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robert7111a

Question about a life coach

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Hello to all

 

Does anyone know, or has even heard of a life coach who specialises in people with ASD? I have tried googling in my area (London) and nothing comes up

 

Clearly a niche in the market here...

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This may be a daft question but what exactly does a life coach do?

 

When I heard somebody I used to work with trained as a life coach, I did ask myself the same question.

 

But, I've had to learn social skills by observation etc and still have a long way to go. Seeing my daughter converse naturally with her friends makes me feel I'm missing out (and brings back the fact that I missed out during my teens). She knows (after I told her) about my AS and although she is fine with it, I still need to learn the social lingo of teens (in particular) and body language etc.

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Robert I can understand your motives in this. Whilst I was away at university I had an academic counselor because of the student disability allowance I recieved. Though I had little need in respect to my course in so many ways having another adult to talk things over with once a week was a real positive for me as I was away from home and the student services were more than hapy for me to use the sessions how I saw fit.

 

I recieved my diagnosis part way through the second year of my course and my counselor felt confident to say she was starting to work with a child who had recently been diagnosed with AS as well and that she had been on a course and was doing some work with them on recognising facial expresions and body language etc... She asked me did I think it was possible to adapt the exercises for a more adult scenario, and she was prepared to put some time in working on this at home. My reaction was simple bring the stuff in and do exactly the same things as you do with this child and see how I cope. She did this and in this particular area of my life I was not much better than the child she was working with and so the exercises were highly appropriate and of great benefit to me.

 

I love your comment that you feel 'you still have a long way to go'. I think everyone can always work on some aspects of their lives, and if we can find someone to help us a bit along the way all the better. I know my counselor was worried about it all being a bit patronising, wheras my attitude was if this can improve my skills lets go for it. The only thing was that time ran out for us after half a dozen sessions when I then finished my course and returned home.

 

I don't think the position where you are at this moment in time is that important, more its all about attitude and where you want to get to. I think the important thing is in such scenarios is we remain confident about the things we are also very good at. I can remember really struggling one day with my counselor playing a card game about faces and was a little too critical of myself and got frustrated, half an hour later I was putting the finishing touches on a bridge interchange section of my main project calculating reaction time and braking distances in respect to sight lines due to bend radi of various road layout options, I can remeber comparing what were my strengths and weakneses that morning and it felt so sureal. I guess this is just one of the very interesting things about autism in general how we can be very good at some things and quite poor at others, I know personally it makes for an interesting if sometime confusing life.

 

Best wishes, let us know how you get on investigating the area of life coaches.

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I've often thought throughout the past year that life coaching could be a possible way for people to improve their lives or social skills or whatever - but in a way that is appropriate for people with AS....

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Hi, I know that this is an old thread but I thought I'd reply anyway. Bill Goodyear has moved to Cornwall, but he still coaches adults with Aperger's, by phone and comes up to London regularly to meet the people he coaches.

 

He's just about to start coaching my son, paid for (hopefully) by our Adults with disabilities team at our Local Authority.

 

You can find him on facebook or twitter

https://twitter.com/billgoodyear

or

https://www.facebook.com/bill.goodyear.798

 

He has also written a book

http://www.amazon.com/Coaching-People-Aspergers-Syndrome-Goodyear/dp/1855754134

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Hi Robert I'll post the info later but this is a huge coincidence because I was going to post info about my life coach on here today...how weird to see that you've asked about life coaches today! Her name is Melanie Holland. Her website is called Life by Design. She is absolutely inspirational....well that was my experience anyway! Although her office is in Devon, she also life coaches via her website. I thoroughly recommend. She was a social worker for most of her career, but got fed up with red tape stopping her from being able to help people in constructive ways....she's an `outside the box` thinker, with a genuine desire to help people, and an amazing natural ability to understand people. Life coaching is the one thing i've tried as therapy which actually worked for me. It changed the patterns of thinking and helped me to let go of old habits...I also hoped it would help me train my husband to be tidy...but although she's very good, she can't work miracles! :)

 

http://www.lifebydes...k/About-Us.html

 

Oh I just realised this is an old thread...sorry was trying to rush...hope this helps anyway.

Edited by Merry

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Hey Merry, that's fantastic! When I get time, I'll look her up. Obviously I'm out of area so hope some kind of distance learning perhaps...

 

I still need to sit down and look at the other site you suggested...I started but got distracted...then never got the chance....

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