What is coachinG?
"All Coaching is, is taking a player, where he can't take himself."
Bill McCartney, former Colorado football coach
What Coaching is.
In a nutshell, coaching is a collaborative, practical and solutions-focused process, in which we assist you to explore your challenges, and implement an action plan to reach your goals. You are empowered to learn skills, and strategies to tackle problem areas, something that is difficult for you to do on your own.
For example, we may help you learn to use a planner if you struggle with time-management and planning. Or we may help you to brainstorm career options and empower you to create action steps to get to your desired career. Or we may help you with specific parenting strategies that help enable calm interactions with your child. Or we may teach your child emotional regulation strategies to decrease the meltdowns in your home!
Whatever the challenge is, we partner with you, encourage you and help you to find solutions and strategies that you can implement to achieve your goals. Whether you are a student, parent or an adult who struggles with ADHD or Executive Functioning skills, we provide a safe space to work through the obstacles you face, and hold you accountable to change.
What Coaching is NOt.
Coaching is not therapy. Therapists diagnose mental health disorders and identify the best treatment plan for healing for your distress. If you are experiencing significant psychological distress, more than what we can provide help for, we will refer you to a suitable therapist. Some clients see both a therapist (to help uncover deep-rooted psychological factors), and a coach (to help with practical, solution-focused strategies).
Coaching is not tutoring. We don’t help students with specific subject areas (e.g. we are not math or science tutors), but we do assist them to find strategies on how to succeed academically (e.g. hiring a math tutor could be part of the plan to succeed). Every student is different, so successful study habits will vary, but the key is finding skills and solutions to help with a student’s specific struggle that is effective for them. If requested by a student, we can teach specific study skills. We will work on finding customized strategies for planning, prioritization, time management, organization and more.
Coaching is not consulting. We don’t tell you what to do. We don’t come in and fix your problems for you. We may make suggestions and brainstorm with you; however, you are the one, who will be empowered and choose the strategies that work for your situation as we collaboratively problem-solve together.
What is Adhd/ef Coaching?
We specialize in issues of ADHD and Executive Functioning (EF). Coaching for this population needs specialized training and education for ADHD/ EF issues. We partner with our clients to understand the specific challenges associated with ADHD or Executive Functions that affect their lives and we create a plan to overcome the obstacles. At times, there maybe an educational component to help understand neurological issues behind ADHD. Often for parent coaching and adult ADHD life coaching, we may make recommendations to specific resources, articles or books. We also provide accountability and a mid-week check-in to help with follow through on action steps.
Who benefits from ADHD/EF coaching?
Whether or not there’s a diagnosis, if you struggle with executive functioning weaknesses, we can help! Populations we work with:
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Pre-school and school-aged kids (4-12 years old). Note: We make customized recommendations based on student and family needs for this age.
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Teenagers (Middle School & High school students)
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College students
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Adults
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Parents/ Families
what are executive functioning skills?
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Planning
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Prioritization
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Organization
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Time Management
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Task initiation, and follow through
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Working Memory
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Inhibition of Impulses
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Sustained Attention
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Emotional Control
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Flexibility
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Stress tolerance
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Decision making
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A note on anxiety and depression and executive functioning: At times, weaknesses in executive function skills show up due to anxiety and depression. While a therapist is best to work on the underlying causes of anxiety and depression, our coaching can assist with identifying negative thoughts, behaviors and triggers and collaboratively create solutions and action plans for overcoming them, in addition to coaching clients to discover skills to strengthen executive functioning. Coaching is not therapy so if therapeutic treatment is needed, a client can see a therapist and receive coaching concurrently, OR if deemed necessary, a client maybe recommended to complete therapeutic treatment before engaging in coaching.
what is parent/family coaching?
​Parents often come to us with overwhelming issues with their child. Depending on the age of your child, we may recommend parent or family coaching. In parent coaching, we emphasize educating parents on ADHD neurology and effective parenting approaches. We will work with you to come up with new strategies to help your child at home. In family coaching, we may work with parent/s and child, together, to identify struggles and create solutions to solve them. Every family is different. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach so we would first assess your situation and recommend the best coaching plan tailored to your family's specific challenges.