Coaching Parents of Neurodivergent Children
Written by: Joanne Lemmex
Parents, teachers and other professionals have access to literature and support (albeit more is needed) to help neurodivergent children.
And, thanks to the hard work of many people - like Kim Moore and her amazing staff at Aspire Academy, these children are learning to navigate the maze of “normal” - bringing hope to their future.
But, who is helping the parents?
“Parenting is challenging in the best of circumstances—even neurotypical children have immature self-regulation.
But parenting neurodivergent children is truly a different category of challenge.
The stress and trauma are complex and affect all aspects of wellness (emotional, cognitive, physical, spiritual, and social).” Psychology Today
Coaching can help
A coach listens
We are expert listeners.
We offer clients a trusted outlet to share their thoughts and struggles without fear of judgement. We don’t offer advice - and, goodness knows parent’s of neurodivergent kids get enough of that!.
A coach offers a safe haven
We offer a safe space to talk, vent, decompress, and work through the many negative and positive emotions a parent of an exceptional child faces on a day-to-day basis.
A coach is not a therapist
Unlike a therapist or counsellor, we don’t dig into the psyche of a parent to identify if something in their past is causing them to feel or react in a dysfunctional way. Many of us don’t have the level of expertise needed to do this important work.
What we can do is create an environment where parents feel safe to talk about how overwhelmed, scared, exhausted, or sad they are.
A coach helps you free space in your mind
A coach listens to the experiences, reactions and feelings of a parent so they can get it all out in the open - freeing space in their head/gut/soul. Space that has likely been tied in knots for <insert age of diagnosis> years.
A coach helps you find hope
A coach encourages parents to see the positive and helpful thoughts and ideas they have within themselves. They help parents flex their positive mindset, without guilt - enabling them to build strategies for improving their own wellbeing - as well as the wellbeing of their child and family.
A coach gave me back control
As a parent of a neurodivergent child, I know what it’s like to have no control -over my time, over my life, over her, over the way she interacts with the world, or over the way the world responds to her.
Realizing this was scary. Coming to terms with it was hard. Developing strategies to cope was necessary.
Coaches helped me find serenity in the chaos - they helped me see what I do have control over. Notably, my actions, reactions and mindset.
Thankfully I learned that my child, who struggles with executive functioning and interacts with the world in a “weird” way – is not bad, disabled, or unteachable.
She is exceptional. She simply requires different types of support and guidance.
And so did I. I needed different types of support and guidance.
I got it. It worked.
