23. Navigating Post High School with our Teens

Tess Connolly, LCSW, CCC talks to Stephanie Haynes, ACC, Education Coach and Consultant.  Most parents aren't sure how to help their teens figure out their next steps after high school. Stephanie's book, College Is Not Mandatory, gives parents the tools to introduce and discuss the available options so their teen can step confidently into their future.

• Stephanie talks about how she helps support parents while their teens build clarity of where they want to go after high school and how she offers guidance to parents and their children as they map out a future for themselves that they are excited about. 
• Stephanie talks about how we should talk to our children, encouraging us to be their coach through this part of their life rather than taking a more directive route. 
• She offers us ways we can support our children through this time, offering us types of questions we can ask our children to help coach them into a thought process of navigating their way through making decisions about their future. 
• Tess talks about how she has started to help coach her son through making decisions about his future.
• Tess and Stephanie discuss how we can talk to our children about their values and get them thinking about how they fit their values around their career. Rather than their career fitting around their values. Through doing this Stephanie believes that this will hopefully set them up to be a happier and contented generation.
• Stephanie and Tess talk about the stigma around not going to college and how it has become a status within our communities.They talk about other pathways that could be available to them if they decide not to go to college straight after high school.
• Tess and Stephanie discuss when to start having these conversations with our children and how the earlier we start these conversations with them the less pressurized it will feel for them moving through their teen years and it begins to normalize the process.
• Stephanie talks about putting the responsibility with our children to research the different options that they have available to them so that they can take ownership of this process.
• Stephanie is most grateful for the fact that she gets the opportunity to wrestle with this topic and gets to speak into the culture and say “wait we can stop and do something different”. She loves working with teenagers and their parents, educators and schools and having these conversation

Connect with Therese (Tess) Connolly, LCSW, CCC here: [email protected]

Website: www.mindfulkidsandfamilies.com

Need 1:1 Support?  Book right here to connect with Tess for a 20 minute FREE “Parent Reset” session: https://calendly.com/mindfulkidsandfamilies/20discover

Need support and community? Get on the Parenting Reset Membership Waitlist here: The Parenting Reset Membership Waitlist

Resource for parents from Stephanie Haynes: https://www.stephaniehaynes.net/free-resource