Benefits of life coaching for youth

     I've recently shifted my coaching practice to focus on youth and family coaching. With my background in education, I have always had a heart for kids. I've taught middle school and community college, and I love witnessing the growth and development as kids grow into adults, step by step.
     In addition to my own passion for working with youth, life coaching is well-suited to this age group. Imagine if you learned to set goals and make authentic decisions in middle school or high school. I don't know about you, but I was often simply going along with the crowd or the expectations of my parents or community. I didn't really understand my true self until well into adulthood. I'm still working to counteract patterns of self talk and behavior that don't serve me. It's powerful to coach my young clients into greater self-awareness and confidence. The benefits of coaching for youth are numerous and far-reaching and I'd like to outline a few of them here.

1. Personal Development: This is a catch-all term for anything that equals self improvement, but I want to highlight a couple important points for tweens and teens. First of all, coaching helps build awareness around internal processes. At this phase in life, a misplaced remark by an influential adult or peer can have lifelong consequences. Learning to ​pay attention to their own thinking and self-talk can minimize the influence of outside voices and build self confidence. Hand in hand with this is a focus on and strengthening of their individual values, strengths, interests, passions and areas for growth. All of this leads to a stronger sense of identity, which in turn leads to greater confidence and healthier decision making which then circles back to affirming their values and sense of self. It's a beautiful, powerful upward cycle of goodness.
2. Social Development and Healthy Relationships: Starting in middle school, kids experience a rapid shift from a focus on family and home as the strongest influence to a focus on their peers and greater social circle. Parents no longer have control of the messaging. This is part of growing up, of course, but the bombardment of sometimes contradictory ideas can be confusing. As a coach, I offer a lot of perspective-taking exercises and conversations. These enhance the awareness of others and encourage empathy and acceptance, while also helping individuals stand strong in their own values and communicate opinions honestly. All of this sets the foundation for establishing, communicating and upholding healthy boundaries in relationships. The earlier kids can become aware of the importance of boundaries the better. I know very few adults who don't struggle in this area, so building the skills to set clear boundaries can have exponential benefits.
   
3. Goal Setting and Support Seeking: This is the most concrete and practical aspect of coaching, and to learn how to set and achieve goals as a young person can set the stage for a lifetime of successes. Goal setting can be done on a large scale (get into a certain college, achieve an athletic goal, secure the dream job), but it can also be done on the day to day tasks that become habits that make or break us (organize a closet, get homework done on time, exercise and eat well). Furthermore, my clients often work toward goals that are more emotional and abstract in nature. These include goals such as speaking out more in class, making more friends or expressing anger in a healthier way. Regardless of the goal, coaching helps identify the desired outcome, define the steps to get there, and follow a plan to stay on track. With goal setting comes an equally important but rarely talked about skill of seeking support. The best laid plans can be derailed by distractions and/or obstacles. Learning to seek the support of helpful people, plan ahead for possible challenges, and manipulate the environment to achieve results will lead to a higher success rate and therefore, more confidence to keep achieving.
   
4. Resource Optimization: Similar to seeking support is the skill of optimizing resources. In the digital age, information, connection and resources abound. Proactively finding and using appropriate resources takes skill and practice, however, and we all know that everybody doesn't start on equal footing. Learning to act with purpose, ask for help when necessary and find/use resources give youth some control over their own destiny. In coaching circles, we call this living by design versus by default. These skills don't only help kids from high-needs populations. Kids from supportive and well-off families might flounder when they gain independence in early adulthood if they don't learn to advocate for themselves. Across the spectrum, learning to optimize resources can lead to greater independence and self-esteem. 
5. Appropriate Technology Use: Technology isn't going anywhere, but studies show that for all the convenience and good it offers, it also has led to an increase in anxiety and decrease in focus for younger generations. Setting limits and consuming technology with awareness can lead to better time management, improved life satisfaction and a greater overall sense of wellness.

If you are interested in learning more about coaching for your child or your family, please contact me. I offer a free informational call and would love to answer any questions or set up a time for a trial session.