What is the Weekend Intensive Program?

What is the Weekend Intensive Program?

We designed the Weekend/Family Intensive program for families who are really struggling and need immediate help.

With the Weekend/Family Intensive, Jeff comes to you (or the family comes to him) or uses Zoom to work with the entire family over the course of a weekend. He gives you an evaluation and a lot of feedback, and then works with all parties involved to develop a plan for moving forward.

The Weekend Intensive also works well for families who are not close enough geographically for weekly sessions. Usually, after an intense weekend of work, everyone is comfortable enough with each other for work to continue via Zoom, phone, text, email, etc.

Below is a video where Jeff explains the Weekend Intensive in more detail. As always, feel free to contact Jeff to discuss whether this program can help your teen or 20-something and your family.

Failure-to-Launch Young Adults: A New Approach

Failure-to-Launch Young Adults: A New Approach

When school started, I heard about several kids who went to college—very good colleges to which the students had happily anticipated going for months—and after only a few days, called their parents to pick them up and take them home.

I see this more and more. Some will go back to school. Others will sit in their parents’ basements playing video games, with their parents wringing their hands because they do not know what to do. This can go on for years, and failure-to-launch young adults make up a large part of my business.

What I find when I talk with these teens and 20-somethings are young people who have never faced adversity, are full of shame and doubt, and lack a sense of themselves or autonomy. When I talk with the parents, I find adults who thought they did everything right and are mystified about where things went wrong.

How did they get there? And, more importantly, how to get them past this? Read more

The Importance of Mission

The Importance of Mission

“Our own life has to be our message.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

The recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, terrible tragedy that it was, also ended up bringing to the fore something positive that is sorely lacking in many of today’s young people: a mission. Although I wish it weren’t mass shootings that were the reason, the way students around the world rallied around the cause of “no more school shootings” couldn’t have been a better demonstration of how kids are brought to life around a mission. Read more

What Dreams Are Made of

What Dreams Are Made of

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

I talk about making dreams come true a lot. That sounds so…frivolous, so hokey—so why do I keep saying it?

Because it is so important to kids’—and adults’—mental health, that’s why. Read more

Confidence Coaching

In my work with athletic teams and other groups of kids, I have found that even the highest-functioning kids often lack confidence. In today’s highly structured and scheduled world, kids can get pretty far just doing what they’re told and completing tasks, so it sometimes comes as a surprise to both the student—and their parents—when they come up against a situation where deep-seated, steady confidence is needed, but it just isn’t there to be called upon. Coaches and educators frequently bring this up, and it seems as though parents are catching on.

The Confidence Coaching program is the result, and I think it can help just about any teenager or 20-something. If your kid is struggling but not in real trouble, it can help a lot. (If your kid is in real trouble, I can help with that, too, but that requires a different approach.) If your kid is an über-achiever, I think you will be surprised at how injecting a dose of confidence will bring more imagination and joy to their achievements. The program is fun, insightful, and powerful, and most kids love it. It can also be something that friends can enjoy together: the program works great with small groups. Usually it only takes a few sessions to see results.

Want to know whether Confidence Coaching is right for your teenager or 20-something? Give me a call or drop me a text at 603-496-0305, or use the form below to email me, and let’s talk about it.

Here’s the brochure, and FYI — many adults can benefit from Confidence Coaching as well!

Here is more information how I work with teens, 20-somethings, and their families.

The Beauty of Mindless Tasks

The Beauty of Mindless Tasks

For some reason I don’t understand, many kids today are not ever asked to do housework. They are never asked to do a dish, vacuum, do laundry, mow the lawn, or any household chores. Perhaps parents think their children are too busy to waste time on mundane tasks? I would argue that these mindless tasks are anything but mundane. Read more

Secret Life of Kids Program on May 17

Secret Life of Kids Program on May 17

I will be facilitating a panel of experts for a program at the Concord (N.H.) High School Auditorium on Tuesday, May 17, from 6-8pm. Sponsored by the Concord Hospital Center for Health Promotion, the program is free, and all are welcome.

The program will be covering a lot of the material that appeared in my latest blog post.

Here is the program flyer, which has more information.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, and I hope to see you there.

Kids Are Not OK

Kids Are Not OK

One thing I am called upon to do often is decode kids. A great thing about being a life coach who does home visits is I get to meet the entire family and see how they relate to each other. Not surprisingly, many parents struggle to communicate with their teenagers and 20-somethings, and I get called in to decode. Often the parents are surprised, or even shocked, to hear how their kids are really feeling.

Although many kids may seem OK or even to be doing well to their parents, they really aren’t OK. They’re digitized, anxious, addicted to gizmos, aren’t resilient, and don’t know how to push themselves outside of school and sports. They are supremely focused on goals and ambitions to the exclusion of their dreams and simple joy. They achieve, yet they often feel completely powerless. They appear to be successful, yet so many are sad.

I am not the only person who is reporting this: most of the professionals with whom I talk—pediatricians, teachers, coaches, school administrators, and some worried parents—are all seeing the same things.

