Healing Children, LLC offers private coaching nationwide for teaching and school professionals. In our years of experience, we have found that discussing specific scenarios in real-time can be very effective in finding solutions and determine appropriate strategies to support children with severe emotional and behavioral concerns. While the Healing Discipline principals can be internalized very quickly through self-study, reading, or taking a training on the topic, sustained, predictable implementation of the principles requires time, repetition, practice, commitment, and self-development.
The coaching model that we offer provides school professionals in the field support in real-time while dealing with specific students with particularly challenging behavior problems. We customize and structure our coaching programs to meet the needs of the school, teacher, or team in need of support. We find that this coaching significantly improves the likelihood of a successful outcome.
We often have individual teachers reach out to us for coaching. Generally speaking, we are often contacted if the school is unable to provide the needed or effective behavior management support in the classroom. Classroom management is getting more and more difficult each year. Teacher-student ratios are getting stretched. The increasing demand to complete administrative work, lesson planning, grading, etc., is stressing teachers.
Behavior problems magnify that stress because they can get in the way of staying on schedule with lessons, which can put downward pressure on test scores and making progress toward learning objectives during the school year. Teachers need to feel confident in their ability to handle behavior challenges in the classroom (and also feel confident their school team supports them) to successfully meet the challenges of being an effective teacher. This is where we believe coaching can help.
When behavior becomes a disruption in class, students are often sent to the principal’s office. While we are all working in education to support the children, these office visits can interrupt the flow and care for your school. Usually, if a child ends up in your office, the behavior has reached an extreme level. As your school grows, it may become important to develop systems and protocols to manage the more extreme cases as they come in. If you are having trouble with your current system, we can help.
As a school mental health professional, it’s your job and responsibility to focus on your students’ emotional and intellectual well-being. There is a myriad of techniques, courses, trainings, teachings, and experts on child behavior, classroom management, child development, and child psychology that make claims regarding the effectiveness of their programs. Our techniques combine knowledge from the world of mental health and what actually works in a school setting. They have been tested in the school setting for over 20 years.
And while we are confident in our ability to help with unique situations and explain the science behind why it works; we also consider ourselves to be students of the craft and continuously work to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of what we do, how it’s done, and also how it is taught. We are happy to speak with you and ‘talk shop’ with regard to techniques and tools for supporting students with significant emotional and behavioral challenges. We believe the exchange of ideas always leads to better outcomes.
For teams, the dynamics at play are more complex. School teams have to design policies around behavior, systems for tracking, implementation, and intervention plans based on each individual’s skill set around child behavior. This requires coordination and cooperation around a unified vision regarding what the desired outcome should be, how it is implemented, and how it is documented. Furthermore, in execution, the plan needs to satisfy the needs of administrators, teachers, counselors, students, parents and the student. In these moments, disagreements can spark, emotions can fly high, anxiety can brew, and division erodes morale within the organization. This could have a negative effect on the learning environment that we are meant to protect for the children.
We help teams find chemistry, rhythm, and trust between individuals and among the group. Many of the roadblocks that can come up in dealing with behavior may involve our own personal challenges that trigger adverse reactions. In addition, we can help support teams in working together and determining steps to meeting behavioral challenges in the school setting.
To engage in coaching with us, we start with a strategy session or consultation. This is usually done via phone call or zoom. During that conversation, we will ask lots of questions. We want to learn about you, your school, your colleagues, your students, the parents involved, assignments, exhibited behaviors, existing systems, and protocols, what has worked and what hasn’t. Ultimately, we’d like to learn how you came to find us.
While we may have some idea of what is happening while on the phone call, depending on the situation, we may ask for time to evaluate and analyze your current situation. During this time, we may have additional questions to understand exactly what the problem may be fully. This allows us to pinpoint exactly what issues need to be addressed in order to enact change.
Once we have explicitly identified what needs to change, we will develop a plan and process for implementing that change. The number of recommended coaching sessions will align with how long we believe it will take (through committed diligence) to see measurable change in the problem. We will also share what resources are needed to maximize the likelihood of success.
If we’ve agreed on the plan and pricing, we will move forward with an engagement agreement. Then the work begins. Each session will come with an evaluation of previous work followed by actionable steps. We will work step-by-step together until meaningful change has been achieved in behavior patterns, behavior management principles, and best practices and techniques have been properly internalized.
Coaching is effective in almost every arena of professional life. Even the greatest athletes in the world have a coaching staff to support them in their effort to achieve excellence. With our coaching there are three ways our coaching can be helpful:
The most important thing that is needed is a fierce commitment to achieving the goal. This process can challenge your values, beliefs, and preconceived models around behavior. It is hard. But the satisfaction received from seeing growth in the children is immeasurable. From that commitment, we will find tools, resources, and people to get across the finish line together.
Let’s get on the road to making that difference together. Contact us today.
We look forward to hearing from you.
We are both educators and mental health professionals, which gives us a unique perspective on working with children both in and out of the school setting who have severe emotional and behavioral concerns. Our mission is for all children to be emotionally healthy, happy, mature, and responsible. We believe as adults establish healthy relationships and appropriate boundaries, children are more likely to grow and prosper. When adults understand the impact of trauma, entitlement, disruptive attachment, and child development (including conscience development), they can better create healing environments for children.