About Youth Coaching Institute

Coaching offers a practical, growth-oriented method for supporting youth as they set and achieve meaningful goals. At its core, coaching is a non-directive and person-centered approach, designed to empower young people to pursue objectives that feel genuine and connected to their values.

Applying Coaching in Educational & Community Settings

• Goal Setting and Action Planning: Use coaching sessions to help teens or young adults clarify what matters to them. For instance, guide them through questions such as, “What is one thing you’d like to achieve this month?” then help break down the goal into actionable steps.
• Promoting Autonomy and Choice: Give young people the freedom to choose what skills they want to build or which projects to pursue, reinforcing their sense of ownership.
• Supporting Self-Reflection: Encourage young people to reflect on their progress and challenges. Asking, “What worked well for you this week and what could be improved?” helps them develop insight and resilience.
• Building Competencies: Provide targeted feedback and celebrate small milestones to boost their confidence, whether mastering a new skill or improving in a subject area.
• Establishing Consistent Support: Consistency is key. Regular one-on-one check-ins foster trust, accountability, and a sense of mattering.

The coaching relationship itself becomes a supportive structure for youth, providing three essential elements:

• Connection to a caring adult who listens well without judgment
• Opportunities to build competencies and self-efficacy
• Time-intensive support that adapts to the student’s individual pace

The Coach’s Role in Practice

Your role as a coach is to nurture the young person’s autonomy, voice, choice, and trust in themselves. Approach each interaction with openness, acceptance, and curiosity. Guide them in making intentional choices and support their progress with encouragement and proven strategies.

Young people who thrive in coaching are ready to take ownership of their growth. They come open to feedback, prepared to engage, and committed to leveraging their abilities and resources to achieve their goals.

How might you integrate coaching conversations into your current setting to empower students toward greater independence and resilience?

We support tweens, teens, and emerging adults as they navigate life, relationships, school, and job commitments with a focus on enhancing well-being to expand their capacity. We help them gain clarity and make decisions that fit who they are, how they want to live, and who they want to be in the world. We train coaches in evidence-based techniques and models to enhance outcomes through these channels:

Care

Help your clients discover and use their own internal strengths to reach goals that matter to them. These personal resources include the body, mind, emotions, values, strengths, and motivations. Through our non-directive coaching, we support clients in finding their own motivation and confidence. This approach encourages clients to take meaningful action outside of coaching sessions.

Connection

Guide your clients to recognize the power of positive connections—with people, places, and communities—to their well-being and success. Strong relationships with family, friends, and community members help build a sense of safety and belonging. Support networks and positive environments, like homes, schools, or workplaces, also provide access to the resources and social connection needed for a good quality of life.

Skills

Support clients in developing their talents and strengths. Identify any skill gaps and learning opportunities to build important abilities including:

• Self-care and positive coping strategies
• Managing thoughts, emotions, and stress
• Setting boundaries and building healthy relationships
• Communication and collaboration
• Academic and job skills, such as focus, problem-solving, and time management
• Financial management
• Skills for independent living

Encourage reflection and growth as clients strengthen these critical life skills.

Adolescents are in a sensitive stage of development. Their social cognition is developing rapidly, which means they’re much more sensitive to others’ judgments about them. They’re more self-conscious as they’re developing their identity and trying to decide where they fit in. They’re dealing with heightened emotions and sensitivity with hormone surges related to biological changes that are still very new for them. They’re wired to be more impulsive and engage in more risk-taking as they develop a willingness to separate from their family and create their own way.

A non-judgmental approach is healthy for all humans but is needed so much more in this developmentally vulnerable stage. The non-judgmental ear can make the difference between whether they reach out for help when they’re struggling or get the support and guidance they really need as they navigate toward healthy independence. The non-directive approach is a way to respect their need to develop their own voice, choice, and self-confidence.

Studies show that adolescent interventions, including personal and social skill-building practices, developed from a strong research base significantly enhance self-perceptions, school engagement, positive social behaviors, grades, and reduced problem behaviors. However, those lacking a research base show minimal effects.