Abstract
Dynamism in the modern life has necessitated for the development of professions to assist individuals to cope with life issues. The uprightness of a person cannot be achieved through normal upbringing due to life changes in the contemporary society. Life challenges require trained professionals to help others overcome them. Additionally, critical decisions in life must be guided by some principles as well as the individual personality. Therefore, the development of life coaching profession is a great achievement for the world. Children tend to encounter similar growth characteristics irrespective of the place of birth. As they grow, life conditions change depending on the manner in which they are brought up as well as the nature of their surroundings. The conditions for children and adolescents differ considerably with life conditions for the adults. As such, people will demand the services of helping professionals depending on their stages of life and the challenges at hand.
Misunderstandings and confusion of various themes within the helping professions have led to people consulting the wrong individuals for the right purpose. In addition, the failure to distinguish among these professions and to consult the suitable professional for specific life needs have resulted in the adoption of wrong personalities and improper life decisions. Thus, illumination is needed to help individuals distinguish among the helping professions to enable them to make the right choices. Life coaching profession must be distinguished from other professions to help clients in making the right choices concerning the professionals to consult. This paper will research various aspects of life coaching, specifically the life coaching kids and adolescents. It will focus on the overview of life coaching, differences and similarity between life coaching kids and adults, obstacles of life coaching kids and adolescents, and the possible solutions to these obstacles.
Introduction
The need for life coaching cannot be underestimated. Life has various challenges that require the services of specialists to overcome. Additionally, the environment in which we live pose challenges that require the support of trained individuals in life skills. Coaching is one of the growing professions and has been recognized as one of the valuable tools to help individuals and groups cope with different environments (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). It involves asking questions regarding life issues and getting the answer to help in achieving various things that different people want in life.
The history of life coaching cannot be traced from a specific mark. According to Martin (2010), no one can claim to be the inventor of life coaching. People have been found to have a great hunger for enlightenments in life, knowledge, and progress since the beginning of civilization. An understanding of life coaching and the foundation on which it stands is essential to help coaching professionals respond to the changing needs of their clients (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). Besides, life coaches must understand the dynamisms in the coaching industry to promote their alignment with strengths that contribute to the life coaching effectiveness as well as facilitating the survival of the coaching practice. The ignorance of the pillars of the coaching usually results in making dubious claims concerning the ease with which an individual becomes a life coach. Furthermore, such ignorance reduces the resourcefulness of the coaches to their clients and creates conflicts that disrupt the understanding of the real purpose and value of life coaching (Newnham-Kanas et al., 2009). Therefore, public illumination on the moral structure and the value of life coaching is crucial for the stability of life coaching profession.
A belief overview of life coaching
The distinction between coaching and other life- helping fields is fundamental to achieve success in overcoming life challenges (Martin, 2010). Additionally, it is important to understand what life coaching does not entail as well as the competencies and qualities that life coaches should possess to help the clients in directing their challenges to the most suitable professionals (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). Life coaching is often confused with mentoring, mental therapy, and counseling. However, coaching is different from these fields in various ways. The process of life coaching entails focusing on specific issues such as business success, personal projects, and the life conditions of the clients. Also, coaching is concerned with various transitions and relationships in the clients’ personal lives. According to Grant (2011), life coaching involves designing alliances between the coaches and their clients. Primarily, life coaching examines the current status of the client, discovers the challenges and obstacles with the client, and guides the clients into taking the right actions that direct their lives in the desired way.
Differences and similarities between life coaching kids and adolescents and adults
Life coaching entails creating a bridge through the application of various techniques to bring changes in the life of the clients as well as sensitizing them on the barriers to effectively achieving their desired well-being (Passmore, 2009). Coaches must have professional skills and efficacy to create trusting relationships with their clients for successful coaching. They should skillfully execute specific techniques like documentation, active listening, and positive concerns (Passmore, 2009).
