Life-Coaching-Services-cro

LIFE COACHING SERVICES

WE TREAT THE WHOLE PERSON NOT JUST THE DIAGNOSIS.

Here, participants can receive one-to-one support and attention to help them define and work toward their goals. Life coaching provides greater individualized support to participants crossing developmental and cognitive thresholds. Staff helps participants define and work toward goals, creating small action steps that are accomplished and measured through a system of accountability. In addition, participants are in 24/7 contact with our Administration and Independent Living Specialists who meet weekly to review their progress. Read more about our Life Coaching Services.


Navigating the challenges and twists of life, even everyday life, is not easy. The world moves at such an unforgivingly fast pace that it can feel impossible to get a grip on things. That’s where a life coach can come in. He or she can help guide you through the various issues you face, providing the perspective and precedent on which to base a plan for how to tackle whatever is facing you. Most of us have some kind of impediment to realizing our dreams. Perhaps we don’t have the money or time to invest in what we’d really like to do – in what we think would fulfill our talents and abilities to their fullest extent. Maybe we feel that despite all we have, we’re still missing something. Working closely with you, a life coach can:

  • Identify what your goals are
  • Identify what is holding you back from achieving those goals
  • Develop a plan for working around or through those obstacles

These steps sound deceptively easy, but sometimes it can be impossible to see a way out of a personal rut. Trying to get through a rough patch in your life is difficult, but a life coach can help. As an outsider, they are freed from the same limitations that hamper you. After careful consultations, they’ll be able to provide you with solutions and suggestions on how you can re-take control of your life.

WHAT DO THESE CONSULTATIONS LOOK LIKE?

Initially, you will do most of the talking during your consultation sessions. The coach has to get to know you before he or she starts giving advice. The coach also has to know what you want to get from the sessions, where you want your life to be, and what’s stopping you from getting there. The coach will give you things to do or think about. You may be asked to keep a journal, for example, or consider new ways to approach an old problem – ways you hadn’t previously considered. You may be given tasks to do – to break harmful ways of thinking and start carving out a new identity for yourself. Some of these exercises may be challenging, but that’s what the life coach is there for – to guide you through these changes, to provide a safety net when you fail, and to be a partner when you succeed. Another important job of a life coach is to keep you accountable to the plan he or she set you on. While a friend or family member can offer invaluable support, a life coach is there to motivate and guide you. If part of the program is writing in a journal, your coach will stay on top of you to keep writing when the novelty runs out. If part of the program is attending a yoga class, your coach might even take the classes with you. It’s not just the accountability that’s important; it’s the fact that your coach becomes invested in your progress.

HOW CAN A LIFE COACH HELP MY CHILD?

Being a child carries with it its own unique burdens. Faced with peer pressure to fit in, parental pressure to succeed, and a growing body and brain that have no idea how to make everybody happy and still figure out their own identities, children and teenagers can often benefit from the services of a life coach. According to USA Today, more than 25 percent of teenagers report feeling “extreme stress” during a school year. The stress can come from school, work, friends and family. But instead of the stress being considered as one massive tangle of causes, a life coach could help your teen identify which specific areas of their life bring the most stress. Are they too pressured by their coaches or teachers to be good at sports? Are they worried that they will lose their friends if they pursue their own interests? As much as you want to help your child, your parental instincts may prevent you from seeing the bigger picture that a life coach is trained to see. A life coach will often let a teen set their own goals. By doing so, this engages the teen on a deeper level than if the coach were to establish their own standards. This gives teens experience in taking control and ownership of their decisions, but also encourages them to trust a responsible authority figure, for help and perspective. In the case of teenagers, who are prone to pulling away from their parents, a life coach can be an essential positive adult influence. The coach acts as a conduit between a teenager expressing their uniqueness and individuality, and the parents, who might have trouble relating to the person their little boy or girl is growing up to become.

There are two components to Life Coaching Services: Life Skills Training and The Goal Planning & Achievement Process.

LIFE SKILLS TRAINING

Some OPI participants need to hone their life skills abilities in order to move forward and live balanced and functional lives. As with all of our departments, our approach to Life Skills Training is highly correlated to the participant’s individual needs. Whether it’s assisting participants in creating weekly budgets, or teaching them how to navigate local transportation service, our Life Skills curriculum will help prepare these young adults for independent living in the real world. Key aspects of our Independent Life Skills Training services include:

  • Various life skills assessments to help each participant identify their existing strengths, while highlighting the key areas for continued growth and improvement.
  • A comprehensive life skills curriculum covering:
    • Time management
    • Organization
    • Budgeting
    • Basic nutrition & fitness
    • Effective communication
  • Interactive life skills workshops which explore the key aspects of independent living in a collaborative setting with peers.
  • An experienced life coach working on-on-one with each participant.

