Books by Laurel Alexander
INTEGRATIVE WELLNESS COACHING: A HANDBOOK FOR THERAPISTS AND COUNSELLORS
By presenting a holistic and integrated health and wellbeing approach to personalised care through wellness coaching, this handbook provides theory, insights, best practice, case studies and CPD activities in order to deepen practitioners’ knowledge and experience.
Integrative wellness is about working in collaboration and is a partnership between the professional and the patient with the latter understanding that they can take as much control as is possible for their own health and wellbeing. This book helps form this collaboration by exploring the co-creation of personalised care plans, effective coaching skills and cognitive-behavioural interventions including motivational coaching for patient activation, as well as flexible ways to provide wellness coaching.
Exploring how the mind-body connection can improve the patient’s journey, Integrative Wellness Coaching is an invaluable guide for any healthcare practitioner who wants to embrace their patients’ lifestyle choices and mindsets towards their own health.
HOW TO INCORPORATE WELLNESS COACHING INTO YOUR THERAPEUTIC PRACTICE (Jessica Kingsley/Singing Dragon)
Wellness coaching is an emerging and vibrant area of healthcare. It takes healing beyond the curing of symptoms and empowers clients to take their health back into their own hands. This book provides therapists with the knowledge and skills to rejuvenate and modernize their therapeutic practice by incorporating wellness coaching techniques into their range of services. Wellness is redefined as an integrated lifestyle and mindset process and shows that wellness coaching can be a profound and practical way to help clients make meaningful changes to their health. The book offers a wellness coaching toolbox, explaining key skills such as how to create an organic personal wellness plan, how to build client rapport, and how to apply different coaching models effectively to guide each client towards better health and wellbeing. With shrewd advice and useful insights, this book is an essential resource for complementary therapists and counselors looking to update their existing practice and tap into the rapidly expanding wellness market.
“From the perspective of educational psychology practice, readers may find the guidance given about marketing, including advice on how to identify and target potential markets, helpful when thinking about traded services. ” British Psychological Society, Debate
“This book provides therapists with the knowledge and skills to rejuvenate their therapeutic practice by incorporating wellness techniques into their range of services.” Institute of Complementary & Natural Medicine
“The book is aimed at complementary therapists or healthcare professionals that already have a skills base in healthcare or are working with people who want to bring wellness coaching into their existing practice. The coaching process is described in such an easy to understand manner that previously acquired coaching skills are not necessary. Quite apart from the wellness niche described, much of the book provides a coaching model that could be used in many niches. Laurel also stresses that the coaching skills have limitations and the coach should beware of their limitations. Starting with the current wellness market and provision and exploring the trends and emerging processes ensure that the scene is well set for readers to decide how best to incorporate their existing skills into this new market. Each section is concluded with a set of questions so that understanding is confirmed before moving forwards. Laurel has based the coaching part of her book on cognitive behavioral coaching but has also taken time to describe many other approaches and how they can be integrated into the wellness coaching concept. Progressing through to practice management and marketing, this book is a rich source of information written in a factual way but also with insets providing tips from Laurel’s experience, which provides greater insights and enjoyment in looking at the application of wellness coaching. I can thoroughly recommend Laurel’s book and consider it a great source of information, instruction, and reflection for any therapist or a healthcare professional looking to add to their existing skills base.” Stress News; Journal for International Stress Management Association. Chris Clarke ISMA
“This title offers a toolbox of skills, action plans, and research findings, and above all, I found it eminently practical and communicated.” AVCC Journal, a publication by the BACP. Miranda Shoebridge, a student advisor at City College, Southampton
“This book is virtually a course in Wellness Coaching in itself and should enable any existing talking therapist to begin to incorporate it into their practice with very little difficulty. Laurel Alexander has been a therapist, coach, trainer, and writer for over twenty years and brings a wealth of experience to the techniques outlined in the book. Not only are there sections on how to use the many techniques she includes, but also available are several very useful forms which can be downloaded from a website to save valuable time and effort typing them out for your use. Laurel also includes some very interesting case studies to demonstrate the use of some of the methods she outlines in the book. There is a very interesting section on Cognitive Behavioural Coaching, which she is quick to point out is not a substitute for treatment from a CBT trained practitioner (she recommends doing a course if you wish to go the CBT route) but seems to be very useful as one of the many tools used within Wellness Coaching. The book has a liberal sprinkling of charts and inside tips throughout its pages to make earning simpler. Also included are many valuable suggestions for improving your business through better marketing, image projection, etc. All in all, this book is very comprehensive, easy to understand and extremely helpful to any therapist wishing to add Wellness Coaching to an existing business.” Fidelity Journal, a publication for the National Council of Psychotherapists.
WOMEN’S WISDOM: NATURAL WELLNESS STRATEGIES FOR THE MENSTRUAL YEARS (Findhorn Press)
Menstruation, or moontime, is special for a woman and shifts in mind, body, and spiritual energy can cause both challenge and opportunity. This practical health guide reconnects women to the experience of an important stage of human development. The book examines and teaches how to work with the different menstrual energy patterns through natural self-help strategies that include nutrition and herbs, the Triple Goddess, meditations and imagery, vibrational healing using quartz crystals and flower essences, and hand reflexology. Using a down-to-earth, nature-connected approach to menstruation, women will learn to embrace this essential process of their womanhood.
