Erika Bugbee Coaching

coaching for

teens & young adults

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The biggest difference I see between young people and adults is that young people’s feelings are more raw, unpredictable, and louder. Young adults grow faster than any other age group except infants.

The result is that their chemistry is unstable, so their mood changes are fast and furious, creating someone that’s often unrecognizable from the person they were as a kid.

So naturally they’re not great at containing, hiding, or regulating their moods and emotions. The volume is turned up too high and they’ve had less time to learn to stabilize than the rest of us.

It can be scary, frustrating, and sometimes debilitating for the young person, and destabilizing for parents.

Yet young people absorb and learn faster than adults, and have much fewer bad habits to let go of.

So even though they may struggle in much bigger ways than adults, young people are just as capable as adults at learning to find their own stability, resilience, and confidence. In fact they learn much quicker than my adult clients.

My programs are focused on strengthening those essential capabilities. This creates young people that can handle change, uncertainty, and challenges with more self-assurance, wisdom, and grace.

Are you a struggling parent?

I ALSO helps parents THAT ARE struggling with their teens.
visit the parenting page for DETAILS.

Examples of topics and issues I help teens and young adults with:

Work with Erika

Single Sessions or 4-Session Coaching Packages
for Teens & Young Adults via Zoom

Four private 1-hour sessions with Erika Bugbee, M.A. will take place over Zoom. These are one-on-one coaching conversation that provide a safe and judgment-free place. This gives you an opportunity to get some distance and fresh perspective around the specific challenges and struggles you have, and reflect and discuss options in how you want to handle them.

You set the agenda and decide what we focus on. I’m not intrusive and I have no agenda but to give you a space to talk freely and openly and to look at life through a different lens. Throughout our sessions I will share things that will not only help you through the challenges you face today, but will also give you the tools for a nicer life as an adult.

individual coaching sessions

Four 1-hour video sessions with Erika Bugbee, M.A. will take place weekly or as needed. These sessions give you a structured time to step back and look at the stressors and challenges you face and to share what’s on your mind with the help of someone that’s trained and experienced, is interested in your thoughts and ideas, and cares about young people.

hand-picked resources

Three complimentary audio products will be hand-picked to support your specific and unique areas of growth or struggle. If the idea of listening to audio products sounds terrible (very common in young people!), I’ll give these audios to your parents so they can better understand and support you.

While a huge amount can be gained from a 4-Session Coaching Package, clients often need additional or ongoing sessions or packages.

Session Costs:
Single Sessions: $255 USD
4-Session Packages: $975 USD

4-Day Intensive Programs for Young Adults via Zoom or in La Conner, Washington (USA)

This one-on-one program gives you an opportunity to slow down and disengage from your daily life, get into a more relaxed and reflective state, and look at your stress, struggles, and challenges through a fresh set of eyes. The retreat-style structure, pace, and schedule is facilitated in such a way that it will allow you to learn the principles I teach through a process that’s insight-driven. This will give you a rise in your level of well-being and clarity, a better outlook with more perspective, and more confidence and ability to find your own answers.

individual coaching sessions

Four days of private sessions with Erika Bugbee, M.A. will get your mind in a more relaxed state so you’re more receptive to learning and seeing things fresh, and will promote clarity and insight around the specific issues you want help with most. These sessions give you a structured time to step back and look at the challenges you face and to share what’s on your mind with the help of someone that’s trained and experienced, is interested in what you have to say, and cares about young people.

structured time to clear your head, listen to music, rest, and relax

Structured time between sessions is built into the program to provide the opportunity for you to absorb, reflect on what you’re learning, and clear your head in preparation for the next session.

hand-picked resources

Six complimentary audio products will be hand-picked to support your specific and unique areas of growth or struggle. If the idea of listening to audio products sounds terrible (very common in young people), I’ll give these audios to your parent(s) so they can better understand and support you.

follow-up sessions

Three 1-hour follow-up calls are included in the program to help you apply your learning and insights to your everyday life. This also gives you the opportunity to get support with active decisions, problems, or struggles you face following your 4-Day session. Additional sessions can be added as needed.

