As my work  in the secondary school environment increases, so do the number of requests I receive regarding coaching for life and soft skills.

This week I have read some interesting articles about the education system and the options available to young students. Here are a couple which certainly gave me food for thought:

After a Decade of Education, Why are our Kids so Uneducated?

University Challenged

Providing options to students is definitely the best way forward and  more choice for young people has to be a good thing .

If you are struggling with career choice, soft or life skills and require coaching then please contact me

I have had a fantastic week by changing my weekly routine and varying my activities. The difference it has made for me both physically and emotionally has been remarkable.

My daughter went away for the week so my husband and I went out for supper on several occasions; we walked to the pub for a few beers, attended the local pub quiz night, caught up with friends we had not seen for a while and took a day off to test drive new cars and have lunch out.

As a result, I now feel refreshed, energised and motivated about the week to come. I have planned and prepared what I need to do for work this week and completed tasks on my ‘To Do’ list that have been on there for some time. It also fired me into action to tidy up my front and back garden. After four hours of hard work I sat down with a cold drink and appreciated all my hard work. This is a job that has been on my list for a few months so  the feeling of achievement is amazing.

I am certainly looking forward to work this week. The change of routine has given me the drive and motivation to plan and prepare my weekly goals, increased my work focus and raised my positive mental approach. I know I am going to have a good week and will use my energy to obtain some outstanding results for my coaching clients.

Why don’t you have a go at doing something different this week and see what positive impact it has on you?

If you need assistance in making a change in your life then contact me.

If you want to be successful in achieving your goals then you need to define them in a specific, measurable and realistic way. A goal without a plan is just a wish and the probability of achieving it becomes very low. To get results you need to have a clear outcome and a well planned strategy which is based on a positive and focused approach.

When I coach my clients on goal setting I like to give them the opportunity to express themselves and encourage them to link their emotions with their goals and consider the following key factors:

• Reason – What is my motivation to achieve this goal? How committed and determined am I?
• Be Specific – What do you want? How are you going to do it? What do you not want?
• Make it Personal – What can I do to achieve it?
• Define your Senses – What will I feel, see or hear as I achieve my goal? How do I want it to feel?
• Resources – What and Who will help me to achieve my goal?

I find this a little more personal and friendly than the usual “SMART” goal setting approach, but of course that can work too.

Combine the above points with creating choice, being flexible and developing opportunity and you are well on the way to a successful outcome. When setting goals I always consider this quote “It’s not what happens to you but how you react to it that matters” -Epictetus.

If you need assistance in achieving your goals then please contact me

I attended a Cognitive Reprogramming workshop in London last Friday and mental health was a big topic on the agenda.

So why are mental health issues increasing for both children and adults?

Some of the causes we discussed during the course of the day were:

• Bad diet
• Family issues
• Technology
• People feel under pressure to suppress their emotions
• Over-medicating
• Disconnection with the human inner-self
• Negative focus
• Lack of priority around personal well-being

The quote of the day was “Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy” – Milton Erickson.

We can all make significant improvements by:

• Understanding more about emotional intelligence so that you can  manage your own mind. Emotion drives behaviour, so the need to understand ourselves is very important if change is to happen
• Stepping off the treadmill of life and doing more of what makes you happy
• Clearing your mind of negative values and beliefs
• Not comparing yourself to other people
• Working on what is important to you in life and getting the balance right between work and home
• Discussing medication with clinical specialists and making sure that you can feel what is happening around you rather than suppressing your natural emotions via prescribed drugs
• Changing destructive patterns of behaviour by reprogramming cognitive thoughts towards positivity, happiness and what you do want rather than what you don’t want

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but creating the new.  By focusing on desired outcomes and the positive strategy to get you there will enable people to achieve success and results.

If you want to make a change in your life and do not know where to start then contact me

Sometimes the best way to get a new perspective is to have a short break. I find it lets me gather my thoughts, take input from new people I meet or who I have known for a while.

This week I’m doing just that.

If you have any ideas for topics I can cover here in the next few weeks – please let me know.

