What qualifies someone to be a parenting Coach?
There are many people out there who refer to themselves as a “parenting coach” yet they lack real expertise in this area. When looking to work with a parenting coach there are a few things to consider before hiring them.
> Hands on experience of working with families in diverse contexts.
> Relevant qualifications in areas such as child development, education, psychology, communication.
> Continued education and development of parenting, theories, studies and principles beyond basic psychology text books.
>A good knowledge of parenting books, child psychology, brain science and development that is up to date.
>Direct experience with their own children. Do they practice what they preach?
What to look for when hiring a parenting coach?
Relevant qualifications in there field. Do they have a coaching certification, qualifications and or/in depth understanding of psychology, child development, emotional intelligence.
Social proof - is there social proof that the parenting expert has successfully helped other parents and what do parents say about their experience?
Do they model the qualities you yourself want? Do they have good listening skills, empathy, patience? Do they hold space for you to full feel seen, heard, respected and understood? These are things to look out for when working with them.
Does their message align with you? There's many parenting experts out there and they all have different messages and approaches. Some experts focus on homeschooling, no screens and a montessori approach. Where as others have a focus on reparenting, emotional coaching and understanding brain science. Do their values align with yours?
Is their approach peaceful, gentle, conscious, authoritative? There are many experts out there who have an old school mindset and encourage the authoritarian approach. Believing that parents should have control, respect and children should listen and co-operate and if they don't they enforce strict discipline methods, time-outs, threats, consequences. This is approach is outdated and there is more and more research that this way of parenting causes more harm than good.
Are your personalities suited? When working with a parenting expert it is important that you feel safe, comfortable and that you can build a good client/coach relationship. It can be useful to arrange a first call or look at the parenting experts online content to see if it resonates with you.