Cost of program:

$4500 USD

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FAQs

While it depends on how much a young adult WANTS help, overall young adults have a remarkable advantage over most adults: they learn incredibly fast. They’re sharp, intuitive, and are more open and receptive to seeing a new way of looking at life. Unlike adults, they haven’t bought into a collection of theories about how life works.

I’ve found that a majority of my young adult clients are eager to have someone listen to them, and once I establish some trust with them, are very open to looking at their struggles through a different lens. Young people, especially those that are stressed, under pressure, insecure, or acting out, are desperate for someone to listen to them, to be interested in what they’re up against, and to feel like someone gets them and cares about their struggles.

Once that’s provided to them, I consistently see a rise in young people’s level of clarity and well-being, which gives them hope, confidence in their ability to find their own way, and a fresh outlook on their lives.

Young adults who understand life better, at an earlier age, are overall less self-destructive and have more of the things we want for them — the clarity to look ahead, think for themselves, find their own common sense. They’re more willing to get out of their comfort zone, find their resilience, and they recover from setbacks faster. Ultimately that results in a stronger, happier, and more independent young person.

One important factor is that just like adults, young people greatly vary in their openness, their readiness to change, and their ability to reflect on themselves. Adults will often realize something about themselves that their partner tried to point out decades before, but they simply weren’t ready to hear it. That’s the x-factor in personal transformation.

Yet something happens when a young person that’s struggling is in the presence of someone like me that’s respectful, that listens, and that’s 100% interested in being of service to them with no agenda. Their level of openness and accountability goes up. Their mature side comes out. To whatever degree change is possible for a young person, the environment and partnership I create with my young clients is where that change is made possible.

For the 1st session with a new client, I have no problem with parents bribing, incentivizing, or insisting their teen meet with me. For one session.

That allows them to get a feel for what I’m like, that I’m a respectful and genuine person, that I don’t judge and I have no agenda. So they know the help is there if and when they’re ready.

However, after the initial session, I require that the teens themselves be the one to initiate future sessions. Parents should only schedule sessions if and when the teen expresses the need or desire themselves, even if the teen is really struggling (which I know can be excruciating to watch).

Teens are extremely private and very easily overwhelmed and immobilized. Unlike adults, many teens would much rather suffer in privacy than have to talk to an adult. Sometimes I’m not the kind of help they need and rather than providing relief, I become another problem they have to navigate politely.

So parents are welcome to lightly suggest they can talk with me if they’d like, but initiating sessions will hurt my rapport with them, override their wisdom and instincts to find their own way, and create undue strain and hardship without benefit. I don’t judge professionals that work with mandated clients, it’s just not something I do.

Typically 13 is the minimum age I work with, but I have worked very effectively with 12-year-olds before if they’re on the mature side.

By mature we mean if they’re able to sit and carry on a conversation on Zoom for a 1-hour session. And they’d need to be mature enough to have some self-awareness, report on how they’re doing, and take in my thoughts and direction. They have to WANT to talk with someone about themselves and get help.

Some teens (more often the boys in my experience) are not mature enough to take part in coaching sessions in a beneficial way until they’re 16-18. So sometimes it’s not so much the age as the maturity level.

Unfortunately, my approach and my programs are not suited for clients that are in an active crisis. Once the immediate crisis is over, and a client gets to a mental state where he/she is able to learn, be reflective, and engage in conversation, I can help prevent future crises and the buildup of stress and unchecked problems that leads to crises. 

If you are in crisis right now, or know someone that is, I encourage you to use the resources below right away: 

Within the United States:

Contact the Suicide and Crisis lifeline, you can call or text 988 from a cell phone    

Go to www.988lifeline.org to chat with someone live.    

Outside of the United States:

Please follow this link to find your local crisis hotline https://blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines/

reach out to erika to inquire