Parent coaches offer an effective addition to residential and wilderness treatment
It takes and requires patience for any new idea to become integrated effectively into an existing situation. To be involved in parent coaching means you will do some serious self-evaluation. You will look at everything you have been through. In order to enhance the positive outcome you want for your adolescent you need to do something valuable, besides just having them in their program.
You have to get into much better self alignment - emotionally, personally, physically, and spiritually.
Living the life you have been living with your teen is no longer an option.
During weekly sessions over several months, parent coaching keeps you focused on achieving new goals. While in their residential or wilderness program, your adolescent is having emphasized their development, purpose, values and how to become more aligned to create a better future. That is exactly what parents also need.
What coaching is and isn't
Coaching is not:
- A replacement for clinical care or primary treatment
- A substitute for or the equivalent of "a companion"
- About affirmations, empty comments, or positive thinking
- Therapy. Well-trained coaches are very aware of the line between coaching and therapy and are careful to honor that line at all times
Now let's look at what coaching is and how it is useful while your teen is in residential or wilderness treatment. High-quality coaching is:
- A healthy, intentional process and relationship. A well-trained coach stays intently focused on what the parent wants and helps the parent identify their own agenda and stick to it. Coaching is not about what the coach thinks is best for the parent. While the coach may educate the parent and offer ideas, giving direct advice is not the intention.
- Based on accountability and action. The parent coach supports the client in envisioning a positive future and then quickly getting into action to create that future. The coach's intention is also to hold the parent accountable for follow-through without blaming, judging or shaming the parent when not every goal is achieved.
- Best used for a defined period of time. Unlike working with a life coach where an individual may participate for an undetermined period of time, or clinical therapy that might need to continue for several years to be effective, the action-oriented nature of parent coaching means that it rarely continues for more than a year and is often needed only for a few sessions for a few months.
- Effective only when an individual is "ready." Unlike residential treatment or wilderness therapy in all their various forms, parent coaching is useful only when a parent is truly ready. This means that the parent is ready to be on a solid path toward a goal, does not want to spend all their time with "past" issues searching for blame, and has the energy and time to devote to mapping out a new path. The parent must be in the position to put energy toward creating a positive future while also maintaining a focus on their teens residential or wilderness program. Assessments and questionnaires are used to assess a parent's individual readiness to engage in parent coaching.
- Focused on the present and the future. While an understanding of the parent's past is important, the parent coaching process is intended to assist the parent envision a positive present and a positive future. For some parents this means crafting a comprehensive "plan". For others, parent coaching is focused on specific themes, gaps in family relations and/or family development, or how to navigate effectively the re-entry into a relationship with their adolescent during and following their residential and/or therapeutic residential treatment program.
There are currently many different kinds of coaches (athletic, food, health, life) all across the United States.
Dore Frances, M.A., specializes in parent coaching for those who have an adolescent in a residential or wilderness program. Dore has stood in the shoes of being a parent who had a teen in residential treatment, as well as continues to achieve additional training on an ongoing basis for parents who have an adolescent in a residential treatment or wilderness program.
Dore Frances offers parent coaching all across the country.
Parent coaching is a very important part of the development of the outcome for a teen in treatment. Parent coaching is effective with parents who have an adolescent in residential treatment or in a wilderness program because it creates an intimate space for them to show up and be purposeful and accountable, just like their teen is learning to do in their program.
The intention is to assist in having your spirit flourish - instead of staying in the splintered aspects of an old life that will not be healthy for your teen in which to return.
Besides one-on-one parent coaching, weekend and week long parent intensives for all parents are being offered.
Horizon Family Solutions, LLC
Phone: 541-312-4422 / 866-833-6911
Email:Dore@dorefrances.com
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