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Family / Parent Coaching - The Good News

by Dore Frances, IEC, Ph.D, founder of Horizon Family Solutions, LLC
Dore Frances combines her experience as a successful business professional and confident parent (who had a child of her own in residential treatment) by assisting other parents through coaching.

Parents are tired of living under stress, fear, and constant worry about the people they love most - their kids. The good news is families can now get the help they so desperately need through coaching. Coaching helps parents tap into their own intuition to find the answers they need to create the loving home environments they long for and deserve. Bringing a child back to the same home environment they left is sabotaging all their hard work and effort.

Don't wait until it's too late.Hindsight is always 20/20. So why not be pro-active?

We provide convenient one-on-one telephone coaching with parents all across the United States, Australia and Canada.

Many families believed things would get better, just because their child was in residential treatment or at wilderness.

One of the basic questions parents wrestle with as they think about coaching is, 'How is it different from what I already do with my therapist'?

One of the difficulties in answering such a question is therapists do widely different things. (So do coaches, of course.) When one compares coaching to psychodynamic models, for example, one might say that therapy focuses on issues of pathology, healing and unresolved psychological issues of the past. Coaching on the other hand, begins with the present and assists clients in setting very clear, and specific goals that they want to achieve in the future.

While the past may be discussed on occasion, it is addressed only in the context of discovering what is blocking the client from moving forward. The focus is always on movement and taking action, not on insight or understanding. In addition, the word 'therapy' conjures up the notion that someone is in need of help or a cure.

Coaching clients choose to work with a coach because they want to, not because they need to. Another difference is that coaches, as contrasted to counselors, are not seen as experts. Rather, they are seen more as a person with a set of skills they use to support people to achieve goals. A coach can be seen more like a partner or buddy that you check in with from week to week to review your progress, vision for the future and set new goals.

Most recently, Dore coached a distraught father and mother.

They called Dore after enrolling their son in a wilderness program and were not sure about next steps.

Although they were working with an educational consultant, they felt they needed more insight for themselves about their own emotions and feelings that were tied up into being hurt about what had fractured their family. After coaching with Dore during their son's 60 day wilderness experience they were able to see what their son truly needed as a next step and worked with their educational consultant in making that decision.

Dore received the following e-mail:

"Your compassion and insight is empowering. We had no idea this industry (behavioral boarding schools, emotional growth programs, long-term vs,. short-term, etc.) were so confusing. Its unbelievable how many programs are out there & how different they really all are. The thought that some of the programs are not even licensed is very scary. Your support in getting us to share our feelings about this with our educational consultant was empowering. (We let him know this also.) We have decided that we need to continue with our coaching as our son continues to receive his help in his residential program. We have also come to realize that the constant conflict between us isn't getting us any where so we are willing to let go and learn some life lessons of our own. We would be "very" interested in your continued coaching service to help us to communicate better with each other. We do feel as though most of our problems are based on lack of communication, past hurts and loss of trust." ~ H & L Smith, California

After their son had been in his residential program for three months Dore then received this email:

"It has been really great talking to you every week!

You have helped put things into perspective for us. It was a very difficult decision in getting help for our son but knowing that there are people like you out there who not only have the kid's best interest at heart, but our needs as well, takes away the fear of the unknown about the process. You worked with our educational consultant as our coach and that combination helped us to be able to take the next step. We actually had been determined to bring our son home, although we were told he was not really ready. Reminding us to take a deep breath every now and then and not make rash decisions every time we got a letter from our son was just what we needed to hear and we did follow your advice. You have been very instrumental in getting us thru probably the most difficult time we have had as parents & we will always be grateful that our paths crossed. It would have been so sad if we had just sent him to a boarding school & lost this time of our own healing that has made such a tremendous difference in our own lives."

It is my intention to help parents regain acceptance and understanding over their situation, to heal themselves, to help them learn how they can better communicate with their teen, other children and other family members, to restore their self-confidence as parents and as individuals and to bring peace back into the home.

Dore Frances, IEC, MA, is an educcational consultant, childs right advocate, parent coach, specializing in working with troubled teens and their families in the United States, Canda, and abroad. See her site at: www.guidingteens.com or contact her by phone at:(541) 312-4422, or email at:Dore@DoreFrances.com.
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Disclaimer: Internet Special Education Resources (ISER) provides this information in an effort to help parents find local special education professionals and resources. ISER does not recommend or endorse any particular special education referral source, special educational methodological bias, type of special education professional, or specific special education professional.

 

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