@taokat @Ngaio-RO @GrhRo @Beekeeper @Big_Crab    Many thanks for having us here tonight.   Hopefully we've managed to answer some of your questions about coaching :-)   Happy parenting! ... View more

@GrhRo Safety is imperative for us ... like doctors, nurses, teachers in many states we’re mandatory reporters.   This means that we want to make sure that parents and carers, and their teens are safe. During our conversations with parents if we hear that someone might be at risk of being hurt or hurting somebody, we may need to let someone else know who can help.     This way we can all work together to keep make sure there is safety.     ... View more

There's no right or wrong answer for this question @Ngaio-RO But remember ... it’s much, much easier to address issues early on, before they become much bigger. ReachOut Parents Coaching is an Early Intervention program that aims to put the brakes on and slow things down! Ultimately if you have concerns about how your teen is coping or your relationship with them has become difficult - coaching may be useful for you. ... View more

@GrhRo You're right - their friends are in the top 3 as well. Sometimes our teens want to talk to us, but don't know how - so friends and family are very important supports. ... View more

@GrhRo @Ngaio-RO Coaches complement the work of other services, rather than collaborating with them. We can work alongside parents in our 'supporting' session to identify and strengthen supports they need to support their teen. This way parents and carers can connect with the services they need for their situation.         ... View more

We know that 1 in 4 teenagers experience a mental health difficulty and 70% do not access support. If they do, most will turn to their parents first.   This does not mean that parents have to have all the answers though … answers can be worked out together. What is important is that we have a strong enough relationship with our teen that they feel they can turn to us as parents in times of need.   As coaches we focus on supporting you to find a way forward. ... View more

@taokat is right. Most of our sessions take 60 minutes, but our first session takes a little longer because we are getting to know about the family situation - it's best to keep 90 minutes aside for this one. ... View more

@taokat It sounds like you had a great experience of coaching. ... View more

Yes, yes, yes - it's free :-)    The Australian government recognises how important it is to support the mental health and wellbeing of our teenagers as early as possible.   They’ve funded ReachOut to work with TBS to develop and deliver coaching for parents free of charge for anyone caring for a teen. ... View more

@Ngaio-RO @taokat Interestingly, we are so focused on practical solutions that some parents may only want or need 1 coaching session to get them up and running, while others may want to complete a few more sessions that focus on specific support needs ... View more

@taokat Absolutely - coaching is all about finding strategies and tools that will work for you and your specific situation. ... View more

Coaches work in partnership with parents to clarify what they want, what’s working and what's getting in the way, and develop a plan to move forward using effective parenting strategies and tools to strengthen their relationship with their teenager. Remember our analogy though - we definitely need to know you have a sore knee (what the challenge is with your teenager & what they are facing), but it doesn't need to be the focus to move forward. Our work is with the parent & carer and how they can support their teen. Together we look at what’s happening, explore why, and relate it to a particular parenting skill you can use and role model for your teen – if you’re arguing a lot the skill might be around how to improve communication, if your teen has withdrawn it might be on rebuilding that connection, if you or your teen is feeling overwhelmed it might be around building a stronger support network.   ... View more

Being a teenager can be tough for teens and parents! Many teens are trying to juggle all of the changes, commitments and expectations! Coaching can be great way to find a new way forward. ... View more

You got it!   Sorry to bring in another analogy, but it’s good to think of support for your teen as a jigsaw puzzle with each piece connecting but not overlapping.   Depending on what’s happening for your teen you may want to access different types of support, for different things, at different times or at the same time.   Coaching is one piece of the puzzle – for example, you and your teen may also work alongside a GP, psychologist, school, mentor, etc.   Our piece focuses on how you as a parent can support your teen.   ... View more

Great question – because coaching is DIFFERENT to therapy, counselling, mentoring or advising.   When people think of coaching they often think of sports coaches and think performance, which isn’t quite the same as what we do here.   A coach is not a counsellor – we don’t focus on the problem or your performance, we believe you are the expert of your family. Our job is to help you identify your family strengths, find solutions that work for your family, and the way forward.   A good way to explain it is – imagine you want to get fit, but you have a knee injury. You meet with a personal trainer for help. The trainer wants to know about your knee, but it won’t be the focus. Together you work out how you can get fit, using the strengths that you do have. The focus is not on how you injured your knee and how you can fix it – that’s a different conversation, because your goal is to get fit.   Coaching believes that parents and carers are the experts in their family, and have the strengths and answers they need to support their teen … the skill of the coach is to bring out the best solutions from them, for their family.   So, coaching is about action and solving problems and your coach will always be focusing on the way forward. ... View more

Hi folks!   We're the ReachOut Parents coaching team from the Benevolent Society - we're often referred to as TBS.  You can find out more about us at http://benevolent.org.au/    We've combined strengths to create online coaching for parents; using ReachOut.Com’s expertise in online mental health services, and TBS’s over 200 years experience supporting families to live their best lives!   We're here tonight to answer any questions you have :-) It's nice to be here @taokat ... View more