Frequently AskeD

questions

The Family Life Coaching Association defines parent coaching as a process where client and coach work together to achieve client-identified family goals. The process is collaborative, working from a strengths-based perspective that:

Uses research-based strategies to encourage and support the competence and achievement of client-identified goals.
Builds respectful, trusting relationships with parents, children, and/or families in order to facilitate positive growth in family life.
Enables families to maximize their strengths and potential.

Parenting coaching is a thought-provoking and creative process that helps you perceive the world around you, yourself, and your child(ren) in a new light so you can regulate and navigate big emotional upsets, communicate through conflict, and respond to ingrained patterns of relating between you and your child.

What is coaching and how does it work for parenting?

Both coaching and therapy are healing modalities for emotional difficulties and everyday struggles. However, unlike therapy, coaching does not diagnose or treat mental disorders. Coaching is client-directed and rooted in the idea that you are already whole and fully resourced. It is a collaborative process between coach and client that tends to the root cause of your distress while providing education and strategies to gain clarity around your generational patterns, move through internal barriers to achieving your goals, reframe your belief system, and develop emotional intelligence and communication skills. A coach is very helpful in creating a practical plan to practice these new skills and stick to your commitments that are aligned to your personal values.

In coaching, we connect the dots between past experiences, the present, and your parenting goals, whereas a therapist would take the client extensively into the past and discuss all angles of your childhood memories and experiences.

What is the difference between coaching and therapy?

A parent coach is your support and builds your resilience as the leader of your family. It also provides comprehensive education. It can be one piece of a holistic and multidisciplinary care team for you or your child. You may find it helpful - sometimes critical - to work with other professionals that will add valuable information to your parenting such as pediatricians, educational psychologists and psychiatrists, speech and language therapists, music and art therapists, educators and special educators, occupational therapists, nutritionists, etc.

How does coaching work in tandem with other medical or wellness services that my child receives?

Parent coaching applies to parents and grandparents with children of any age - even adult children! It’s also beneficial for those who work with or care for children like teachers, babysitters, aunts, uncles, etc. And it applies to those who are pregnant or considering parenthood. :-)

What age child is this for?

Absolutely! First and foremost, parent coaching is a deep level of support and education for you as your child’s caregiver. Empowered and connected parenting provides a framework that is grounded in the belief that you and your child are strong, competent, and whole. Empowered parenting provides guiding principles to learn positive relational support, conscious and empathetic communication, and an opportunity for you to understand, respect and work with your child’s individual differences and behaviors regardless of their diagnosis. Parent coaching provides a non-judgmental and supportive space for you to be seen, heard, and deeply understood as you work hard providing the best possible environment for your entire family.

Does parent coaching apply if I have a neurodivergent child or children with special needs?

I totally understand this, and I’ve been in your shoes, longing for support but worried about money. I always offer the option to split your payments across three months so you can space out your payments while receiving help now. I also offer 50% scholarships 2x / year with a short application, please make sure you’re on my email list to receive notice when those applications open up.

I’m nervous about being able to afford this, any options for me?

We all want to do right by our kids. So we worry and stay up late sifting through parenting stuff. So, why are some things still so hard to change or make stick?

Because learning new ways of being and communicating and thinking is hard, courageous work. If you want to get healthy, you work with a personal trainer. If you want help managing your money, you work with a financial planner. If you want to become a better parent, you work with a parenting coach. It just makes sense if we want to show up well for our kids, we need someone to show up for us, too. That’s my job.

Working with a certified coach allows an expert to curate the best of the best resources, tools, and knowledge and distill it to you in a customized way tailor-made for your situation. It also provides the space for you to release old ways of thinking and explore new solutions together.

On the most important journey of your life, why walk alone when there’s a roadmap and a loving guide to hold your hand and cheer you on?