Life coaching kids has emerged as a new special area in the coaching field. Evidence has shown that coaching kids and youths have numerous benefits to various aspects of their personal lives (Martin, 2010). According to Martin’s (2010) study, the participation of kids and adolescents in the coaching programs has been proved to be fruitful in terms of improving their health as well as their emotional and social welfare. Additionally, life coaching has benefited youths by improving their academic performance and moral uprightness.
Life coaching for both adolescents and adults has various similarities. The techniques applied in the execution of coaching tend to be similar in various aspects. Additionally, the impacts of coaching tend to be similar for both youths and adults. Nourish and Vella-Brodrick, (2009) revealed in their research that in both kids and adults, life coaching aims at facilitating personal development. It helps the clients to realize their powers and self-worth and set new directions for their lives. Additionally, life coaching provides answers to life challenges which are somewhat similar for both youths and adults. However, various differences exist between life coaching kids, adolescent, and adults.
In terms of the nature and the number of challenges, adults tend to have many and complex challenges than kids. For example, kids and adolescents have most of their life challenges taken care of by their parents. However, in the course of bringing up kids, parents have numerous challenges that require the support of life coaches to enable them make better reflections and focus on their personal developments (Nourish & Vella-Brodrick, 2009). Additionally, most kids and adolescents are not aware of the challenges and need for life coaches. Thus, they have little demand for the services of coaching professionals. The length of contact between the coaches and the clients differ for adults and kids. Due to the complexity of their challenges, adults, particularly parents, tend to have a high frequency of visit to the life coaches than kids. Furthermore, as Nourish & Vella-Brodrick (2009) found out, kids cannot make exclusive decisions to visit life coaches. Therefore, adults have longer contacts with coaches than kids and adolescents.
The level of collaboration and interaction between the client and coaches differ significantly between adult clients and kids. Additionally, the skills applied are different depending on the age and the life stage (Adventures Wisdom, 2016). Gender also plays a contributory part in the determination of the type and the extent of coach-client interactions. Adults tend to be more collaborative since they understand the essence of life coaching (Adventures Wisdom, 2016). Therefore, the ease of life coaching is greater with adult clients. The goals of life coaching are different for various clients. Kids and adolescents mostly require life coaching to enable them to improve their strategies for academic pursuit. However, adults require the services of life coaches to enable them to achieve other personal developmental objectives.
The current literature advocates for adult-driven techniques and emphasizes adult leadership, which is highly responsive and sensitive to adolescents. The future of humanity hinges on the way the current generations are brought up (Adventures Wisdom, 2016).thus, life coaching kids and teens is fundamental to encourage them to restructure their personalities and frameworks of rules that will give them the latitude to exercise various initiatives and desirable personalities. According to scriptures in the book of proverbs, if children are trained in the right ways, even when they are old they will not leave them (Proverbs 22:6 New International Version). Therefore, as much as kids and adolescents have a limited understanding of the relevance of life coaching, is it worth noting that they are the central pillar of the future of the world. Thus, persistent efforts need to be devoted towards life coaching kids and youths for the bright future of the world.
Obstacles to life coaching kids and adolescents
Although the understanding of life coaching has not been clear to some people, the demand for coaching has increased substantially. Grant (2011) emphasized the need to have scientific approaches to life coaching and the training of coaching professionals. This will strengthen the status of the industry. Kids and adolescents tend to have little understanding of the significance of the coaching programs. Where adolescents have greater control over their life decisions, it becomes difficult to apply life-changing approaches to help them change their personality (Grant, 2011). Thus, life-coaching program becomes less effective in enabling young clients to achieve their personal goals. Therefore, more research is required to design new approaches to tame young individuals with negative perceptions of the life coaching and its significance.
