant impact on each other. Her passion is supporting others in change and transition and addressing both emotional and practical needs during such challenging times.
She works with clients in an integrative career-focused counselling and coaching capacity, and her philosophy is to support clients at all three levels of mind, body and spirit/source to help them achieve their life and career aspirations. Drawing on numerous modalities, with a primary focus on somatically based therapies such as Coherence Therapy, Body-Centred Coaching and Chinese Medical Qigong. She believes in supporting clients holistically.
Her work with clients is customized according to individual needs as she seeks to create trust with her clients to feel comfortable expressing themselves in a way that is uniquely at their own pace, balanced with a sense of structure and goals in the career counselling/coaching setting. She displays versatility in her work adapting from personal themes such as grief, loss, anxiety, depression and self-esteem issues to career themes helping clients determine vocational direction and to overcome that stuck, lost and overwhelming feeling, all the way to the strategic career management with pragmatic job search solutions including personal branding, resume and interview coaching. She also enjoys group work and presentations in private and corporate settings.
Rachel is continually involved in professional development and attends regular workshops, meetings and conferences to maintain her level of expertise regarding life and career themes in order to offer optimal support to her clients. In addition to working with clients at Life Career Studio, she is an instructor at SFU Continuing Studies in Strategic Career Management CPRA150. Her volunteer roles include Secretary for the Work and Meaning Group within the IPPA Work and Organizations Division and Teacher Assistant for Empty Mountain Institute. In 2015 she created a professional Peer Counsellor Support Group and co-facilitates the Inner Sight Philosophers’ Cafe in New Westminster with her friend and esteemed colleague Karen Laskey. In the past she was a volunteer Peer Counsellor at UBC Life and Career Directions, was a Community Educator at the Crisis Centre and assisted with mock interviews at Gastown Vocational Services (GVS).
She spends quality time with her family and friends, walking her adopted rescue dog, ZuZu, swimming, recreational cycling, running, hiking, Qigong, meditation, yoga, boating, SCUBA diving, organizing events, travelling, cooking, writing and reading.
Rachel provides integrative career counselling and coaching services and workshops to clients in Vancouver, New Westminster, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, West and North Vancouver and the Tri-Cities areas of Metro Vancouver.