The countdown is now on for many young people as they begin to switch their focus from education into holiday mode. Many may have no plans at all for the extended holidays, and this is perhaps understandable given the long academic year they have just completed.

This week, I have been coaching my students with regards to setting specific (mostly fun) goals to achieve over the summer break and utilise their leisure time wisely.

Some have done this by writing a paper wish list and others by creating an activity spreadsheet considering:

• Priority
• Date
• Costs
• Dependencies
• With who?

Young people quickly understand that planning and preparing in a structured way can be just as important for their holiday time as in their education.

Having fun, being happy and feeling good will assist in reducing stress levels and put them in a positive position for the new school year.

Happy summer holidays to all my students and remember to be open-minded, try new things and do something different. I look forward to hearing all about your exciting experiences and achievements in September.

If you know of someone who requires motivation and direction from a transformational coach then please contact me.

Recently when coaching young people in school I increasingly find them suffering with panic and anxiety. I am faced with this issue on a regular basis and I have some  steps I find useful in coaching students through it:

1. Explaining about panic and anxiety and how it works so that young people understand anxiety as a normal emotion that most people experience in their lives. It is all about what you do that makes the difference and why some can manage it and others struggle.
2. Identifying triggers and symptoms is crucial. The more you know about what causes the anxiety and how it affects your body, the sooner you can take action to deal with it.
3. Coping strategies. Discussing and listing all the various methods means you can go away and practice to find out which ones specifically work more effectively for you and get the best results. Doing it once or twice is not enough – practice, practice, practice!
4. Planning and preparation is key if young people want to keep stress to a bare minimum and at a manageable level. Allowing plenty of time when doing something new and not being on the last minute, doing research to avoid the unexpected and keeping a record to analyse and monitor progress regarding educational needs will help to keep stress levels down.
5. Having fun and making time for doing things that you enjoy. This in itself reduces stress and ultimately leads to happiness which is beneficial for all. Planning activities around things you enjoy for school holidays, weekends and free time gives focus, avoids boredom and  increases motivation.

By coaching my students through anxiety I enable them to create their own action plan rather than me just telling them what to do. The way forward needs to comes from the individual themselves if they are to succeed and obtain their desired results.

If you know somebody that is suffering with anxiety and depression and would benefit from working with me then please contact me.

I have had a fantastic week in school and have seen three of my students complete and sign off their objectives. It is such a rewarding experience seeing the difference coaching makes to young people and the change it brings in their approach to life.

All three students had confidence, self-esteem, panic and anxiety struggles as well as emotional  confusion regarding anger, frustration and lack of choice or control.

Taking a holistic approach, we initially discussed all areas of their life from health, relationships, school, fun and contribution goals to career aspirations. The students were able to identify areas for improvement and put a strategy together to successfully achieve their goals.

Building a toolbox of strategies for each student was essential in order for them to overcome panic and anxiety. These strategies then require lots of practice to determine which ones work for each individual student and which ones they want to use in the future.

Finding out what they are good at both in and out of school is a great exercise and switches the focus to what they can do rather than what they can’t. It also tells them what they need to do more of to increase their happiness and experience that positive sense of achievement. This enables them to build confidence and self-esteem and identify their particular talents and skills.

Working with young people has also enabled me to learn so much about their world. I have been exposed to lots of new music, some of which I really enjoy. My knowledge of social media and technology is also increasing. Finally, understanding the pressures young people are under from home, school and their peers means I can be familiar with their world, build a relationship of trust and increase the probability of them opening up to me.

Before signing my students off I ask them to complete a student feedback form. The comments I received this week confirmed to me again why coaching is such a productive approach for young people:

• Your sessions are very natural and relaxed and you don’t tell me what to do
• I now feel happier talking about my feelings/emotions
• I am so much happier and want to smile more
• I now realise that I do have choice and control in my life
• Being able to open up without being judged
• I have enjoyed working with Kathrine it’s made my confidence boost
• Kathrine has helped me to be a changed/better person
• I feel that I have been taught how to deal with life
• Planning and preparation is the key to success

If you know someone who needs coaching to assist them with a particular issue then please contact me.