Life coaching kids and youth is one of the areas that have grown considerably in the field of life coaching. Some life coaches have developed interests in specializing in areas such as Generation Y and Millennials, terms used to refer to individuals born after 1980. However, the majority of life coaches have become more interested in coaching teens and adolescents. The ICF (International Coach Federation) understands the significance of having coaching kids programs as a result if increased demand to modify the lives of young people. However, although life coaching kids is gaining value, there is limited research on kids coaching, resulting in deficiencies and ineffectiveness of the coaching programs (Ozer, Price & Kong, 2008).
Grant (2011) found that the participation of kids and adolescent in the coaching programs is limited. The development of coaching techniques that can have a positive influence on kids and adolescents is an issue that requires intensive research. Additionally, the modern life coaches are discouraged to specialize in kids coaching due to lack of well-developed coaching approaches that are sensitive to young people. ICRF (International Coaching Research Forum) organized a conference in 2008 at Harvard University to bring together like-minded coaching professionals. The primary theme of the meeting was to discuss issues that could promote the coaching field instead of individual coaches and to develop methods of increasing the number of children coaches (Andrew, 2015). However, the perceptions of life coaches to life coaching kids have not recorded significant improvements (Andrew, 2015). Therefore, unique methods need to be advanced to encourage the participation of young people in life coaching and motivate life coaches to increase their interests in life coaching kids.
Lack of well-developed models to inspire the participation of kids and adolescents in the life coaching exercise has been a great challenge both to young clients and the coaches (Adventures Wisdom, 2016). The impacts of the models used to life coach kids and adolescents are not substantial to encourage participation. Additionally, the interactions between young people and adults have not been effective to motivate them to focus on life-changing programs. According to Ozer, Price & Kong (2008), young people lack the capacity to make some decisions. Therefore, lack of parental encouragements leads them to ignore the need for life coaching. Consequently, their participation in life coaching programs is poor due to their negative perception of the impacts of these programs on their daily life.
Some life coaches have inadequate experience in coaching kids and adolescents (Sandra, 2011). Life coaching young clients requires the coach to develop some special coaching practices that are suitable for the special needs of young clients. Additionally, some life coaches fail to incorporate specific practices that support effective coaching of kids and adolescents. As a result, the coaching programs fail to yield the best outcomes as expected, discouraging young people from subsequent participations (Sandra, 2011). Therefore, life coaching models need to be adjusted to be in line with the changing demands of young clients. Additionally, the coaching models should incorporate some aspects that are unique or have distinct interpretations that suit the developmental stages of kids and adolescents.
Kids and adolescents lack the organizational capacities to maintain the track of program activities. Furthermore, young people have inadequate capabilities to ensure efficient functioning of coaching programs. Therefore, they require adults’ guidance to enable them to go through the life coaching successfully. However, conflicts and misunderstanding that readily occur between young people and adults deter effective guidance on matters of life coaching. For example, Pink (2009) found that when young people have great control of their life, the effectiveness of life coaching is greatly hampered. The success of life coaching kids and youth is possible with effective collaborations with adults to guide them through the program. Thus, lack of effective partnership between kids and adults constitute a fundamental obstacle to life coaching (Pink (2009).
Life coaching is about leading the clients into solutions to life challenges and not providing the solution. Life coaches guide their clients into making life decisions, but they don’t make decisions on their behalf. Additionally, coaching is meant to help the clients depending on the challenges they are facing. It is evident from the study that life coaching kids and adolescents aims at enabling them to develop various positive life aspects such as personalities and self-confidence. However, since coaches cannot use physical mechanisms to instill solutions to life challenges into their clients, positive inner motives and perception must be present in the minds of the clients for successful coaching. Research by Kambam and Thompson (2009) revealed that kids and adolescents tend to have limited decision-making capacities. Additionally, inadequate understanding and lack of optimism on the significance of life coaching tend to inhibit the success of the coaching program. Therefore, effective coaching approaches that go beyond the scope of the modern techniques should be developed to overcome this obstacle.
