When I look back on 2024, I feel like I have to pinch myself to wake up from a dream. I knew it would be a big year, but I didn’t expect that so many of my long-term dreams could come to life in a single year. Including renovations to my home, becoming a more experienced ADHD/ASD Counsellor, automating my counselling booking system, attending to increasing numbers of clients, establishing my online counselling community at Marriagology.circle.so, buying a second-hand small car, winning our beautiful Fijian Holiday 2025 Raffle 1st Prize, welcoming my son and his fiancée home from China/UK, and visiting with family in Melbourne and Adelaide.
This is the first annual review I’m writing, and it is more for me than for you. I want to be able to look back and see what happened year to year. But also, I would love to get notes from people who enjoy reading them, even those whom I see as clients.
So, without further ado, here are the highlights of my life and work in 2024.
Transition Care Program
As many of you who know me personally, I work as a social worker with the Transition Care Program (TCP), Queensland Health. This is my full-time job with a team of four social workers. It’s a job I love, helping people aged 60 and over to settle their lives after leaving hospital following illness or physical injury. Based in Southport, I work mostly with folks living on the Southern end of the Gold Coast from Southport to Coolangatta.
My work is varied and interesting helping the oldies deal with their recovery from stroke, illness, or surgery, government departments, residential care arrangements, providing future care planning, and family counselling. TCP has 70 staff and provides care for up to 100 clients at any one time. Each client has access to the program for up to 12-weeks, with the intended outcome of preventing readmission to hospital and premature entry to a Nursing Home.
Renovations to my home
My husband Mike and I moved into our Townhouse in Labrador, Gold Coast in August 2016. It was in a pretty good state of repair. However, with serious rain storms on the Gold Coast from time to time the small balcony developed serious leaks over time and we were able to secure the services of an excellent builder to carry out repairs. The front of the house and fences needed repainting and the result of our new balcony renovation can be seen in the picture above.
As is the case with renovations, one thing led to another and we ended up replacing all lights in our home with LED lighting, rerouting an upstairs leaking air conditioner drainpipe through the downstairs ceiling and out the wall. This meant the whole lounge and kitchen (walls and ceiling) needed repainting. Next there were plumbing fixtures to be replaced, the downstairs toilet cistern and seat were replaced and outlet cleaned with a very expensive looking sewage pipe cleaner with a camera attached to the end of it and and laptop to view and locate the blockage. All done and I’m feeling grateful.
Automating my counselling practice booking and payment system
Now for the biggest amazing change to my 28 year counselling practice in 2024. I love it!
Prior to working with TCP (see above), Mike and I operated a Marriage and ADHD/ASD counselling practice full-time in Singapore for 12 years from July 1997 to February 2009. On returning to the Gold Coast, Queensland in December 2009 (after spending 9 months in Adelaide) and gaining full-time employment with Queensland Health as a social worker, I was able to continue my counselling practice in the evenings and on weekends. 2024 saw 65 new client couples join me for marriage counselling and related ADHD/ASD issues impacting their relationship.
To help with counselling client bookings, registrations, and payments, we engaged the brilliant and inspirational services of Jacqui Money in the Eastern Cape of South Africa as our “Automation Queen”. (Yes, her real name! She tells people she married Money!!)
When I reached out to Jacqui in 2023, I wanted to automate my client booking and payment system and the monthly and lifetime memberships for my MemberVault membership website. Jacqui listened and grasped the concept of what I was doing before making suggestions that she knew could add value to my counselling programs. I appreciated that Jacqui made suggestions because I didn’t know what I didn’t know regarding what was possible.
All this automation happened in 2024. The result today is that automation has freed me up from a lot of my time answering client enquiries and making email or phone appointments. New clients can still email or phone me direct, but they now book and pay for their initial consultation on my website — www.karengosling.com — where clients also buy prepaid counselling plans, make further bookings at times and lengths of sessions that suit their own schedule, and login to my online practice resources website — www.marriagology.com/products. This ensures they have immediate access to all my online resources. BOOM! Everyone’s happy. It saves me time and clients can book appointments directly online after looking at my schedule.
Other big pluses from automation are that clients now complete our Professional Counselling Agreement online via DocuSign.com and all client details and hours used from prepaid counselling plans are recorded in Airtable for our quick reference and follow up.
