Shona Leggett

If you want to make changes, if you don’t feel you’re functioning to your potential, if you need better coping strategies, or want to get some ideas about how to move on from being stuck, I can help you find a way to do it.

Areas of Special Interest

• Relationship counselling therapy
• Grief and loss
• Anxiety and Stress
• Increasing resilience and self confidence
• Parenting Issues

Counselling Services

I am skilled at helping people work through confusion, identify their dilemmas, explore options and take action to move forward.

Clients tell me it’s such a relief to find that counselling is not as hard as they thought it would be. Having someone who is impartial listening to you can be healing in itself. Perhaps you have never been able to tell your story, you will find that sharing it can bring clarity and new possibilities for your future.

I am passionate about working with couples. I am experienced and trained in the Couples Institute Developmental Model which helps couples and individuals enrich, grow and repair their relationships. If you are feeling overwhelmed or seeking changes in your life then I would love to work with you. Whatever difficulties you may be experiencing, there is always help.

I provide confidential face to face or online counselling and relationship therapy for adults, couples, teenagers and families.

Counselling Approach

I use a person-centred collaborative counselling approach as well as solution focussed therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This means we come together as equals to find solutions to your difficulties. I will work at a pace that works for you and we will make decisions together about your counselling goals and how you want to achieve them. Clients find me warm and encouraging, enjoy my capacity to help them build on their qualities and skills to move forward. I relate well to clients of all ages.  For clients of retirement age we explore life stages and changes for life after retirement. I have always been interested in people and their stories, and will enjoy hearing your story.

I adhere to high standards of professionalism, am a Full Member of the NZ Association of Counsellors (NZAC) and abide by their Code of Ethics.

Background and Experience

I am a counsellor in private practice on the Hibiscus Coast. Previously, I worked as a counsellor in an agency for more than 7 years helping children, families, individuals and couples with a broad range of issues. I was also an original member of Victim Support and was a volunteer support worker for them for 3 years, supporting many people suffering losses and involved with a court process.

Before I became a counsellor I worked in a busy medical practice for 15 years. I am also a mother of three adult children, two of whom are twins, and am now loving being a grandparent. Through all of this I have experienced the challenges life brings and look forward to helping you find a path through yours.