As a parent, seeing your child struggle with goal setting, motivation, and interpersonal relationships can be both frustrating and worrisome. We all love our children and want to do everything we can to help them reach their full potential. It has become increasingly common for parents to take their children or teenagers to therapists when these issues arise. While therapy certainly has a place when working through deep psychological issues, extreme trauma, or with certain diagnosed mental health conditions, is it really the best choice for an emotionally healthy kid who simply requires some assistance in dealing with life?
For emotionally healthy children and teenagers, Life Coaching offers many advantages over traditional therapy. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, you might be surprised to find that a Life Coach offers exactly what you have been looking for!
Why Choose Life Coaching for Your Kid?
- Coaching doesn’t require a formal diagnosis. This is great news for kids who don’t suffer from severe trauma or psychological issues, but are relatively emotionally healthy and in need of assistance.
- Many children and teenagers are resistant to therapy because of social stigma. Coaching doesn’t carry the same sort of emotional weight for kids. When children, and particularly adolescents, don’t feel that the sort of help they are receiving is labeling them as deficient in some way, they are more likely to comply and even enjoy their sessions.
- There is no set time table or number of sessions for coaching. Your child may require just a few sessions to make some minor adjustments and get on track, or they may benefit from long-term coaching. Each individual plan is personalized to suit your child’s goals and desires.
How Can a Life Coach Help Your Child?
A life coach can help your child identify obstacles and set realistic and incremental goals for overcoming them.
- A coach will work with your child as a partner and ally, as they work together to formulate a personalized plan with goal setting and progress measurements.
- Coaching increases self-esteem by allowing your child to gain access to a wide variety of tools that will help them to reach their full potential. This can include learning to be more organized, taking personal responsibility, learning positive ways to be socially engaged, as well as balancing school, social activities, family life, and a job if they have one.
- Just like adults, children sometimes realize that something in their life needs to change, but they are unable to identify precisely what that something is. Life coaches know the right questions to ask to allow your child to draw their own conclusions about what areas of their life could be improved.
- Coaches are a great choice for kids with ADD/ADHD who need a solid plan for staying on track with school and other responsibilities. A life coach can also help with the implementation of skills that will improve relationships with teachers, parents, other authority figures, and peers.
Many adolescents feel that therapy, which tends to focus on delving into the past, is an emotionally draining experience. Because it is developmentally appropriate for children in this age group to be much more concerned with the present and future, many of them find coaching to be an energizing and motivating experience. Because children tend to live very much in the moment, the concrete activities and measurable short-term progress they will make with their coach is something that feels more tangible and relevant to them. When a clinical diagnosis is not appropriate or necessary for your child’s emotional growth and goal setting, coaching provides a great alternative.
Devon is a Personal Life Coach, Certified Personal Trainer, licensed mental health/substance abuse counselor, experienced consultant, and nationally certified teacher. As a Life Coach, she focuses on supporting and encouraging achievement of personal best outcomes or goals in a specific challenging area. Her expertise, enthusiasm, energy and educational background serve to create a unique blend of services and techniques employed to help you reach your goals. For training, coaching, or counseling sessions, please contact her at 505.469.0779 or herndonconsulting@gmail.com.