GOAL PLANNING AND ACHIEVEMENT

The other key component of the Life Coaching Program focuses on our highly individualized approach to the Goal Planning and Achievement process. We help participants develop effective goals that create a healthy balance between their values, priorities, and obligations. Participants will learn how to move toward their goals in a measurable and systematic manner; engaging themselves in a uniquely tailored experience that will strengthen their sense of personal accountability and agency.

WHAT IS LIFE SKILLS TRAINING?

A life skills training program is a program that is designed to help participants harness and hone their innate talents and skills while developing new skills. The result is an individual who carries a powerful skillset that can help him or her navigate through life successfully at every turn. Young adults in particular aren’t always as prepared for self-sufficient living as they could be, and life skills training programs help to smooth over any rough edges that exist in a person’s skillset. Centers that offer these kinds of programs focus on everything from budgeting and navigating local transportation to time management and necessary nutrition. Life skills training programs utilize various teaching methods and approaches to sharing valuable and experience-based knowledge. Since each person learns differently and at their own pace, a good life skills training program addresses the needs of the individual.

WHO IS A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR LIFE SKILLS TRAINING?

Any person of any age is a good candidate for life skills training so long as that person has a need for life skills knowledge and an eagerness to learn the skills taught. Young adults are oftentimes the most likely and best candidates for this type of training since they are preparing for or just beginning their transition into independent living. Even the most thorough parents cannot meticulously teach all aspects of life skills training. That’s why it’s useful to have an exterior center or program participate in the polishing of life skills for these young adults.

LIFE SKILLS TRAINING TEACHERS AND METHODS

Interactive life skills workshops are a major part of life skills training programs. These types of workshops actively engage participants in the subject matter, provide hands-on experience, and encourage collaborative peer-to-peer learning. When young adults learn life skills through actual experience and collaboration, the skills learned are more likely to stay with them in the long run. A good life skills training program often features a life skills coach who works one on one with participants. This type of undivided attention fosters true learning and helps to build a positive foundation for supportive relationships in young adults.

TOPICS COVERED

Life skills training programs cover a variety of topics, all of which play an integral role in successful independent living. Through involvement in the entirety of a life skills training program, young adults will become well-rounded citizens who are ready and able to launch their own self-sufficient life. Some of the topics covered include:

  • Time management. Learning how to properly allocate time and to view time as a valuable resource is a skill all successful people share. Unfortunately, this skill doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and if it is not fostered early on, time management may be a continual struggle for some. Pointedly learning time management skills through a treatment center that specializes in life skills training is a great way to ensure success later in life. Time management skills involve everything from broad topics, like how to juggle family life with work life, to specific topics, like how and when to fit in time to exercise, socialize, and care for pets.
  • Organization. Without proper organizational skills, the future may seem chaotic and dim for many young adults. Luckily, organization is a skill that can be learned. Training in organization focuses on how to keep physical things organized, like spaces and files, as well as abstract things, like appointments and thoughts.
  • Budgeting. No matter how much money today’s young adults go on to earn in the future, none of that money will accrue over time if budgeting skills are not learned. Budgeting training helps participants to learn about everything from taxes to weekly grocery allowances. Life skills training has been proven to positively impact the personal finances of young participants.
  • Basic nutrition and fitness. All other life skills are moot if a participant is not healthy. That’s why a good life skills training program emphasizes education in fitness and nutrition based on the latest research. Nearly 90 percent of adults in the US eat more sodium than they should and very few adults in the US – less than 5 percent – participate in daily physical activity for 30 minutes or longer. Education in fitness and nutrition aims to change these statistics.
  • Effective communication. In the same way that any intimate relationship requires effective communication skills in order to succeed, so do all other types of relationships. Effective communication training helps to teach young adults how to use their voice in a clear and affirmative manner with colleagues, friends, and all other people they come into contact with as a part of everyday life.

 

Life skills training is effective and highly beneficial for the participants. No matter the background, each person – especially young adults – can learn from life skills training programs. The end result is a forward-thinking individual who can successfully engage in a self-sufficient lifestyle while working toward their own specific goals.