You, the client, will generally bring with you: the situation, experience, or person you're struggling with, the jumbled or overwhelming emotions you have about it, your belief systems, your perceived constraints or limitations, your thoughts, your confusion, your body sensations, your family and cultural norms, your trauma, your "yes, buts...", etc.

We spread all of these things out as if on a large table, we look at them carefully, we begin to poke around in them and this is when I add my first tools to the pile, my deep curiosity about human beings and my questions. At some point during the discussion, something in particular calls to notice it. Some thought, idea or sensation stands out more than the others and asks for us to pay closer attention. It may not be the most obvious "thing" or the thing you thought to work on but that's when I pull out my other tools and techniques.

What I add to our sacred laboratory beaker is: intuition, my calm presence, more curiosity and more questions, attentive listening, compassion, safety, a playfulness and sense of humour which often lightens the sometimes emotionally charged atmosphere, respect for your internal experience, a pragmatic mind, my ability to see patterns, a love of metaphor and symbolism, my favourite tools - especially numerous versions of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques/"Tapping"), my hypnosis experience, some NLP (neurolinguistic programming), some spiritual teachings, my hugs (if wanted), my awareness of recent definitions of trauma and my sincere belief that safe relationships, care, curiosity and support can help us find clarity in murky situations and bring us peace that we didn't think was possible.