Helping People Discover Who They've Been All Along
At Brooks & Birch, we believe lasting change doesn't begin by trying to become someone new.
It begins by understanding who you've been all along.
For years, we worked independently with individuals, couples, families, organizations, and communities. Although our professional journeys were different, they continually led us to the same realization.
People often understand what they're experiencing.
Far fewer understand why.
Traditional counselling can provide valuable insight, healthier coping strategies, and meaningful support. Yet we found that many people were still searching for something deeper—a clearer understanding of who they are beneath life's experiences, expectations, and circumstances.
That search became the beginning of something much bigger than either of us imagined.
The Beginning of The VALUES™ Life
Tom spent decades exploring one of life's most fundamental questions:
Who am I?
His work as a counsellor, speaker, author, and creator of Values Mapping revealed that our authentic values influence every decision we make, every relationship we build, and every challenge we face.
At the same time, Elizabeth's work as a trauma therapist revealed a similar truth.
Whether someone was healing from trauma, navigating anxiety, rebuilding relationships, or searching for purpose, lasting healing rarely came from changing behaviours alone. It came from helping people reconnect with who they truly are.
As our conversations continued, we realized we had been approaching the same destination from different directions.
Together, we began reorganizing Tom's life's work into a practical framework that anyone could understand and apply.
That framework became The VALUES™ Life.
More than a counselling approach, The VALUES™ Life is a way of understanding yourself—helping you discover your authentic values, understand how they shape every area of life, and learn to live from them with greater confidence, clarity, and intention.
Through counselling, workshops, workplace training, professional certification, speaking, and The VALUES™ Workbook, our mission remains the same:
To help people discover the authentic values that make them who they are—and learn to live from them every day.
Because when you understand yourself, you make more confident decisions, build healthier relationships, and create lasting change from the inside out.
Tom Brooks, BA MTC CVT
I've spent much of my life helping people answer one of life's biggest questions:
Who am I?
After working with thousands of individuals, couples, families, organizations, and communities, I realized that many traditional counselling approaches helped people understand behaviours but rarely helped them truly understand themselves.
That realization led me to develop Values Mapping—a methodology that became the foundation of my life's work and ultimately evolved into The VALUES™ Life.
As an author, speaker, workshop facilitator, and counsellor, I'm passionate about helping people uncover the authentic values that shape every decision, relationship, and season of life.
I also care deeply about the generations coming behind us. As a father and grandfather, I believe that when people truly understand themselves, healthier families, stronger communities, and better leaders naturally follow.
One of the mottos I've lived by is simple:
"The next generation must thrive in order for our world to survive."
Helping people discover who they are has never just been my profession.
It's been my calling.
Elizabeth Zerkee, RTC CVT
I've always been fascinated by the incredible capacity people have to heal.
As a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor specializing in trauma, I've had the privilege of walking alongside people through some of life's most difficult seasons—trauma, anxiety, relationship struggles, grief, and experiences that leave us questioning who we are.
Over the years, I noticed something important.
Many people understood their stories.
Few truly understood themselves.
That realization is one of the reasons Brooks & Birch means so much to me.
When Tom and I began sharing ideas, I realized his work on values answered many of the questions I was seeing every day in the therapy room. Together, we developed The VALUES™ Life as a practical framework that helps people reconnect with the authentic values that have always been part of who they are.
My hope is that everyone who works with us leaves with more than insight.
I hope they leave with greater confidence, deeper self-understanding, healthier relationships, and the freedom that comes from living authentically.
Creating a space where people feel safe, understood, and genuinely seen is one of the greatest privileges of my life.