What Is Coaching?
The international Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
Coaching emphasizes a client-led, collaborative process of identifying goals, preparing for possible obstacles to those goals being met, and measuring success in this exploration.
Coaching is non-prescriptive, non-judgemental, and above all regards the client as the expert in their own life.
Coaching values skill building in areas of emotional, cognitive and physical health. Autonomy and personal voice are highly valued in coaching.
Why does coaching work so well with teens and emerging adults?
Adolescents are in a sensitive stage of development. Social cognition is developing rapidly accompanied by hormonal surges related to biological changes. They are experiencing heightened emotions and are wired to be more impulsive and engage in risk-taking behavior as they move to create their own way. They can be more self-conscious about others’ judgements of them. Coaching, being a non-judgemental approach, tends to be appealing to adolescent sensitivity. The non-directive way of coaching respects the individual’s voice and autonomy and is appreciated by many adolescents.
growth happens when young people are given space to create, explore, and take ownership.
