More and more parents are seeking outside assistance to raise their children's self-esteem or help them deal with divorce, according to children's life coach Naomi Richards, who has experienced a growing demand over the past 18 months. She says she is seeing children as young as six years old.
Nottingham-born Mrs Richards, who set up The Kids' Coach six years ago, tells People: "It's sad. There seems to be a real need for it, more than before and I don't know why. Children seem to find it hard to make friends, or if another child is horrible to them, they might misinterpret it as bullying." She says there has been an increase in cases among the Jewish community.
Mrs Richards decided to train as a life coach when she had her two children. "It has really taken off in the past five years." Is it not questionable for children to be seeing a life coach? "Years ago, if children had a problem and they couldn't talk to their parents they might go to a grandparent, but with families being a bit disjointed today, this isn't always possible. Parents might know about the problem but not know how to solve it so they come to me."
She says people are coming round to the idea of life coaching as an alternative to therapy. "It's about the here and now, not looking into the past." A regular contributor to divorce website www.wikivorce.com, she also runs workshops for children.
