Recognizing the Need
The idea of coaching adolescents and young adults grew on me gradually. When I first started coaching professionally in 2010, my initial niche was working with junior managers, team leaders, and mid-level executives. These were my first clients, and my professional life revolved around supporting them. However, on the home front, my children were growing into tweens and teenagers, and I found myself engaging deeply with them and their friends.
As many parents of teenagers will attest, this age group comes with unique challenges—communicating effectively, supporting their search for identity, and guiding them without dampening their spirit. I quickly realized that the coaching skills I used in my professional practice were just as valuable in parenting. In fact, many of my children’s friends would comment on how different my relationship with my children was compared to theirs with their parents. This made me reflect: Was there a gap in how we engage with young people?
As I examined my coaching training, I recognized that it had largely assumed I would be working with adults—primarily corporate professionals. The idea of coaching adolescents and young adults hadn’t been explicitly explored. But because of my natural engagement with my children and their peers, I began running workshops for adolescents and young adults. One particular workshop—originally called Out of Uniform, Into the World—evolved over 12 years into How to Manage Life After High School. The response was profound; young people told me it was the first time someone had truly listened to them and valued their opinions.
This sparked a critical question for me: How can coaching be adapted to empower adolescents and young adults in a meaningful way?
Research and Realization
As I reflected on this question, I became increasingly aware of another reality—there were very few coaches trained to work with this demographic. Most coaches I knew in Kenya specialized in executive or adult coaching. While core coaching skills remained the same, I recognized that adolescents and young adults, given their developmental stages, required a tailored approach.
When it came time for me to choose a topic for my doctoral research, it was only natural that I would explore the intersection of coaching, education, and adolescent development. My research focused on how coaching skills could be used in parenting to maximize the potential of young people, specifically through the lens of Self-Determination Theory—fostering competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
Through this research, I also saw a systemic gap. Governments and organizations had programs focused on skills training, entrepreneurship, and mentorship for young people. Parents had access to parenting workshops, though few taught coaching skills. While mentoring, training, and even therapy all have their place, I realized that coaching—if viewed as a methodology—was largely underutilized in adolescent and youth development.
This led me to a bold idea: What if we could grow a network of coaches dedicated to using coaching methodologies to unlock the potential of young people?
Building a Structured Approach
As I developed this vision, one critical aspect stood out—the ethics of coaching young people. Any framework I created had to rest on a strong ethical foundation. Adolescents and young adults are a unique demographic, and just as teachers, therapists, and medical professionals have specific ethical guidelines, so too should coaches working with them.
I wanted to ensure that coaches did not overstep their role, make unrealistic promises, or substitute coaching for other forms of professional support when needed. Equally important was an awareness of the developmental needs of adolescents and emerging adults. Coaching young people required specialized tools, ethical integrity, and a deep sense of empathy.
This led to the development of the Ethical Empowerment Model for Coaching Adolescents and Young Adults, built on five guiding principles:
- Trust and Safety – Creating a safe space for young people to express themselves.
- Active Listening – Genuinely hearing and understanding their perspectives.
- Empowerment – Encouraging self-awareness and decision-making.
- Integrity and Accountability – Upholding ethical standards in coaching.
- Developmental Alignment – Recognizing and respecting the unique challenges of this life stage.
From these principles, I formulated the 4E Training Methodology & Framework:
- Engage – Build trust and connection.
- Empower – Foster self-awareness and confidence.
- Equip – Provide practical strategies for growth.
- Elevate – Support self-actualization and resilience.
Interestingly, this framework serves a dual purpose: It guides how we train coaches and also shapes how those coaches engage with adolescents and young adults.
A Journey Over a Decade in the Making
Looking back, this journey has spanned well over a decade—from those early coaching sessions with corporate clients to using those same skills with my teenage children and their friends, to my seven years of doctoral research, and finally, to designing a curriculum, developing the framework, applying for accreditation, selecting partners, and recruiting the pilot cohort.
Now, as we prepare to launch our first cohort on April 14th and 15th 2025, I am filled with excitement. This program is not set in stone—it will grow, evolve, and improve with feedback. But at its heart is a clear vision: to build a network of coaches specifically trained to support adolescents and young adults in a meaningful, ethical, and impactful way.
And so, the LCC Diploma in Coaching Adolescents and Young Adults course (CAYC) begins.
