Welcome to my guest post series: A Day In Private Practice. Meet Perth Counsellor Samantha Strahan
Perth Counsellor Samantha Strahan is owner and operator of a private counselling practice in Perth called InPower Counselling. Samantha has a Diploma of Counselling; a Bachelor of Applied Social Sciences/Counselling and is currently undertaking a Master of Counselling. Samantha is integrative in practice and has an eclectic style of counselling.
She thrives on empowering women so that they can overcome day to day issues and major life events such as relationship breakdowns, infertility issues, career changes and issues related to low self-esteem. Samantha just loves to see her clients take back their lives and run with them.
Samantha is married and has two beautiful children, a boy and a girl who bring her the greatest love and joy in the world. She also enjoys cuddling her fur babies Oshin and Niamh, (two sister tiger cats). One of Samantha’s other greatest loves besides her children are hiking short and long distances through the Western Australian bush.
Samantha also enjoys getting paint on her hands and loves to do up old furniture and anything that she can bring to life (including running colourful wool through her fingers to create a wonderful tapestries of crochet).
Another great love of Samantha’s is writing, so when she is not writing blogs or assignments for her Master of Counselling, she will be writing intriguing chapters towards her new book.
A Day in Private Practice with Perth Counsellor, Samantha Strahan
I currently work 5 days a week in my tranquil practice which is based at 12 Cale Street Midland, Perth WA 6056. The hours that I work reflect a balanced work home life which I believe is essential for mental and physical health considering the honourable and difficult at times work that I do. The work hours that I keep are Mondays to Fridays with some Saturday’s from 9am till 3pm. I usually see around 4 to 5 clients a day, as this is a lovely and healthy balance. (I have worked as a school counsellor and as much as I loved it, the case load was huge). I also see some clients after 5pm a couple of nights a week, which is convenient for my clients and for me. This fits in well with being there for my children as I watch them grow day by day, we can never get those precious years back again.
6.30 am: Rise with Gratitude & Abundance
Coffee is my best friend and my immediate go to in the mornings, even if it is pitch black in my house I would know where to find the coffee machine and make yummy coffee. Gratitude is then imbedded into my morning ritual which I can find time for whilst having a shower. Morning time in our house can be crazy busy so I usually like to have a guided mediation or just relaxing music playing in the background just to bring everyone down to a more grounded level. The kids drop off starts at 7.15am sharp, following by 8.30am kids drop off complete. I then Love to go into my counselling space and sit for fifteen minutes to immerse myself in my counselling room, look over client notes and be clear headed for my first client.
9am: First client
My first client arrives, I am always excited and looking forward to each and every client as there will be learnings for my client and for me. I usually leave a half of an hour in-between each client to allow for lateness, notes and any other issues that may hold up time. I usually eat and hydrate myself in-between clients just to keep my energy going. I also love to pick up my crystals in between each client (especially my obsidian ball).
12pm: Lunch break
My lunch is usually a salad sandwich or some fruit (and another coffee!). If I have time before the next client, I will usually login to my UNI work for my Masters and get some readings done or some of my ongoing assignments that never seem to end.
1pm: More Clients
See my next two clients, with no gaps in between. This is then when my counselling day has finished unless I have a 5pm client, which is only twice a week, I feel too tired at the end of a day to counsel clients. Being able to determine my own boundaries sets good examples not only for myself but for my clients too.
Supervision time – every two weeks
Every two weeks I seek clinical supervision, I usually see my amazing supervisor at night but I will be seeing her in the day from now on as my brain does not function well after a long day.
3pm: School Pick Up
Rush to pick up my two children and give them the biggest hugs and kisses that they mostly find embarrassing these days. I love this time with my children and feel very blessed to be spending this part of the day with them. Sometimes you will find all three of us hiding in a book.
4pm: Case Notes
Complete all case notes for the day; all of my notes are usually completed on the same day as research proves that we lose information as the days go by. (I can also sleep better at night knowing that I am recalling accurate information and filing client notes away safely each time).
6.00pm: Dinner is Made for the family
Now, this is not my favourite time of the day as I feel that cooking is a chore for me as my husband is never home before 7pm. I like to get my two children involved in this process as one day I am hoping that one of them may like to take control in the kitchen…here’s hoping! They both bake and occasionally make the dinner.
7.30: Bed Time for my children
Both of my children are usually in bed at 7.30pm and they are reading until 8pm. I love watching them read as they grow their precious minds. All is then quiet in the house at this point. I will usually have my Doterra oils burning to calm the house and all in it. My children both have meditations around bed time also which they love to pick out from my collection. This is also where I run around and clean up the kitchen…(husband still not home sometimes).
8pm: Study Time
I catchup on reading for the week or work on assignments at night but usually I’m only up until 10pm at the latest as my brain can’t think after that time unless I have an assignment deadline to meet. Last trimester was a disaster as I had an assignment due every two weeks leaving me no weekends free and I felt quite frazzled. Well, I got through with two distinctions anyway, but this trimester it’s just one unit for me.
10pm: Shower and Into Bed with a Novel
At this time in the day, I love to wash the day away with a shower if I haven’t had a bath earlier with a favourite candle and meditation, and sometimes a sneaky Netflix show; recent favourites are Outlander and Gypsy.
11pm: Meditation and Sleep
I consider myself a ‘lucky woman’ as I sleep so well and soundly each and most nights, (some clients may cringe at this as I know insomnia is an issue for some). The last thing I do before I go to bed is set my alarm and listen to a guided meditation.
Connect with Perth Hills Counsellor, Samantha Strahan
