What is it

Online counselling works in a similar way to face to face counselling.
You share with your AskChris therapist details about your current situation, your thoughts and feelings about what is going on and how this is affecting your life. Our aim is then to help you resolve your personal and emotional issues of concern by offering possible ideas and insights into your situation to enable you to move forward.

Our website provides a safe and supportive setting for you to have online counselling, supervision or coaching in a way that is convenient and guarantees your correspondence will be kept confidential.

You could be having a problem in relationships with your family or friends, marriage or partner; you could be depressed, struggle with anxiety, be questioning your sexuality or have a work related problem.
AskChris offers you the opportunity to share these concerns with a professional at a time and place that suits you. We are available 24/7.

One off response

When you send through your One Off Response, an AskChris therapist will respond with approximately 300 - 500 words. You can expect a detailed response with extensive input into your current situation. The AskChris therapist will provide you with tools to implement immediately into your situation, to bring about positive change.
We endeavour to answer your question within 72 hours.

If we feel that a visit to your Doctor might be appropriate, we will suggest it. Or if you would benefit from face to face ongoing counselling, we will suggest this also.

You can choose to continue having therapy via a One Off Response – it is not limited to once only.
Our One Off Response is one message from the client, and one reply from the counsellor.

Chat therapy

Chat Therapy is a similar process to Skype or MSN. Here you can communicate back and forth with an AskChris counsellor, just like a face to face conversation. The Chat sessions are pre-booked, and the client chooses which therapist they would like to receive Chat Therapy from.
Chat Therapy takes place in a secure chat room within our AskChris website. No-one else can enter the chat room except you and your AskChris counsellor. At the end of your session, you have the option to read back over the conversation as it is all saved and archived within your Confidential Corner. You can even print of these sessions to refer back to at a later date.
Clients find this really helpful, as sometimes in a face to face counselling session, some of the information is forgotten.
Chat Sessions are booked on the hour, are performed in real time, and last for 45 minutes.

Supervision

For members of professional counselling organizations and for students in training, it is a requirement that they have supervision of their work by a more senior therapist.
The supervisor’s role is to discuss the therapists current work issues that may be affecting them and or their client, and to offer ideas, resources and ongoing input for the therapist’s professional development. Supervision usually takes place fortnightly, or 1 hour of supervision per 20 clients.
Supervision is also offered to people in other helping professions, and those in Management positions.
Our Supervision is provided by Chris Hight, who has many years experience in this field. She has supervised students from every major counselling training institute in Auckland, and also students studying via correspondence and overseas.

Life coaching

Deborah’s role as our Life Coach is to journey with people as they explore options for life and career that involve change. She is an experienced life coach that has incorporated Organizational Psychology to deepen and strengthen her work.
Deborah integrates personality testing to help you find the right fit. Her role is a coaching role, to support you in taking the next step.
Feedback from Deborah’s clients indicate that the way she works produces results.
Where therapy helps you resolve past issues that are impacting your current life, life coaching helps you to build a new future.

Educational Psychologist

Our AskChris Educational Psychologist is Pauline Ogilvy.
As a Psychologist, Pauline uses scientifically validated processes and strategies, and typically engages in a process that progresses from assessing and analysing to providing clients with intervention options, intervening, maintenance and closure. The duration of this process sometimes is simply in one or two sessions, though at times may involve four to eight sessions, and infrequently more than this.

Pauline mainly makes use of the following therapy modalities using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Solution Focussed Therapy, Narrative Therapy and Rogerian based Counselling Techniques.

Pauline is experienced in assessing and providing individual therapeutic work with children, teenagers, parents and caregivers. She works with issues such as:

• Young children's sleeping problems
• Tantrums
• Stealing
• Parents separating
• School issues and/or learning difficulties
• Special needs and risky teenage behaviour

Pauline also provides support for parents struggling in their relationships or with their own sense of stress, anxiety or depression.