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As a life coach I enable people to make, meet and exceed their personal health goals.
Sarah Withey - Life Coach
How Executive Function Skills Coaching Can Help You
I am an Executive Function (EF) Skills Coach supporting adults and children (and their parents!) to understand where their difficulties lie and help them develop those all important EF skills.
Over the years I have moved away from more general health coaching and now focus on EF skills coaching. These are vital building blocks needed for surviving and flourishing in life and are almost always underdeveloped in the neurodivergent population whether a grownup or a child.
My son is neurospicey (as he calls it) and many of his struggles at school stem from his underdeveloped EF skills. We have been through this process as a family and seen the huge benefits for him, and indeed for all of us, when everyone involved gets on board which is why I encourage parents to be part of their child’s EF coaching. So I have a huge interest in the subject both professionally and personally.
People have the capacity to meet challenges and achieve anything they want but to do that they need well developed executive function skills. Whether that challenge is as complex as running a multi-national company or as simple as getting out of the house on time, it can’t be done effectively if executive function skills have’t been optimally mastered. Like any skills, executive functions take a long time to mature (around the first 25 years of life) and that process can be much faster in some people that others. Recognising that they are lacking or slow to develop is always the first step in my clients journey.My EF coaching approach focuses on developing those all important self-management and self-regulation skills giving you the opportunity and the confidence to be able to function more effectively and independently at home, in school, in further education and in the workplace. .
Who benefits from EF Coaching
- You may be reading this as the parent or caregiver of a younger child who struggles to control their impulses or emotions or who can’t get started on anything.
- Does any of this ring a bell with your child? Disorganised and forgetful? Can’t get started on a task and, once they do finally get going, can be easily distracted. They’ve misplace their books or forgotten to bring back the things they need for their home work? And, if they’ve managed to do the work, they may forget to hand it in. They may rush through their work making careless mistakes or go through it oh so very slowly. They may not know how to begin an assignment or be unable to estimate how long the work will take. And often they will leave it to the very last minute. Their work spaces and backpacks are often disorganised. They may act impulsively or respond extremely emotionally when things don’t go their way at school or Uni , with their friends or within their family. And it is probably way more frustrating for you than it is for them because at this stage, they may well not see that any of this is actually a problem. But I know that you do!
- And the same issues, symptoms, problems, difficulties (whatever you want to call them) can occur in adulthood. Whether you have a ‘diagnosis’ such as ADHD, autism or other developmental delay or if this simply resonates with you as you reflect on your childhood or adult life, doesn’t matter because EF coaching could be your way forward.
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