Guidance & Support for Global Parents
FAQs
Below you'll find answers to common questions about my parent coaching services and how they can support you on your parenting journey.
1. What is parent coaching?
Parent Coaching is a future-oriented approach to change that assumes clients are mentally and emotionally healthy, capable of making sound decisions on behalf of themselves and their families. The coaching process supports healthy clients to define personal goals, strive toward greater life satisfaction and reach a fuller potential.
As your coach, my role is to ask you questions that help you envision your best future and to support your personal growth. My role does not involve giving advice, rather to act as a guide and confidant while you navigate change in line with your personal values.
While both coaching and counselling are approaches to making things better, the focus and relationship are somewhat different. In general, counselling and other therapeutic approaches seek to understand and solve problems. In coaching, the aim is to create the future you desire. In therapy, the therapist is the expert and holder of knowledge, directing and challenging the client toward health. In coaching, the client is the expert and holder of knowledge, leveraged by the coach to motivate the client toward their preferred future.
Coaching is not a replacement for therapeutic interventions such as counselling, psychotherapy, psychiatry or any other form of mental health service. If you have any mental health or safety concerns regarding yourself or your family, please consult with a mental health care practitioner or other professional who can help you stabilize and ensure safety for you and your loved ones.
2. How is coaching different from counselling or therapy?
3. How long are the sessions?
The length of the sessions depends on the service. Consultations are 60 minutes and Grief Support sessions are 50 minutes. Essentials, Grow Roots and Grow Shoots sessions are typically 75 minutes long, although when I share parent education information those may extend up to 90 minutes. I have a set curriculum that I am keen to share with you and I want to have enough time to answer all your questions to make sure you can apply the strategies right away.
Please see the pricing page.
For single sessions, you pay after each session. Programmes can be paid in full before we start or in two instalments (beginning and middle).
4. How much do the sessions cost and when do I pay?
5. Can I sign up for just one session?
Yes, you can sign up for a single Consultation session up to three times.
Grief Support sessions are offered on a session-by-session basis.
Coaching, on the other hand, is a process which requires a longer commitment over time to experience success and satisfaction. As such, the parent coaching programmes are set packages. Parents who have completed any of the programmes can subscribe to a bi-monthly check-in which can be cancelled at any time.
All sessions take place online. I usually use Google Meet but am flexible if you prefer a different on-line platform, such as Zoom, as long as it enables screen sharing.
6. Where do the sessions take place?
7. Are sessions confidential?
All sessions are confidential in line with the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) Ethical Framework for Counselling Professions. Accordingly, limits to confidentiality arise in cases where safety may be in jeopardy. If such a situation were to arise, we would suspend or terminate coaching until safety concerns are alleviated. Please see Question #2 for information about the difference between coaching and counselling.
I have curated this programme based on many years of experience working with international students and their parents. While staying true to the structure of the highly respected Parent Coaching Institute (PCI) model, I include in the process time-proven activities that support parents to bring about positive change.
What makes Essentials especially empowering is that I share key parenting strategies of The Virtues Project™, recognised by the UN as a “model global programme for families of all cultures.” Unique to Grow Roots is that it blends TVP strategies with the story of Doodle-Ever-After© and a companion card set that my son and I created to help families improve communication and utilise a vocabulary of character in support of a child’s healthy self-perception. Grow Shoots is also one-of-a-kind because I train you to use The Parent Deck©, a self-guided resource I put together that keeps you anchored in your strengths while developing skills even after the programme ends.
On a personal level, I bring years of experience raising my five children across three continents. I am well acquainted with issues relating to family relocation, separation and divorce, grief and loss, adoption, blended and stepfamilies, learning differences and the everyday challenges that go with parenting unique human beings in an unpredictable and ever-changing world.
8. What makes these programmes different from other parent coaching programmes?
9. Is there anything from my side I need to bring to the sessions?
Please bring your desires for the life you want to live and for the family culture you want to nurture. Also, your creativity and willingness to open to possibilities even if you are unsure how you might achieve them.
Prior to Essentials you will need to fill in an Intake Form to give me a thorough understanding of the challenges you are facing as well as some information about what you hope will be different as a result of our time together. We will go through this form together in detail during our first session.
Prior to the programmes, I also provide you with a Coaching Agreement to be signed and returned to me prior to our first session.
For Grow Roots you will need access to a printer as I will be sending you weekly material to print out and work with.
This is an information-packed programme that equips you with core strategies you can begin to implement right away to fortify the parent-child relationship and support your child’s emotional resilience. Elements of the parent coaching process are included to tailor the experience to your needs. Completing Essentials is a prerequisite and launching pad for both Grow Roots and Grow Shoots.
10. What can I expect to gain from the Essentials programme?
11. What can I expect to gain from the
Grow Roots programme?
From my side, I share with you two virtues strategies that focus on getting your child to talk more and parenting in a way that encourages your child to come to you when there is a problem. I ask you to practice at home the themes of the week and bring your experiences to our sessions. What you gain largely depends on your commitment to applying in real time and real situations the ideas we talk about.
When you complete this programme, you receive a Virtues Project Certificate which can be used to enrol in a virtues facilitator training programme. Virtues Project Facilitators are permitted to offer virtues parenting workshops to others.
The coaching process is essentially a catalyst for change that can help you feel clearer, more calm, confident, motivated and hopeful. From my side, I provide a safe and peaceful time-out from the everydayathon, offering a series of engaging activities designed to bring more conscious awareness to daily life. Largely what you gain will be determined by your level of commitment to the process.
In line with The PCI Coaching Model, I send you highlights following each session. At the end, I provide a programme summary as well as a certificate to honour your accomplishment. Parents have told me they find these summaries meaningful and useful even years after completing the programme.
12. What can I expect to gain from the
Grow Shoots programme?
