Twenty years ago, most of us viewed a coach as someone that helped create a motivated and winning team in sports.   The term “coaching” has expanded it’s meaning over the last ten years to include Personal Coach, Life Coach, Business Coach, Fitness Coach, etc. Wikipedia defines coaching as “a method of directing, instructing and training a person or group of people, with the aim to achieve some goal or develop specific skills”. Most research supports the fact that goal setting is most effective when held accountable by another individual. 

 

Parent Coaching is a new and rapidly growing field created to address the needs of parents today. While the skill set of the coaches themselves can vary considerably, there is no educational requirement for an individual to call themselves a “Parent Coach”. Individuals that report to be “certified” have completed online courses typically of six months to a year. 

 

While life experience and online education are valuable, Parent Help Live (www.parenthelplive.com) has taken the Parent Coach model several steps further by allowing parents’ access to the licensed therapists, psychologists and counselors that they would regularly see in a private practice. All professionals have a minimum of five years field experience in addition to their Master’s or Doctorate degree. Parent Help Live also requires that individuals doing therapy have expertise working with families and children and have positive professional referrals. As with any hired professional, seasoned veterans tend to have a larger skill set to pull from and apply towards the highly diverse referrals. Many of our screened professionals have regular experience working in a public school or private school setting as well, which can lend itself well to many referral concerns.  Trained therapists can be better equipped to deal with the psychological aspects of family paradigms, family history, and thinking patterns.

 

 

Many parents can feel isolated or not in control of family life. Magazines and books don’t address their personal, complex issues and family dynamics. It can be difficult for a parent to objectively look at the situation or be solution oriented when they are emotionally invested. It can be a knee jerk response for parents to send their child to a therapist because they need to “do something!” However, as the leader and role model of the family, lasting change is created by working with the parent. 

 

Parent coaching (or phone therapy) can empower parents to see workable solutions and have a guiding hand along the way. While Parent Help Live does offer acute therapy (one or two sessions), long term positive results for the entire family is best with weekly sessions for 6-12 weeks, depending on the referral question. 

 

Ready to get started with Parent Help Live?  Signup today or fill out our online Phone Therapy form.