Our team-based and strength-based approach to coaching is grounded in research-based methodologies that foster emotional change, affective change, cognitive change, and behavior change. Through this holistic approach to intervention, we help our students, parents, and adults achieve long lasting positive and productive patterns in their lives.
EEC coaches believe that each client deserves to live productive and meaningful lives, and that executive function skills can be developed to support that journey. This belief informs our approach to coaching which is client centered, strengths-based, collaborative, and rooted in our cycle of empowerment.
Following the cycle of empowerment, our coaches CONNECT with our clients to create safe and trusting relationships that allow each client to REFLECT with authenticity and without fear of judgment on their strengths, their challenges, their successes, their failures, and their goals. With that information, coaches then help clients PLAN and identify a roadmap for achieving that goal, including anticipating what obstacles they might encounter along the way and what they can do in the face of those obstacles. Each session includes time for coaches to INSTRUCT clients in a new skill, strategy, or new way of looking at a situation and provides incentive for using that new skill as they work towards their goals. With new skills, strategies, encouragement and the “just right” level of accountability, clients begin to ALIGN their actions with their goals. This cycle of CONNECTING, REFLECTING, PLANNING, INSTRUCTING, and ALIGNING continues throughout the coaching process with the ultimate goal being to EMPOWER our clients to develop executive function skills as well as a level of self-awareness, self-advocacy, self-determination, self confidence, and self-agency that results in them achieving their goals.
An EEC coach instructs clients on how to align priorities with their desired outcomes, goals, expectations, and standards. By reflecting on the past and discussing the future a client can learn to develop an effective relationship with their future self. The coach does this by using techniques like motivational interviewing, mind-mapping, and visualizing and verbalizing in order to strengthen autobiographical planning, as well as verbal and nonverbal working memory. Once the client knows where they want to go, the coach helps the client develop a plan to get there. Whether it's working on daily routines, weekly schedules, study skills, college planning skills, professional skills, the coach helps the client develop individualized and strength-based systems and processes, tools and strategies to manage each day. From developing a morning routine and effective homework habits to attending office hours and managing sleep hygiene, clients learn how to anchor their attention into their daily habits and routines. As clients progress through the executive function skill development process, they find it easier to filter information, manage priorities, as well as anticipate future problems and initiate solutions, even before they happen. It’s at this point that our clients reach an effective level of self-determination and self-efficacy.