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So I had come across this life coach on Instagram and I was kind of attracted to them

mostly for their content around astrology. Coaching would be guided by your

birth chart and star signs. This is Catherine. She's a 28-year-old lawyer, and back in 2021, when

she first started getting interested in astrology and life coaching, she was struggling to cope

during Sydney's second COVID lockdown.

Tonight, the Defence Force called in to help in New South Wales as the state records its worst day of the pandemic so far.

Being away from family, I just moved in with my partner for the first time. So started a new job, so there was a lot of changes,

and then being thrown into lockdown was very stressful, and I was feeling very overwhelmed.

Catherine had previously been diagnosed with depression, and she often saw a psychologist,

but that became harder to do as wait times blew out during the pandemic.

So she thought maybe a life coach could help?

Yeah, I thought it would just be a bit of a different experience.

And that astrology influenced life coach felt like a good fit.

So, Catherine handed over $2,500 for a three-month online self-discovery coaching program.

After the first maybe two sessions, I thought she didn't really prepare for the sessions or kind of

understand, like remember what I said last time or

there was no kind of structure to the sessions and I thought I don't know if she's actually

offering me anything other than just someone to talk to and for quite an exorbitant price.

So I think that's when I was like, oh, I don't think there's actually any offering here.

This is all in the mind. I'm Sana Khadar.

Catherine wasn't the only one feeling overwhelmed during the pandemic.

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