Join monthly memberships of my online counselling practice resources and weekly Zoom meetings with me at www.marriagology.com. You’ll be glad that you did.
Marriagology Circle Online Community
Marriagology Circle is my Marriage and ADHD/ASD free community group for my Counselling Plan clients and monthly/annual members of Marriagology.com.
Let it be your “go to” place for things about having a happy passionate marriage.
Inside you’ll find our Q&A, Community Chats, FREE Gifts, and Online Resources. I will be in our Circle often, so JOIN me – jump onboard!
While I’m always delighted to share information about my marriage counselling services or ADHD/ASD specialist coaching, I’m equally committed to supporting your efforts as you build your happy flourishing marriage.
Share your experiences in the group so we can celebrate your wins and excitement or talk about how we can help.
My second-hand small car – Greta!
My colleague’s mother owned this car for 20 years. It’s a Mazda 3 (2004) model, was regularly serviced and had 83,000 kilometers on the clock. As the mother was moving into aged care, the car became available for sale. Over the protests of husband Mike (who argued we didn’t need a second car) I just couldn’t pass up the wonderful opportunity to buy such a beautiful little car for use by me (and my second son and fiancée now living on the Gold Coast from time to time). So Greta arrived shortly before Christmas and has pride of place inside out locked gate area. I love her and she is just what I need for short trips.
Fijian Holiday 2025
One of the most exciting events of 2024 occured on New Year’s Eve — Mike won a $7,000 prize in a raffle I didn’t even know he’d entered.
Wow! What an awesome raffle prize to win on New Year’s Eve. Delighted. A 7-night dream holiday in Fiji thanks to the 2024 Fiji Kids Learning for Life raffle and their sponsors OUTRIGGER Fiji Beach Resort, Castaway Island Fiji and Hair Beauty and Soul.
Such a magnificent New Year’s Eve celebration to be going to Fiji in 2025 and staying at these world-renowned magnificent Fiji resorts. So grateful. Fiji 2025 here we come.
Julie Hoskison, Founder of Fiji Kids Learning for Life, called Mike shortly after the announcement to confirm the fantastic Fiji Dream Holiday we had won. What’s included is amazing! Return airfares from Brisbane to Nadi, airport transfers, 7 nights at Outrigger and Castaway and South Sea Cruises transfers between Port Denarau Marina and Castaway Island.
So amazing for us to win such a sensational Fiji holiday. There’s nowhere else in the world Mike would rather be!
Fiji Kids Learning for Life charity in Sigatoka, Fiji is a very worthy charity to support. All raffle proceeds support Fiji Kids’ education programs which help change the lives of deeply disadvantaged young people.
We feel privileged to help raise funds for the outstanding work done by Fiji Kids, supporting disadvantaged children in Fiji to participate fully in education. Funds raised from this year’s raffle will help fund five university scholarships for young people. Education of Fiji youth is so important. Look out for next year’s raffle.
Mike and I are so much looking forward to visiting with Fiji Kids in Sigatoka, Fiji as we come and enjoy our raffle prize.
Visiting with family
My greatest joy is my family, husband, business partner, and Executive Leadership Coach Mike, eldest son Daniel and partner Tameka and grandson Luca (5) living in Melbourne, and second son William and fiancée Imogen, living 10-minutes away on the Gold Coast.
Daniel is Head of Technical and Operations with Victoria Opera and Tameka works with an HR organisation placing disabled people in employment. Luca starts school in 2025 and is ready to go after 3-years preschool.
William and Imogen (Wilmo for short) returned to live and work in Coombabah, Queensland after 5 ½ years teaching English in China and 8 months with Imogen’s mother in Cumbria, Lake District, UK. Will is a Queensland qualified secondary school teacher and Imogen works with an engineering firm in Southport. They are happy to be on the Gold Coast and have friendships through a mixed barbershop harmony chorus which competes internationally.
I get to visit with my aged mother (98) in Adelaide several times a year and am in regular contact with my three siblings (2 in Adelaide and 1 in Boston, USA) and their families.
2024 was an incredible year. As I said at the start, many plans were fulfilled. So many of you reading this played a role in that and I’m so grateful. Whether you’re family, a friend, client, or regularly consume my content, thank you for helping me build this dream life. Life is good!
Here’s to an epic 2025!
