Coaching and Transition Services
At Skelton, Thomason and Associates, we believe that supporting our families as their children transition into program, home, or into young adulthood, is of the upmost importance in solidifying long term change. Coaching services are included in our fee and available to all of our clients.
Parent coaching is a process by which a Certified Parent Coach works with families to develop successful parenting strategies, implement effective rules, shift unhealthy family dynamics and create healthy boundaries within the home. Working with a Certified Parent Coach helps parents address challenges and move toward a future that they design. In a successful coaching environment, parents learn how to generate new and creative solutions and feel empowered to promote long-term change within the family.
During treatment
Learning how to parent from a distance can be a unique challenge with which few people have experience. Adjusting to having a child in the care of someone else can be an emotionally turbulent time. However, during this time there is great opportunity for rebuilding and strengthening the parent-child relationship. In fact, work done during this time can greatly impact the outcome of the child's stay in a treatment program or school. It is also the ideal time to learn new and effective parenting skills, and to focus on how you want to manage your home and family. Participating in coaching provides the opportunity to take a serious look at the areas that require improvement, while also identifying and maximizing your personal and parenting strengths. Kids tend to maximize their treatment experience if they know that their parents are working as hard as they are to make changes.
During transition, during home visits, and after treatment
While preparing for transition, a coach can be particularly useful as parents struggle to develop appropriate home contracts and arrangements for aftercare services. Having the guidance of a coach who knows the challenges that typically occur during this crucial time can greatly reduce stress and anxiety and help ensure that the transition occurs as smoothly as possible. Inevitably, this is a time when kids will test the new limits and boundaries. Children typically go through some very predictable cycles of behavior as they work toward transitioning home and when they eventually do return home. A coach with transition experience can help parents prepare to effectively deal with those behaviors.
With a coach available to support and offer guidance as a child moves back into the home, the tone can be set for a positive re-entry into the family. A parent coach can offer valuable feedback as the family practices new parenting and communication skills and works on implementing new structure and boundaries, and is available to problem solve when the parent is met with resistance.
Prior to out-of-home treatment
Many parents are not ready to make the commitment to out of home placement, or may lack the necessary resources to fund treatment. In those cases, we offer parent coaching to help parents work to achieve changes within the home as well as to provide the support their child’s needs.
A Certified Parent Coach can:
- Empower parents to hold firm boundaries
- Discover, clarify, define goals, and design a plan to achieve them
- Assist parents in overcoming obstacles and achieving goals
- Help parents create and maintain a sustainable home contract
- Assist parents in strengthening the parent-child relationship and improve communication
- Work with parents to help shift family dynamics
- Help parents face challenges with creativity and conviction
- Enable parents to identify their unique strengths
- Help parents reduce their stress level
- Work with parents to help them achieve balance in their lives
