Understanding the Teen Life Coach
I think we can all agree being a teenager is not easy. A teen is still developing, looking for answers, support, and attention from parents as well as wanting to be independent and find their way. Growing up is challenging for both the teen and the parents of a teen.
Every parent wants their teen to be happy, confident, have good social skills, healthy relationships, be enthusiastic about school, and responsible with money. While it’s a long list, it is also an essential list, as these are core skills teenagers need, to grow up as successful adults. When parents struggle to help their teens in these areas, a teen life coach can help bridge the gap by creating a team and working together.
For Teens to grow they need to take charge of their life, be self-confident, make decisions for themselves and learn from their mistakes. In addition it is critical for parents to give them the freedom to do so.
One large barrier teens struggle with is asking for help. On one hand, they still need the resources and experience they get from adults, but they also pull away to be independent. Often in emotional challenges, they do not see parents or elders as suitable resources and also may feel embarrassed to talk about certain topics. They know they want to make a change or make a decision, but don’t know which choice is best or even what options are open to them.
Teens like all of us, have internal and external resources but don’t realize it or know how to use them. Understanding this is where a teen life coach provides so much value. The issue is not that the parents do not mean well, or even have great information to share; it is because parents hold the power in the relationship which is often resisted by the teen. A teen life coach does not; they are a neutral party with little emotional attachment, unlike parents.
Just like all professional life coach relationships, developing good rapport between the teen life coach and the teen creates a real connection. Through the process of building rapport plus an agreement of confidentiality, a trusting relationship is established between the teen life coach and teen.
The teen life coach starts by exploring with the teen various circumstances, beliefs, goals and values. A safe space is maintained for the teen, so he or she can set their targets, and the coach supports their decision which aids in the process of self-discovery. It is crucial to address emotional blocks and look at ways that are solution focused in trying to help the teen get their life moving forward in a positive way.
Teens face many physical, emotional, mental and spiritual changes in this stage of their life. If one or more of these areas presents challenges, these issues can affect the teen’s schooling, social life and even decisions that can impact the future.
With this in mind, the teen life coach is there as a neutral support system and resource that allows for open communication. Exploring how the teen thinks and feels about a situation and as an aid in helping the teen find solutions to their situation. At the same time, the coach becomes a support system and resource for the parents of the teen, as often some parents don’t know how to help or in many cases are not allowed to help. Thus coaching becomes a beautiful relationship for the teen and parent because everyone benefits in a positive way without blame or judgments.
The benefits of hiring a teen life coach are numerous. First, there is an increase in self-confidence for the teen, which in turn aids in them feeling more resourceful. This confidence carries forward, so they can be confident in making healthy decisions in their life, whether it’s in school or social settings. Relationships become healthier; resulting in the teen getting to know who they are and what they want out of life. As we are aware, some adults don’t know themselves particularly well. If your teen can achieve this awareness early on, their chances of success and happiness increase dramatically.
For those wanting to specialize as a teen life coach, it’s essential to attend professional life coach training. While most people have some natural coaching abilities, this “seat of the pants” coaching rarely has structure and often looks like advice sessions, not coaching. Understand, when a trained professional coaches; coaching is a self-leadership process for the teen. Not another version of the common parent, resistant teen talk.
Teen Life coaches possess a genuine passion for helping this challenging age group in addition to having patience and creativity. Without these strengths, teen coaching often has negative results. However, a trained coach using professional coaching tools matched with the right personality of the coach, teen, and parents will produce remarkable life changing results.
If working with and inspiring teens to create their future is exciting to you; then you may want to consider this very challenging and rewarding life coach specialty.