Coaching is the process of instructing and training. As life has become more complicated, Business and Life Coaches have emerged to help with life's daily challenges. Coaches and clients engage in a continuous alliance focusing on mutually agreed upon issues, with the purpose of realizing specific goals. Education Coaching is specifically designed for parents who have questions regarding their child's education. This can mean a single consultation for a specific question or an ongoing interaction.
The client contacts the Coach and an appointment for an initial interview is set. During the interview the client shares their concerns, current challenges and with what in particular they would like help. The Coach and client, working together as a team, develop a pragmatic plan to deal with specific daily living challenges of concern to the client. Both the client and Coach take an equally active role in developing a plan that is client friendly. The client states the concerns to work on, the Coach helps clarify those concerns, set goals to address the concerns, and suggests ways to achieve those goals. The Coaching process is very individualized and specific in its goal setting, planning, strategizing, organizing and managing.
Some of the Coach's tasks:
- Educate, Guide, Mentor, Consult
- Listen and offer suggestions
- Plans and set goals in collaboration with the client
- Aid in developing skill building
- Create strategies
- Help develop self advocacy skills
- Provide resources and referrals of benefit to the client's particular situation
- Provide support, encouragement and positive reinforcement
- Provide an unbiased informed sounding board
- Help design the home environment to be more conducive to success
- Assist in developing appropriate questions for the various professionals on the Intervention Team
- To Be Ready, Willing and Able to Commit to the Process
- Active listening
- Active participation in plan development and goal setting
- Maintain desire to achieve goals
- Follow through on all assignments
- Be honest with the Coach about any suggestions she makes that you know won't work for you
- Don't make excuses for not following through
Coaching most often takes place via the phone and email. When possible, coaching can also take place at your home or office.
The coaching process takes as long as you, the client, wants it to take. The decision is yours and is dependent on your needs and resources. There are so many variables among individual situations that there is no "right" length of time for the coaching process. The coaching experience can vary from a one time interaction to a long term ongoing professional relationship. Some people prefer to hire a coach for a short period of time to address a specific need. Others prefer to have a long term relationship to address longer-term goals. This is something that would be discussed during our initial consultation.
Coaching costs vary according to the coach's experience, education, training, the type of coaching contracted and the coach's geographical location. A coach who specializes in a specific area and has many years of experience and training in that specialty will cost more than a general coach. Coach services are not covered by insurance. Currently, my fee is $100 per hour.