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Hey, Coach! Support for Struggling Parents Parent Coaching at KiatouGail Bird Necklace, BA, CPC. – Kiatou Parent Life Coach
Raising a child with special challenges can be an over whelming experience. By the time a young man is finally sent to a program like Kiatou, there are any number of presenting issues and difficulties facing the family. Difficult situations can be learning experiences for everyone. Support, focus, understanding, clarity, planning, accountability, and decision-making are opportunities for growth and change.
As Kiatou has evolved over time, The Director, Gilles Latrémouille, has determined that Kiatou’s students and their families would be well served by a Life Coach program for parents while their sons are addressing their own challenges. The result; parent’s have welcomed this opportunity to move forward in many areas of their own lives, work on their family dynamics, and evaluate how they will better work with to their sons and the challenges facing them. Together and individually, the family works toward determined goals and reevaluates what works and what doesn’t work as they move forward with their lives.
Parent Coaching: How does it help?
What Parents Say…
- Encourages a holistic approach in dealing with the stress, loss of direction, and the many barriers that families have created around their son’s behavioral issues.
- Assists the parent in growth and development while their son is working towards those same ends. During their son's initial six weeks at Kiatou, parents have the opportunity to reflect, create goals, spend time addressing their own issues, and set into motion creative approaches to moving forward individually and as a family.
- Provides preparation for family reunification: defining, planning, goal setting and visioning for the future.
- Assists and supports parents as part of an after care program.
- Seeks to achieve equilibrium of growth on both sides of the family dynamic. Prepares the family for the changes in their son and gives them the tools to support those changes while they continue to grow and develop individually and collectively.
The coaching with Gail made a huge impact in getting my husband and I to realize that if we didn't change that our son would come home and continue that same behavior that got him into trouble in the first place. It was hard work dealing with family issues that were painful to talk about but in the end it was worth it. We learned how to take back control of our home and our lives. We would never have been able to make these changes on our own.
… It was not until after my first conversation with Gail that I began to feel better. Her ability to listen and gently probe, helped to guide me in discovering things about myself and my parenting style that I didn’t realize I was doing. I am very happy to report that my son is a different kid since his return from Kiatou, and I know that part of his success has been my ability to chance as well and for that I thank Gail. She is without a doubt a big part of our success story.
During my son's stay at Kiatou we had the fortune to be put in contact with a Life coach. Through her coaching I was able to see that not only was my son responsible for his negative behaviour but I had a part in it as a role model. I learned that a lot of parenting has to do with modeling and how a parent’s actions or inaction can be interpreted by a child. Through Gail I started to get an insight into myself…
Suppose My Child is Not at Kiatou? Parent Coaching is still available to parents even if they do not have a son at Kiatou! We invite you to go to the Kiatou website at www.kiatou.caand follow the menu for more information on the Coaching for Parents.
Gail Bird Necklace, BA, CPC. is a life coach at the Kiatou Wilderness Therapy program in Quebec, Canada. You can contact the director of the program for more information at info@kiatou.ca or by phone at: (819) 463-0152. Click to see the Kiatou listing on ISER.