Taking Young Adults from Trying to Flying.

 I believe that life rarely goes in straight lines – I know mine hasn’t. Educated at a small old fashioned boarding school as a teen, did an Open University degree instead of the tried and tested route of HE, married to an aging Rock Star, lived on a boat, divorced, remarried, 2 birth children and an adopted one on the end, along with a few massive failures and some success stories along the way - means that life was never quite what either I, or my parents had expected it to be! A series of unconventional twists and turns that have bought me to where I am today. But that’s the great thing about life, because it doesn’t go in straight lines, whether we are in our 20s or our 70s (and anywhere in between) we can be the masters of what roads we go down, what adventures we create and what wonderful experiences we bring to others. Welcome to the Scenic Route. 

My second career consisted of some 20 years working in education - Lecturing and being a Personal Tutor in a college offering both FE and HE provision. After taking voluntary redundancy in search of a new challenge, my life meandered through School Governor positions, Primary Pupil Referral Units, Secondary Isolation Units, and working with SEND and displaced students. Then came a detour into the world of Adoption - where I learnt all about the more complex world of Trauma and how it affects brain development, behaviour and emotions, until it finally dropped me back into FE again working with 16-18 year olds. 

Meanwhile, I had also been doing a Diploma in Life / Youth Coaching and that’s when it happened, several lifelines converged … my familiarity of the 16–26 yr old age group (together with all the transitions and difficulties that this brings with it  -including parent-teen communication), my understanding of working with children who have experienced trauma or/and have neurodivergent brains, and of course the Coaching.  

A complicated combination, maybe! However, as I have said - life rarely goes in straight lines and having two children of my own with ADHD, one of which experiences the long-term effects of a traumatic start in life on a daily basis, I know this to be doubly so. My aim through Coaching is not to tell you how to get to where you might end up, but to help you read the map through those unexpected twists and turns when navigating life either as Late Teen / Early 20s yourself, as a Parent, as someone who supports Young Adults, or even as a Mum whose Young Adult is now doing it for themselves. 

    Well, at the first tutor session of each year I used to explain to my new groups of 16 – 18-year-olds that my role was rather like a Big Mama Chicken - someone who will ALWAYS be on their team, cheering them on when things go right and being there for them when things don’t. From the very first day they knew that I cared and because of this my students use to refer to me as their ‘Mama Chicken’.  So here I am, being Mama Chicken to not just a few students now, but to many.