Youth Coaching Expert Insights

Stay informed, inspired, and engaged in mentoring and coaching tweens, teens, and young adults with the Youth Coaching Institute blog. Here you’ll discover expert strategies, research, and tools to empower your practice or organization and foster growth and resilience in adolescents.

How Mental Health Coaching Supports Teens with Anxiety

Mental health challenges among teenagers have reached crisis levels. Anxiety disorders and depression are now the two most common mental health conditions in the United States, with 20% of adolescents ages 12-17 reporting symptoms of anxiety in the last two weeks, and 18% reporting symptoms of depression during the same timeframe (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2025). As parents, educators, and youth-serving professionals, you witness firsthand how these challenges

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The Art of Helping: Why Good Intentions Can Harm Young People

When working with adolescents and young adults, every parent, educator, or coach faces a critical moment: a student struggles with a challenge, and you want to help. Your instinct might be to jump in with solutions, take over the task, or rescue them from difficulty. While these impulses come from genuine care, they can actually undermine the very growth you’re trying to foster. Understanding the difference between constructive and dysfunctional

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Stop Venting, Start Solving: A Guide

Expressing our emotions is essential for our health and well-being. When we feel overwhelmed, frustrated, or unheard, the instinct to vent can be powerful. While it might offer a moment of relief, relying on venting as a primary coping mechanism can reinforce negative emotions and prevent us from addressing the root of the problem. This guide explores the difference between venting and problem-solving. It explains why simply expressing negative feelings

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The Human Drive: Coaching for Career Direction

As a career coach, you know that the journey to a fulfilling career is more than just matching skills to job descriptions. It’s about tapping into the deeper “whys” that drive a person forward. To help our clients succeed at challenging goals, we must first help them develop and envision a desired future. Identifying what we want to grow into is a vital first step to igniting the drive to

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Harnessing Academic Coaching to Foster Self-Regulated Learning

As an educator, coach, or parent you know that some students seem to navigate their academic journey with ease while others face significant hurdles. The difference often lies not in their inherent ability but in their capacity for self-regulated learning (SRL). This set of skills allows students to take charge of their own learning process. Academic coaching provides a powerful, personalized framework to help students develop these essential skills, transforming

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What Evidence-Based Coaching Is and Why It Works

Evidence-based coaching represents a transformative approach that combines the art of human connection with the science of behavioral change. Unlike traditional coaching methods that can rely solely on intuition or common techniques, this methodology integrates research-backed strategies with professional expertise to create meaningful, lasting outcomes for clients. For educators and youth-serving professionals, understanding evidence-based coaching offers a pathway to enhanced credibility, improved client outcomes, and more effective practice. This comprehensive

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