Social coaching is for teens and adults who desire to see improvement and beneficial change in their ability to interact with other people. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder or social pragmatic disorder frequently struggle to understand and use language correctly in all social contexts. This challenge can lead to unfortunate misunderstandings that fracture friendships and relationships with family co-workers.
Coaching is conducted by a professional with experience working with individuals who are diagnosed with a social pragmatic disorder, an autism spectrum disorder or who suspect that they may have a mild form autism, but have not sought an evaluation.
During the coaching process the coach completes a detailed intake interview with the client that is used to assist the client in goal writing, the client and the coach write the social goals together and then a formulate a plan to address the goals, the plan is then implemented and during this time the coach holds the client accountable for progress while providing structure, encouragement and support. In the event that the individual is missing specific skills needed to successfully reach the identified goals, the social coach will teach these skills to the individual so that they are able to succeed.
Social coaching differs from counseling in that coaching is a goal oriented approach that looks forward Whereas counseling is often conducted for the use of revisiting one’s past and finding healing from his or her wounds. The goals of counseling is to recover from the past wounds and move forward towards a lifestyle of healing, finding freedom from their pain.
Coaching is also available for other goal areas like habilitation (skills of daily living) and issues of independent living.
Social coaching is offered in-person and online.