The Process

Tune into yourself.

Learning to be mindful, tuning into your experience, and predicting your own behavior is a core set of skills. But it’s very common to have blind spots in these areas.

To learn how to Master the Launch, you first must learn how to master yourself. But recognizing your needs before they get out of hand requires the ability to sit without distracting ourselves from ourselves. Whether through clickbait videos, social media, binge-watching Netflix, or playing video games, it’s natural to want to divert attention from our real issues.

The absolute first step is to learn how to tune into yourself. This leads to the insight-building we’ll develop throughout our coaching sessions, which is integral in understanding how to follow through with your responsibilities.

Build stronger relationships.

Once this foundation is set, we move on to learning how to relate to others. This is vital to being a successful independent adult.

Being clear about needs and wants while communicating in a way that makes others want to help you doesn’t always come easy. Effective communication skills take practice, and, trust me, we will practice!

Even within the coaching relationship, we’ll have to communicate with one another about scheduling, homework assignments, and expectations. This presents its own powerful opportunity to follow through on responsibilities and tasks.

Learn to prepare a plan.

Concrete planning and organizing are vital pillars of independent living. How to plan when you’ll pay bills, when you can and need to go to the grocery store, and when you’ll be able to go for a self-care walk.

All these tasks can easily fly under the radar since clients’ parents have been doing these things for them their entire lives. So, before my clients leave home, they are already cooking meals, going to the grocery, and keeping their own space clean.

These may seem like simple tasks to someone who has been doing them for years; however, they take planning, effort, and energy. But don’t worry. It won’t take that same amount of energy forever!

As young adults get used to these tasks while living at home, they become more competent at them, and therefore, the tasks take less energy. This is why not just learning them but doing them regularly is vital BEFORE a young adult moves out.

Launch into independence.

From there, coaching sessions often focus on financial, employment, and housing-related goals. Each week, we discuss the critical steps needed to achieve their goals in these areas and how and when those key actions will occur.

One of the more daunting steps will be finding and securing housing. It can take time. There will be frustrations. And parents are often needed during this phase for logistical support.

For example, it’s usually a good idea for parents to go to apartments and check out the apartment, building, and neighborhood. Once my coaching clients find their new home, we’ll use the 30 days leading up to the move to plan as much as we can and build enough skills to face the barriers and bumps as they arise.

Get support every step of the way.

In some ways, the most vital period is the six months post-launch. During this time, I see a honeymoon phase, which usually lasts about three months and usually precedes some regression into old habits. Luckily, we’ll return to our core skills and techniques of tuning into ourselves to gain insights into how current behaviors will lead to problems in the future.

By this point, we’ll also have a strong foundation in our coaching relationship, which allows me to be blunt (while always caring) about the old behaviors I see. Changing old behaviors again can vary in its level of difficulty. But we go back to the basics, prioritize, plan, and execute to maintain independent and healthy living.

Our work often lasts for about two years. One year leading up to moving out of their parent’s home and one year following the move. I can’t wait to help you through this.