We do like shining the spotlight on our coaches here at The Coaching Academy and nothing pleases us more than hearing about all of your success stories and sharing this with our networks. Not just a successful coach but also a trainer for The Coaching Academy's Youth Impact Diploma, Lorraine Thomas has been making waves in the parent coaching arena by featuring in this month's Prima Baby cover story as well as having her 4th book published later this year.
Having trained with The Coaching Academy several years ago and going on to become a trainer for our Youth Impact Diploma it has been great to see Lorraine's parent coaching business and profile go from strength to strength.
Author of "The Mummy Coach", "Get a Life" and "The 7 Day Parent Coach", Lorraine will see her 4th book published by Quercus in November 2013. Lorraine is used as a parenting expert by Tescos and The Times Parenting Panel so it was no surprise to see her featured in the July edition of Prima baby with a 3 page feature and a front page splash!
Well done Lorraine!
We asked Lorraine to reveal some of her favourite parent coaching questions and this is what she had to say:
The coaching question that often elicits a breakthrough or ‘aha’ moment is... "what kind of a mum or dad do you want to be to your child?"
This is such a simple and powerful question that can really make a difference to the way parents think.
The great thing about parent coaching is giving parents the confidence to get back in the driving seat and believe they can be the parent they want to be. Ask them to give you one word to sum up the mum or dad they want to be is a powerful and effective foundation for any coaching session.
My favourite coaching question is... "what practical actions do you want to take over the next 7 days that will help you to be the parent you want to be?"
I love this question because the clients I work with have such fantastic ideas. They really are the experts on their families and it’s brilliant when they share these in group workshop sessions.
I do, of course, work with clients where they set there own time frames but I have found that asking mums and dads to focus on the next 7 days is a successful strategy that parents really enjoy. A week is a lifetime in a family and parents can make huge leaps forward in that time because they are in control of what they are doing. They’re focusing on their relationship with their child and the way they respond and communicate with them in positive way.
I also like the question, "what have you done over the past 7 days that you feel good about as a mum or dad?"
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