A Bit About Me
Angela Poch, trainer, counsellor, and life coach
Nice to meet you!
Hello, I’m Angela Poch, RPC and I’m a trainer, clinical counselor, and life coach specializing in defeating depression & anxiety, improving relationships, and integrative health. I teach and use TEAM-CBT and, if asked faith-based methods to create lasting change in a brief time frame.
I’ve worked with Dr. David Burns as a small group leader in his workshops and his Stanford Tuesday group for health professionals.
In addition to one-on-one personal work, I also offer consulting and training for therapists and coaches. Including certification of completion for TEAM-CBT Coaching or Christian Health & Wellness Coaching. I also enjoy putting on workshops and doing speaking engagements.
I’m ADHD, have autistic traits, dealt with trauma, and struggled with gender molds yet a Bible-believing Christian. I’m a wife and mother. I’ve worked with people from all walks of life including youth to veterans, white collar high-paid professionals to blue-collar rednecks, students, and even homeless persons.
Sharing some of my story on the "Feeling Good" podcast, listen now!
My journey to becoming a life coach and counselor started a couple of decades ago when I began researching health and wellness in 1997 or so for my health. I battled with IBS and a friend directed me to a book called “The Ministry of Healing.” This book, written by Ellen White, has an integrative approach to health. It focuses a lot on mental wellness and relationships as well as diet, exercise, and other lifestyle principles. Following that book improved my health tremendously and started me on the path to becoming a plant-based nutritionist in 2007. That was just the beginning! But before I dive into that, here is a Podcast I did with Dr. David Burns, on Feeling Good podcast.
In my own life I’ve dealt with depression, anxiety, anger, relationship issues, insomnia, stress, loss, bullying, and even suicidal ideation, and while I’m not perfect, I’m on the other side to tell you there is hope for recovery!
I get how hard it can be to open up. When you are in the midst of darkness, light seems impossible! When the anxiety is so strong you feel it in your body. Don’t stop here just reading this, take the course I developed from my own successful recovery using Dr. David Burns & the Bible click learn more above!
You can also check out my YouTube channel for videos on mental health and spirituality.
*Registered Professional Counsellor with the Canadian Professional Counselling Association.
- I get it!
I Too Faced Depression
Depression affects more than 300 million people worldwide. But beyond statistics, it gets personal when it’s a dear friend, close family member, or even closer to home, yourself. I’ve certainly not come away unscathed…..
A Taste of My Anxiety
I’ve recovered from social anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, and intrusive thoughts. I also manage my IBS and Fibromyalgia reasonably well, but this is a work in progress. This doesn’t tell my who story but it gives you a taste of what’s possible.
Breaking the Mold!
I’ve been asked, as a Christian, how can I be a safe place for LGBTQ+? While spirituality is integral to recovery, all have free choice and I am not the Holy Spirit. I can be an example to others through my own journey.
My Credentials
Want to know more?
My Journey To Helping Others
The road I took to recovery was paved with the tools I use in our sessions together. I’ll never ask you to do something I wouldn’t do myself. In addition I have had or do have: ADHD, autistic symptoms, memory problems, chronic pain, gender/identity issues, trauma, IBS, fibromyalgia, and other real life ebbs and flows, none of which have stopped me from finding joy and recovery….
My credentials below, scroll to the bottom.
What is TEAM? Why is it so effective?
This an evidenced-based approach by renowned psychiatrist Dr Burns, which uses various techniques, including CBT, to achieve therapeutic success. It is researched based from over 30 years of studies and recommendations. Clients are collaborative and we focus on treating the client not some “disorder” the client may have…
Integrative Self-help Approach
In addition to CBT, TEAM, faith-based counselling, life coaching, and other tools, I offer an integrative approach to health with self-help courses. From my FREE signature program on having Optimal Health to Stress Management, Grief Recovery, to plant based cooking and much more….
My Physical Health Journey Started it All but it didn’t end there….
When I learned a plant based diet and other lifestyle choices could help my IBS I did a feel deep dive into learn about nutrition and the human body. But turns out one of my favourite books, the Ministry of Healing, spends less than 20% of the book on diet and exercise. The missing part, the other 75% is our mental health, spirituality, and our relationships with others. The mind is extremely powerful, I recommend the book “When Your Body Says No” by Dr. Gabor Mate.
As I pursued learning more about health I also I raised my son, trained horses, and got into graphic arts, videography and photography. I was invited to do some cooking shows on a TV network called 3ABN which I did in 2007. I also took a program in plant-based nutrition and became a certified nutrition counsellor with an accredited diploma program. But all this was just the beginning as it set me up to peruse the mental health profession, I just didn’t know it yet.
My Struggle with Depression & Anxiety
In 2006 I struggled with depression (not the first time I struggled with depression, more about my depression story here), then I learned about cognitive behaviour therapy and Dr. David Burns through Dr. Neil Nedley’s Depression & Anxiety Recovery Program. Dr. Nedley’s program is great for an integrative wellness approach, putting into practice what I learned in The Ministry of Healing, and it completely cured my depression. I came of my anti-depressant med’s in just a few months.
I became a Depression & Anxiety Recovery certified program director, which fueled my desire to learn more and to help those who have very specific issues or for those where a group program wasn’t as effective. In 2016 I did several more courses on life and health coaching.
During this time I develop online self-help courses on health and wellness from an integrative approach, mostly on nutrition to start since that’s the education I had. The blue zone scientific research spurred me on to develop programs that included the key aspects to health and longevity. The amazing thing I kept seeing in all the literature is, what’s good for your physical health is good for your mental well being and visa versa. I couldn’t believe more health professionals weren’t promoting the research. The data was in, was I going to wait for someone else or start sharing as much as I could myself? So I launched several online courses and my students trickled in until I had approximately 7500 students by the end of 2017.
But depression wasn’t the only thing that I had to overcome on my journey — anxiety and excess stress nipped at my heels from time to time. Long before this point in my life I had been bullied as a child, experienced suicidal thoughts in my late teens, and dealt with extreme loss. Add to the curve balls life through at me, I’m a perfectionist by nature and have a fear of rejection among other self-defeating beliefs. Working through hidden emotions, facing my fears, and accepting some flaws became the catalyst for recovery which was possible only through TEAM-CBT. It’s so amazing to have tools that crush anxious thoughts and temper stressful circumstances!
I was encouraged to pursue counselling by several people. So in 2018 I took my diploma in applied psychology and counselling, and in 2019 I became a registered professional counsellor and Level 1 TEAM-CBT life coach. I’ve taken many other trainings since then including CBT-I, CBT for insomnia, Abide Network training, and many of Dr. David’s workshops. In 2021 I became a Level 4 TEAM-CBT Advanced Therapist & Trainer and the Vice President of education for AAHWC.
I really feel there is a need for qualified counsellors and life coaches who can guide people to greater emotional stability and mental wellness through TEAM-CBT, an integrative approach, and when appropriate faith based tools. That’s my goal, to teach clinicians, both therapists and coaches, to be more effective working with their clients while having self-compassion and applying these tools for themselves too!
So whoever you dear reader, I’d love to meet you!