Mirsky & Associates Executive Function Coaching provides coaching and support services for students, families and school-based personnel who are working to understand and overcome EF and attentional issues in the classroom and beyond.
Why Consider Academic and Executive Function Coaching?
Everyone can benefit from coaching, some more than others, especially at certain life moments more “emergent” than others. As adults, we generally embrace the value of therapists, general contractors, personal trainers, career/life coaches, financial planners and other specialists. They bring to us as individuals their expertise and insights, and help us to navigate our complex world as we strive to live more effective, successful, mindful and integrated lives. How else do we explain our society’s fascination with TV shows like “Extreme Makeover” and “Queer Eye” - we see elements of our own selves in these “messy” cases and we live vicariously through their dramatic overhaul from ‘lost and confused’ to ‘savvy and smart.’ And we secretly envy their access to the team of experts in whose hands that individual can safely and effectively transform their practice. We seek out avenues to “renovate” our lives, knowing from experience that the DIY approach can be difficult and that we need expert guidance to succeed.
Sometimes, in moments of clarity, we as adults allow ourselves to conduct a self-audit to identify our own areas of struggle, areas we feel “messy,” areas where we can see we need support, guidance and targeted strategies that can help us grow from where we are to where we can be. Sometimes that comes after a period of struggle, sometimes when we’ve identified roadblocks we wish to overcome or goals we aspire to attain. Often what we’re looking for is a transformative experience, a path to navigate through to the next level. And we look to those trusted guides in our society that will help us as individuals by seeing us for who we are, integrating what we already know and can do, charting a path with us to where we want to go, and helping us take the steps necessary to become someone we want to be. For adults in today’s society, that transformative experience is increasingly seen as a common and accepted goal, and there are myriad resources available to us to empower us to take those steps to growth.
But what about our children? At what stage of life more than adolescence do we feel like we’re in a constant emergency, in serious need of transformation and guidance? But what options do our kids have to grow, to transform? Is it fair to expect that our children’s school will do this transformative work? As parents, are we supposed to somehow know what interventions and alternative approaches can best foster growth in our kids? Most of us are NOT experts in supporting the growth of our kids in areas where they acutely struggle, especially when the struggles have a cognitive, neurological or developmental component. The good news is that in the same way that a contractor can masterfully reinvent a kitchen or a photographer can artfully capture a wedding, a Coach can strategically support a child’s growth. Can we offer our kids what we afford ourselves: the same sort of expert guidance and one-to-one tailored support to explore and pursue their own unique path?