Why is this happening? Part of this is cultural. We, the Analog Generation, knew that if we worked reasonably hard in school and stayed out of major trouble, we’d be fine. The messages we received, both consciously and unconsciously, from the adults in our lives went along these lines:

“The world’s a good, fun safe place.”

“You can trust most adults.”

“The people in Washington probably know what they’re doing.”

“The earth will last forever.”

“Your parents have some issues, but basically they’re there for you.”

“You can and should respect your teachers and coaches, and they’re really looking out for you.”

The Digital Kids don’t enjoy that kind of reassurance. We all know the messages that are swirling around them at all times: ISIS, global warming. A “media” that reports the news sensationally in great detail 24/7 and promulgates fear. There’s a fractured political system that has forgotten about respect and compromise and seems oblivious to the people it’s supposed to serve. It’s everyone being on their smartphones all of the time (making Einstein, who said, “I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots.” very prescient, indeed), trying to use communication devices as connection devices, which doesn’t work.

A noted psychiatrist, D.W. Winnicott, coined the term holding environment for that positive, safe, predictable environment parents create in their home for a baby. Well, the cultural holding environment, in a scant generation, has begun to radically tear.

And because of all of this, many parents are afraid—so afraid—in their efforts to protect their children from all of these awful things, they have neglected to prepare them for adulthood. They haven’t allowed their kids to be kids. Many of these children might have every material gadget possible, but they rarely get to play outside. They are hardly, if ever, allowed to go out on their own, get into trouble, get out of trouble, find out who they are as individuals. They have not been allowed to fail or face consequences. To take risks. To have fun with their friends in unstructured, unsupervised play. And the result is stressed-out, anxious, sad kids.

These kids hold a secret kept even from themselves: They do not feel in control of their lives, do not enjoy contentment, and do not experience excitement about the whole of living.

Most of their parents aren’t in on this secret and, in fact, don’t have a clue how their children really feel. We’re raising a generation of kids who are using devices, Snapchat, sex, work, working out, stress, drugs, alcohol, and achievement to feel alive. Kids who don’t know how to truly connect.

There are a lot of things parents can do to improve this situation, and that is a big part of my work with kids and families. But it isn’t easy, as it means bucking some trends. It means making a conscious decision to NOT keep up with the Joneses. It means changing things up with your kids, and, as you know, change is not easy or immediate, and you will be met with resistance. But when you see that big grin on your child’s face when she or he realizes that life is about the journey as much, if not more, than the destination, and you are sharing their joy, maybe for the first time in ages, it will feel great.

In addition to my direct work with families, I have a program on this subject for both large and small groups of parents. It’s appropriate for PTAs, libraries, religious organizations, businesses (I do a lunchtime program), or even just a group of friends who are interested in these issues. Please contact me for details.

 

 

The Media is Catching on to The Bombardment

The Media is Catching on to The Bombardment

If you have ever talked with me about kids, you know about The Bombardment, because I bring it up all of the time. The Bombardment is my term for the amalgam of the cultural and societal issues that have changed kids and parenting over the last 20 years or so. The Bombardment has caused a number of challenges for parents, but, more particularly, kids. The challenges are serious: they have caused increases in suicides, opiate use, failure to launch, crippling anxiety…these are just a few examples, and so many times, parents don’t have a clue about the secret lives that their children live every day. Much of my work addresses these challenges. Read more

Lighthouse Seminar on November 3!

GROW Boston poster for Nov 3 event

G.R.O.W. – The Boston Project Presents

A Lighthouse Seminar:

Finding Your Purpose

Tuesday, November 3rd at 6:30pm

Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St.

The Lighthouse Seminars are a perfect opportunity for Boston-area college students and 20-somethings to come together for inspiration, connection and information about building a life that centers around what you love.

  • Shed stress. Laugh. Relax.
  • Enjoy some music and awesome conversation.
  • Identify and manage key stressors.
  • Learn to find your passion and purpose and to take steps to build a life around that source of joy.
  • Leave with a comprehensive performance plan for success.
  • Enjoy the strengthened bond between you and your friends so you can conquer the future with a little help.

Lighthouse Seminars

Life can be stressful! Fulfilling your dream to achieve a degree and find success. Meeting new people. Challenging living situations. Finding time to party without slacking in school or work. So little time to get so much done. Did I pick the right major? Complex and confusing relationships. Figuring out what you want to do after school, or wondering, “Did I study the right stuff?” The list goes on and on.

The Lighthouse Workshops seek to help young people thrive under the pressures of life through the application of a revolutionary performance model. By connecting more closely with friends and classmates, people will learn a curriculum where everybody helps everybody grow in the direction of their dreams.

The result is a completely personalized performance plan that empowers each student or graduate to succeed in work or the classroom, create and maintain healthy friendships, and achieve goals in every area of college and graduate life. The Lighthouse Workshops support people to train their minds and hearts to maximize their full potential.

Please join us next Tuesday – Complimentary Refreshments & Light Bites

Free Admission – – – – – Donations Accepted