Most kids and adolescents like to participate in programs that have substantial benefits for them. For example, Passmore (2009) postulated that kids will develop interests in staying in school if they perceive being in school to have benefits. Thus, young people must identify the importance of a program in order to take an active part on it. Life coaching has numerous benefits for young people. For example, it enables them to develop positive attitudes towards life. Additionally, life coaching is instrumental in enabling young people to develop the sense of self- esteem and confidence. Neverthrless, the relevance of life coaching has not developed fully in the minds of most teens (Sandra, 2011). Thus, coaches will take a long time to inculcate the significance of the program in adolescents and kids. However, this will not guarantee the fruitfulness of the program if the clients are not ready to accept it. This is a serious obstacle as far as a life coaching kid is concerned. Therefore, further research will be required to establish effective techniques for making life coaching applicable and effective to young clients.
Suggested solutions to these obstacles
Life coaching kids and adolescents has innumerable benefits, which cannot be traded-off with anything. Thus, despite the challenges associated with it, coaching should be emphasized with all possible zeal. The obstacles to life coaching kids and adolescents can be eliminated through investments in various research programs that add value to the existing coaching approaches. New coaching models need to be developed to respond to the changing clients’ demands and aligning the life coaching with current developments.
The models of life coaching kids and youth should be created with the purpose of facilitating the identification and clarification of essential distinctions of teens from the adults. The model should set the framework for supporting kids and adolescents in life coaching programs. Core knowledge, principles and methods should be incorporated into the model to improve the existing approaches and eliminate their deficiencies. Additionally, the model should be unique and focus on some specific parameters for life coaching young clients.
Lack of adequate experience among the coaches has been found to pose a serious barrier to the effectiveness of the coaching program (Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2011). Therefore, coaches who are accredited to handle kids and adolescents should be encouraged to have sufficient prior experience in life coaching youth. Additionally, coaches who intend to specialize in coaching kids and adolescents should be encouraged to develop other special coaching practices suitable for dealing with needs of young clients.
Coaches must be equipped with core knowledge that will support the formation of a strong foundation of effective life coaching kids and adolescents. This should include special training in the development of adolescent, ethics, and experience in life coaching. Such knowledge will have positive effects on the professional capacities of the coaches. Additionally, coaches should pay particular attention to stipulated core principles, which must be accompanied by professional knowledge. These principles should be in line with special coaching agreements with young clients. Moreover, life coaching kids and adolescents should be aligned with the agreed ethics and logistics.
The deficiencies in methods used to execute life coaching should be improved. Life coaching methods for kids and adolescents should particularly focus on the stage of life development and time spending during the coaching. Young people tend to pay attention to programs that they believe to have benefits for them. Therefore, coaches should be careful on how they spend time with young clients. Also, the possession of essential knowledge of life issues that affect the personal development of young people is crucial for the effectiveness of the coaching programs. Effective interactions with teens have significant contributions to the success of the coaching program. Therefore, new coaching model that improve the coaches’ skills and their capacity to interact effectively with young clients should be advanced.
Conclusion
Kids and adolescents are usually not prepared to make important life decisions. However, the contemporary society expects young people to be highly independent in most life stages. Life coaching supports young people by providing a favorable environment to enable them to make exploration of various life options, expression of frustrations, and to practice acquired social life skills. Additionally, life coaching promotes self-awareness, confidence, and improved interpersonal relationships. It assists people in developing personalities that facilitate the accomplishment of life goals. Life coaching kids, as well as adolescent, is an area that requires intensive research to support the personality development of the young population. Kids and adolescent life coaches need to possess special skills to enable them to deliver effective coaching services. Kids and adolescents coaching have various obstacles that emanate from both the coaches and the clients. Kids and teens tend to have rigidity when it comes to embracing life coaching. They usually accept programs that yield benefit to them. On the other hand, some coaches lack sufficient skills and knowledge to address the needs of young clients. Further research is needed to develop more effective approaches that will capture the attention and interests of young people in life coaching programs. Also, new research should be geared towards improving the current coaching approaches and aligning them with the changing clients’ needs.
References
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