Have you ever wondered about the impact coaching could have on your parenting style and how it could help to build positive relationships? Expert Leire García Galardi explores the options.
CoachME Parenting is one way to explore options to help your family be productive, happy and content. The company offers one-on-one, triad or group coaching as well as workshops. The specialists co-create strategies for parents to work with their children around mutual respect, developing a sense of identity, clean language and establishing a supportive, open environment.
Some of the key aspects of this approach are:
Clear communication. Are you able to say well done? Do you provide enough praise and encouragement? You are in control of the language you use, so play around with rephrasing your sentences with a positive spin. Coaching around self-image and clean language will help you communicate more clearly and more effectively with your child.
Identity and respect. Do you have a preconceived idea about how you would like your child to be? How fair and realistic are your expectations? Have you asked what your child would like? Do you know what their hopes and dreams are? Coaching will provide practical strategies to help you see your child the way they want to see themselves and will illuminate what their hopes, dreams and aspirations really are.
Building an alliance. Do you talk about punishment and consequences of behaviour then not follow through? Does your child know that you don’t do what you say? Do you keep your promises? Coaching around the alliance will enable you and your child to understand what is and is not acceptable and where the lines are drawn. Once expectations are clear then there will be clarity, transparency and respect from both sides. This will make dealing with conflict much easier.
Acknowledging emotions. Does your family speak about feelings and emotions? Is your home a place where your child can openly talk to you about their feelings? Coaching around emotional awareness will help families deal with this challenging area by using empathy to build strength, trust and a supportive environment.
Self-esteem. When your child speaks to you, do you give them your full attention? Do you check your phone or emails when talking to your child? What impact does your behaviour have on your child? Coaching around these ideas will increase your child’s sense of self-worth, improve their self-esteem and improve lines of communication.
Using powerful coaching questions is an effective tool to deepen knowledge about your child and also to develop your relationship; listening, really listening, is also tremendously important.
Leire García Galardi is a parenting coach. She has lived internationally for 20 years and has experienced many different ways of raising children. She affirms: “I really believe there is not one way to do it right but I do know there is ONE thing that really matters and this is the relationship you establish with your children.
CoachME Parenting is about developing a deep connection with your child based on strength and trust.”
Bahrain-based Caroline Beckett is a CoachME programme director, a professional coach, trainer and instructional designer with BMC International in the field of learning and development. Caroline also has over 15 years’ experience in the education sector coaching and mentoring parents and teenagers. g
For more information on CoachME programmes for individuals, families, group or organisations contact: caroline@beckett-mcinroy.com
