Young Children

Coaching for children helps them feel a sense of connection, belonging and significance. It teaches valuable social and life skills and invites them to discover how capable they are by encouraging the constructive use of personal power and autonomy. A ‘misbehaving child’ is a ‘discouraged child’ and so it is essential to uncover the belief behind the behavior. Children understand the value of play. The natural world, including horses, provide a framework for play which is their main avenue for integration of their emotional experiences.

Key Signposts of Working With Kids & Teens:

• Gaining trust and holding a safe space;

• An orientation toward what is good and right vs. bad and wrong about them;

• Behavioral issues as opportunities for teaching and modeling positive behavior and mindset;

• When parents are involved in their own reflection and healing process, miracles happen.

Teens

Having a safe, supportive relationship with an adult is a key factor in promoting positive development in adolescents. Studies have shown that the presence of just one safe and supportive adult in a child’s life could mitigate the negative effects of adverse childhood experiences.* It isn’t easy to be a teen! They deserve a strong container of love and being seen for their unique strengths and intrinsic gifts. It is notoriously challenging for them to confide in parents as they are seeking to find their own identity so having a coach and mentor to connect with can generate results that will make all the difference.

Research on parenting has found that “authoritative parenting,” characterized by high control and high warmth, is the most effective with children and adolescents. This means the parent has well-established rules and limits that are clearly communicated to the child/adolescent, while clearly communicating messages of love, support and acceptance. This style is in contrast to Authoritarian parenting (high control, low warmth), Permissive (low control, high warmth), and Neglectful (low control, low warmth), all of which can lead to negative outcomes.

I am certified as a Positive Discipline Parent Educator and their main precept is: “The key to positive discipline is not punishment but mutual respect. Parents can learn to be both firm and kind so that any child, from a three year old toddler to a rebellious teenager, can learn creative cooperation and self-discipline with no loss of dignity.”

*The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse, neglect and household challenges on later-life health and well-being.

Parents & Couples

Sometimes we are the ones that need to feel restored. Parents and couples need to feel empowered in taking charge of their lives, exploring unhelpful thoughts/patterns, and finding the necessary life/work/family balance to experience well deserved happiness. Together we will address the way your family’s patterns of communication and behavior are affecting each individual involved in the family system. You will learn how to:

• Bridge communication gaps

• Defuse power struggles

• Consistently lead with your message of love

• See and build on strengths, find compassion and empathy for weaknesses

• Hold children accountable with their self-respect in tact

• Model for children not what to think but how to think

• Increase connection and cooperation at home and at school

• Meet the special challenge and find the underlying cause of teen misbehavior

“Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we're holding back."

- Pema Chodron, American Buddhist nun and author