It has been a very busy week at work and at home but there is light at the end of the tunnel! Tuesday saw the last of my daughter’s GCSE exams and the release of revision pressure. What a lovely feeling to have the rest of the summer to wind down and chill out following a very intense school year. It has certainly relaxed our whole household and I had not realised how it had impacted on all of us.

Discussing her GCSE experience, my daughter told me about what my husband and I had done to help her stay calm during this last term:

• Leaving her alone, not coming into her room when she was working and respecting her space
• Easing off on household chores
• Organising fun things to do with family and friends to break up intense revision sessions
• Understanding her stress levels and not provoking her

She also said that her school had taught her that:

• Planning and preparation is key to keeping stress levels to a minimum
• Revision timetables definitely work
• Information is easier to memorise if it is based around fun facts
• It can be useful to peer-chat about the exam afterwards as long as you do it in a sensible and pragmatic fashion

Constructive feedback for me regarding future exams, is to be more aware of ‘where’ she is revising and to consider noise levels when putting on music or the TV to avoid distracting her. On reflection she felt her GCSE experience had not been as stressful as she was expecting. I will take that as a positive and successful result.

Now putting all that aside, BRING ON THE FUN!

We are now planning fun things to do over the long summer holidays. This kicked off yesterday with an Indoor Karting experience with friends at F1K in Berkshire to celebrate the end of the exams. Wow, what an experience and a great time was had by all. The adrenalin was certainly flowing and we have the bumps, bruises  and aching bones today to prove it. I have not been Karting for 17 years and had forgotten how exciting it was and did frighten myself a few times but it was definitely worth it.

Changing our focus from revision to fun by having a variety of different activities to look forward to will certainly reduce pressure and stress levels as life returns to normal. The quicker they return to normal the more benefit they will get from the long summer holidays.

Enjoy your summer holiday freedom, use your time wisely, go and try something new, laugh and smile lots and be happy in whatever you choose to do.

If you know of someone that is still struggling with panic and anxiety please contact me.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to Reading University this week to attend a presentation on Anxiety and Depression in Children and Young People by Professor Shirley Reynolds. There were two presentations, one aimed at parents and carers and the other, which I attended, was for teachers and other professionals working with young people. The event was very well attended which was excellent but on the flip side it highlighted to me the growing concern regarding anxiety and depression and the increasing numbers of young people experiencing it.

The presentations looked at the differences between anxiety and depression (A&D) and how they can go hand in hand but actually need to be treated in different ways. Anxiety usually starts in the early years and depression follows later on. One in ten children can suffer with A&D at some point in their development.  Excessive anxiety needs to be picked up and this can be identified when:

• Fears grow out of proportion
• Fear persists even when the threat is absent
• Children avoid or stop doing things they enjoy in life

Depression is more difficult to spot and can often be missed. Core symptoms are:

• Long term low mood/irratibility (2 weeks or more)
• Sleep problems
• Change/lack of appetite
• Suicidal thoughts/tendencies
• Low opinion of life
• Low energy
• Feelings of failure in life

A&D children will always focus on the negative bias, they feel they are less capable and the future is not exciting. Their A&D often gets overlooked because they present as quiet and well behaved children who are not disruptive.

Avoidance of their fears will certainly prolong their problems. To enable young people to overcome their fears, parents, carers and teachers need to:

• Encourage independence and problem solving
• Effectively question young people when they ask for re-assurance and invite them to expand what they have already done for themselves (coaching them to achieve success)
• Encourage curiosity
• Use praise when necessary and don’t overdo it

So what predicts A&D?

• Biology/Genetics – can run in the family
• Environment – life events, triggers, learning
• Relationships – can be too protective

There are lots of resources out there to help parents and teachers work with A&D, some of these are:

MindEd – Elearning programme specifically for teachers/carers/police/social workers

IAPT programme

Charlie Waller Memorial Trust

Overcoming Your Child’s Fears and Worries (Book by Cathy Creswell and Lucy Willetts)

Feel free to contact me with regards to coaching young people with Anxiety and Depression.