“Laurel Alexander is our wise woman, teaching women in the tradition of the village elder about our bodies, our hearts, and our minds. She is the keeper of women’s wisdom — a collection of rituals, herbs and nutritional prescriptions for keeping a woman’s body healthy and strong throughout the journey from childbearing years to menopause. In Wellness Strategies for the Menstrual Years, Alexander debunks the culturally perceived notion of menstruation as a burden. Instead, we celebrate our moontime, a woman’s period of heightened creativity. We celebrate our sacred role as the giver of life. This book is a must-have gift for young women entering womanhood, and a treasure trove of information for all women to use monthly.” Vicky Thompson, New Connexion Journal
WOMEN’S WISDOM: NATURAL WELLNESS STRATEGIES FOR PREGNANCY (Findhorn Press)
Like menopause, pregnancy brings about profound shifts in mind, body, and spiritual energy that create challenges and opportunity. This second book in the series offers sage advice for working with these shifts, a broad range of techniques that will connect those expecting with the joyful rite of passage in womanhood while helping them move towards a positive birth experience. These self-help strategies span from the physical, such as nutrition, diet, and herbs, to the mental through meditation, imagery and ritual to help calm and focus the mind, as well as the more esoteric, such as using crystals, flower essences, and archetypes of the Goddess to balance the subtle energy system.
“Pregnancy brings about profound shifts in a woman’s mind, body, and spiritual energy, and Natural Wellness Strategies for Pregnancy offers sage advice to help expectant mothers move towards a positive birth experience. A broad range of natural techniques for physical and mental wellness are presented, including information on nutrition, diet, and herbs for the body, as well as meditation, imagery, and rituals to help calm and focus the mind.” OM Yoga
WOMEN’S WISDOM: NATURAL WELLNESS STRATEGIES FOR THE MENOPAUSE YEARS (Findhorn Press)
“Laurel Alexander’s beautiful little book Natural Wellness Strategies for the Menopause Years is a comprehensive guidebook for any woman approaching this important transition. Laurel not only charts and explains the physical, emotional and spiritual processes of this journey across the threshold into the Third Age but provides a wealth of practical information and guidance about each of them. With topics ranging from herbs to rituals, nutrition to stress-management, chakras to sexuality, meditation to reflexology and more besides, this small and easy-to-read volume is a treasure trove of information, ideas, and suggestions, all of which can be adapted to suit the unique needs of the reader. It contains, in one small package, everything that today’s ‘pausing’ woman might need to lead her gently through her transformation. With topics ranging from herbs to rituals, nutrition to stress-management, chakras to sexuality, meditation to reflexology and more besides, this small and easy-to-read volume is a treasure trove of information, ideas, and suggestions, all of which can be adapted to suit the unique needs of the reader. It contains, in one small package, everything that today’s `pausing’ woman might need to lead her gently through her transformation.” Marian Van Eyk McCain, author of Transformation through Menopause (Bergin & Garvey 1992) and Elderwoman (Findhorn Press, 2002).
“Shifts in the mind, body, and spiritual energy can be as much of an opportunity as a challenge; this self-help guide offers sage advice to menopausal women. Erasing the stigma that is often attached to this transitional period, experiences of the Dark Goddess are explored and embraced.” Sandra Goodman, Positive Health on-line
THE RESILIENCE COACHING TOOLKIT (Pavilion Publishing & Media)
Psychological resilience could be defined as an individual’s ability to successfully adapt to life tasks in the face of adverse conditions. This flexible training pack is designed to be used in one-to-one sessions as well as for group work. It teaches the Resilience Coaching Model, a non-directive approach whereby the facilitator encourages the learner(s) in the proactive self-management of resilience. Using this proactive approach, learners will be able to:
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- make a conscious decision to shape a resilient lifestyle
- assume responsibility for the quality of their life
- adopt a series of key principles in varied life areas which could lead to high levels of resilience
- understand that resilience is the integration of mind, body and spirit
- make changes to enhance their resilience
- understand what motivates them to lead the lifestyle they’ve chosen
- learn the difference between what they can change and what they cannot, and focus their energies wisely
- develop a resilient lifestyle which will allow them to revitalize and re-energise themselves so that they can continue to thrive in the face of the demands of life
- prepare to cope with change
- learn how to control their thoughts and emotions
- be aware of and be in tune with the flow between external productivity and rest periods
- create a sense of connections and meaning in life.
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EVERYDAY CALM: 365 WAYS TO A BETTER YOU (Octopus)
Everyday Calm: 365 Ways to a Better You (Octopus) by Laurel Alexander is your pocketbook personal trainer who will guide you through a year-long self-improvement program. The book offers daily exercises, activities and reflections to practice and slowly integrate into your lifestyle. The tasks are designed to be manageable and achievable, and each book includes monthly checklists to track your progress. With daily prompts on diet, sleep, relaxation, mindset, routine, personal interaction, leisure, creativity and unique words from the gurus.
