Executive Functioning Coaching
What is it?
Executive functioning are those skills that we all need to manage the complexities of day to day living. This can include planning, organizing, sequencing tasks, prioritizing, remembering instructions, attention and concentration, even managing your reactions to frustration. It's part of what helps us initiate tasks, even those that are not on the list of preferred tasks.
Strong executive functioning often means we work efficiently, we have good time management skills, we can manage our work and living spaces and we can evaluate how we are doing and make adjustments so that we get done the things we want (and need) to get done.
Executive functioning coaching is an approach that helps individuals who struggle in one or more of these areas to learn the skills to manage their challenges. It can also provide approaches to structure your environment and tasks to support greater success. This, in turn, can reduce anxiety and frustration and increase success and performance at work, school and at home.
What happens in an Executive Functioning Coaching session?
Your clinician will explore your goals with you and help you prioritize a plan that will focus your efforts. The coach will help you break down the tasks into manageable bits and help you figure out efficiencies that work with the way your own neurology works.. The coach will explore your emotional, sensory and physical needs that might be important to consider in creating a plan. The coach is your accountability partner, but you get to inform the plan and your own priorities with their support.
Depending on the plan you want and need, your coach may be there to work alongside you to help you complete tasks, or they may work with you on structuring your materials and workspaces to support you moving forward independently once that is setup. Each step of the way is evaluated so that you can continue to move forward with independence as you are ready.
Executive functioning coaching is often about preparing and planning. It allows you to be ready for new situations or new demands and expectations. It creates the opportunity for routines that you can use in future situations to help you manage the anxiety of something new that comes your way or in situations where might previously have felt stuck ("inertia").
If some of this resonates with you, reach out to us and we can help you move forward with a plan to take back control and find that sense of accomplishment at work, at school and at home.