5 ways to help your teen thrive, on the journey to adulthood

The teen and pre-teen years can be really tough for young people. The journey to adulthood is a complex one, and it can be really hard for them to navigate without some help and guidance. They might be plagued by anxious thoughts, have low self-esteem and even be struggling to understand who they really are or what they want to become as an adult. 

The good news is, there is so much support available to young people to help them overcome these challenges and thrive during their formative years. Youth Coaching is a particularly effective way to support your teen through this time of transition, helping them to cultivate the kind of life they want. 

So what is Youth Coaching and how can it help your teen to grow and thrive?

Designed to support the mental wellness and personal growth of teenagers and young people, youth coaching can help with both personal and academic challenges. With gentle, calm and structured guidance, a youth coach can help to empower your teen with the skills, resilience and inner strength they need to achieve their goals and reach their potential.

How can youth coaching help?

Youth coaching can help your teen to improve their:

• emotional wellbeing
• confidence
• self-belief
• mindset
• motivation
• focus
• academic performance, aspirations and drive
• sleep
• relationships with family and friends

A youth coach will always tailor their sessions to the specific needs of each young person they work with and will have a wide range of techniques and tools to use.

Five key areas a youth coach can help with

Here we explore five key areas that a coach will often help young people to work on and how that can impact their lives for the better.

1. Get to know yourself better

The teen years are a real-time of transition. Children are leaving their younger years behind them and slowly becoming adults. This is a wonderful and exciting time, full of opportunities and endless possibilities, but some young people can find it overwhelming.

They may be sad to be leaving their younger years behind and be feeling the pressure to ‘grow up’. Or perhaps the opposite is true and they feel ready to spread their wings but are feeling restricted. Whatever their feelings about this time in their lives, most teens will be battling with the same thoughts… Who am I? Do I really know what I want to do with my life? Am I getting this right?

Your teen may have formed an opinion about who they are that may not be true, based on who and what is around them. Just like when we make first impressions about people we meet that may not be true. It’s so important for them to know that they can question this perception and show them how to look deeper, to discover their unique personality. They may not be like everyone else, but that’s ok…in fact, that’s brilliant!

P.T. Barnum

Youth coaching is a great way to help teens know and understand themselves better. It can help them to identify their strengths, areas to work on, what motivates and demotivates them. The list goes on! Getting to know themselves better, what their core values are and setting some goals will mean your teen can move forward into adulthood with confidence, direction and purpose.

2. Develop a positive mindset & get out of your comfort zone

Adopting a positive mindset can be a game-changer for anyone working on their personal growth, but this is particularly important for teens. 

With the right coaching, teens can learn to focus on the positives and are less likely to be stressed or compare themselves to others. They’re more likely to get out of their comfort zone, take educated risks and grasp new opportunities. This all combines to help them fulfil their potential and live their best life.

But beware the saboteur! An important part of any personal development programme is looking at outside influences that might derail all the hard work your teen is putting into their personal growth.

A vital step on this journey is for them to have a long hard look at who they spend time with. If they are around negative people who always focus on the negative, then naturally your teen will start to develop a negative mindset. That’s why it’s so important for your teen to surround themselves with people who inspire them, lift them up and make them want to be the best version of themselves, so these negative influences don’t sabotage their progress.

3. Develop a healthy lifestyle

Teenagers can often feel invincible. However, as adults we know that the lifestyle you choose as a teen can have a huge impact on the quality of your life in adulthood. To live a long, happy and fulfilling life it is essential to pay attention to your health and start developing healthy habits during these vital formative years! So many adults out there are struggling to change unhealthy patterns that they developed in their youth and wish they hadn’t!

Youth Coaching can help your teen to see the benefits of this now and encourage them to start as they mean to go on! Coaching can help improve their approach to sleep, diet, exercise, alcohol and smoking. It can also help them to manage academic pressure alongside hobbies and activities outside of school to ensure they don’t get overwhelmed and stressed.

4. Build healthy relationships & improve social skills

Youth coaching can help teens to build effective social skills; helping them to develop healthy relationships both now and in the future. Skills such as feeling comfortable introducing themselves to new people, standing up for themselves and assertiveness can all be vital skills in the adult world as well as during the teen years.

Once our children hit their teens they often spend far more time with their friends than with us! That can be hard for us parents but it’s a natural part of growing up and something they need to do in order to fully develop essential social skills.

These friendships are really important in the teen years; they provide a different sort of support than we could provide. Nobody can understand a teen like another teen! However, with all those hormones flying around and teen dramas around every corner, it’s inevitable that conflicts will arise. So learning strategies to resolve disputes, distance themselves from bad situations and spot the signs of toxic relationships are all life skills that will serve them long into adulthood.

5. Silence that inner critic and develop unshakable confidence

The final and arguably most important way a youth coach can help your child is by teaching them how to silence that inner critic. We have all experienced it at one time or another - that critical voice on your shoulder that makes us feel unhappy, stops us from trying new things, is constantly reminding us of failures of the past and stops us from moving forward. With the pressures of social media, ever-advancing academic targets and an increasingly competitive jobs market to look forward to, it’s no wonder that young people doubt themselves!

Youth coaching can support teens by building their self-confidence and resilience, whilst also teaching them how to let go of the past, to focus on the positives and be thankful for what they have. They will learn to be proud of who they are, become their own cheerleader in life and stop comparing themselves to others.

Wouldn’t it be great if all teens could master this and avoid the difficulties that so many adults face who didn’t have this sort of support when they were younger.

It’s ok to ask for help

Is your teen or pre-teen struggling to cope at the moment? It’s really important for every teenager to be taught how to work through a journey of personal development so they can enter the adult world with confidence, resilience and the life skills they need to reach their potential.

Youth Coaching can help young people to tackle issues such as:

• anxiety
• exam stress
• bullying and peer pressure
• difficulty managing emotions
• negative beliefs
• self-destructive behaviours
• difficult relationships with family and friends

With gentle, calm and structured guidance, your child will build their confidence and resilience, and learn practical tools that they will take with them throughout their lives. They will be able to develop a happy and positive mindset, with the self-belief they need to achieve their goals and live a fulfilling life.

If you would like to speak to me about how I might be able to support your family, please get in touch.