COACHING FOR TEENAGERS
Coaching for teens or young adult can address any of the following: confidence, happiness, focus, overwhelming negative self-talk, navigating friendship, schoolwork or next steps beyond high school or college and more. At the heart of coaching, no matter the circumstances a client brings or how old they are, the work is knowing yourself, recognizing choice, bringing to light limiting beliefs, learning to listen to your heart and not just your mind, getting to know your inner critic + strategies for quieting it down, sinking into the beauty of who you are and your most natural strengths and values.
Has the “you’re not good enough” voice begun to rear it’s head?
Welcome, I’m Elisabeth.
One of the reasons I love the coaching modality is because I’m not looking for what is “wrong with someone”. Coaching supports people from a perspective that each one of us is whole, capable, resourceful and creative. Within a coaching process we learn that we have within us what we need, we are enough, we are okay.
These awarenesses are all things that I wish I had learned in school and wish that in my late teens and early twenties that I had more support for. I can’t help but think about how this shift in the way we think about ourselves could shift the fabric of society and the way we interact with others. Coaching is one of the best modalities I know for this learning and growth. I say the sooner we can find our way to a place of self-trust and love and learn to function from there the better!
HOW COACHING FOR TEENAGERS WORKS
12, 1:1 Sessions over 3-6 months
If the client (person who will be coached) is under 18 then step 1 is a conversation with myself and the parent/guardian. We’ll need to determine the
While I do work with adults and within orgnaizations as a coach some of my favorite clients have been between the ages of 16-22. When I look at all I’ve learned as I coach and thing back on my own life in high school and college I wish with all my heart that I could have had the gift of a coach. For me, (and many) it was those years when the voice of “you’re not good enough really began to rear it’s head”. I was a good student, a collegiate athelete, giggly, making life-long friends. Those years were full and privileged AND I wasn’t learning the emotional intelligence tools of self-awareness, the concept that I was and am okay exactly as I am. That for the most important decisions in my life it wasn’t someone else that was going to have the answer - it was me! Learning to love and trust myself has been critical and it’s something I think we’ll continue to learn throughout life, but what if we all started early??
On many occasions I’ve heard myself say, “I wish everyone in the world could be magically matched with a coach and have them for support anytime they wanted.”
I say this because (and to put what coaching is simply): There is something so very helpful about having someone, unattached without judgment, with complete curiosity, listen and ask questions and really see us. The process helps us to remember who we are, operate from the best version of ourselves, clarify what we really want, see what’s keeping us stuck, choose how we want to move forward and SO. MUCH. MORE.
For me personally, coaching has provided an avenue for a deeper sense of knowing and trusting myself which has further led to an ability to confidently act and choose from a place of what is most important to me even in or especially in instances where that feels challenging. I’ve let go of the expectations of others and settled into myself.
For many, the answer to the question of Who is coaching for? is not particularly broad. People have a general idea of Executive Coaching and that it’s for senior leaders in organizations or they’ve heard of Life Coaching but are kind of unsure of what that really means or maybe they’ve even put it in a category of “not for me” because it sounds too fluffy.
While I do enjoy leadership coaching and coaching specific to navigating life transitions, I’ve learned and come to believe along the way that coaching is applicable in so many other realms.
Recently, I’ve had an influx of interest in coaching from a much younger audience and I must say working with 16-22 year olds has not only been a surprise but an absolute delight. It’s reinforced my belief that everyone can benefit from a coach and dare I say, most especially this younger crew?!
One of the reasons I love the coaching modality is because I’m not looking for what is “wrong with someone”. Coaching supports people from a perspective that each one of us is whole, capable, resourceful and creative. Within a coaching process we learn that we have within us what we need, we are enough, we are okay. I say the sooner we can find our way to that place and learn to function from it the better!
Additionally at the heart of coaching, no matter the circumstances a client brings, the work is knowing yourself, recognizing choice, bringing to light limiting beliefs, learning to listen to your heart and not just your mind, getting to know your inner critic + strategies for quieting it down, sinking into the beauty of who you are and your most natural strengths and values. These awarenesses are all things that I sure wish I had learned in school and wish that in my late teens and early twenties that I had more support for. And, I can’t help but always think about how this shift in the way we think about ourselves could shift the fabric of society and the way we interact with others. It really could. And because coaching is one of the best modalities I know for this learning and growth, I say the sooner and more opportunities to experience coaching the better.
If you know a teenager or young adult for whom therapy isn’t or hasn’t been the right method of support but could use the support of autonomous space to gain self-awareness, expanded perspective, choices for relating to their circumstances and support for taking action and making changes to support confidence and self-awareness, let’s chat.
