Who can help you work through all of this, who can you talk to? Your friends and family are not always the best choices, they don’t know what to say and they don’t want to hurt your feelings. There are those who honestly believe these things can cure themselves or are not as serious as you feel they are. Of course those of us who have ‘been they’re - done that’ know this approach does not work. Often people suggest counseling or therapy, but most people don’t need either of these. How does dealing with your past issue’s help you deal with treatment, a child with special needs or many related situations? You have plenty of access to medical personnel, but they can’t help you with the personal part of ‘family planning’. It isn’t advice that you need anyway, it is a sounding board so you can look at all your options and you can make choices that suit your needs. You need a coach to talk to, someone who isn’t there to judge, but to help walk you through to an end that works best for you.

 

For most people ‘Family Planning’ is relatively simple. Decide to start a family, engage in sex and in a year or so the woman produces a baby! Most people don’t put a plan in place, or the plan is more about keeping the family at a certain number of children. For a small population, pregnancy ‘just happens’, whether they want the children or not. Unfortunately for an ever growing minority, things do not go so easily. Almost 10% of all couples will find creating a family to be more difficult than they expected. For these people, ‘Family Planning’ could mean infertility treatments, adoption or choosing to live childfree. Infertility is a life altering situation and affects decision-making and relationships; coaching helps you regain control of the situation and your life.

 

Most people who experience infertility do not require therapy, but can benefit by having an objective, caring and understanding person to talk to. As your coach I help you identify family values so you can discover the steps needed to walk you through this difficult time. My personal, and professional, background has lead me to ‘life coaching’. I specialize in working with people facing issues of infertility, adoption/living child-free or raising a child with special needs. As an adoptive mom, I would never trade my wonderful little girl for any child; she is my daughter as much as if I had given birth to her. Unfortunately, like many adopted children, she has special needs; some are genetic and some are a result of  prenatal and post-natal issues. Most adopted children are perfectly fine children with no abnormal issues, but because they are adopted there are issues that need to be addressed; they have a history and genetic background that they will need to know about. Coaching helps you deal with any of these issues. If your coach has been there - done that, they will understand the extra challenges that go with raising a non biological child and can help you walk down  this challenging path.

 

I spent many years riding the infertility roller coaster and have one teenage adopted daughter. My professional training combined with my personal background provides me with an unusual and unique perspective when working with people. ‘Family Development Coaching’ often involves working with one person, but it could mean working with a couple, or even an entire family. It could mean looking at family creation options, working through assessments and considering treatment plans. It could result in needing to look at various options and find an alternative means of creating the family you are aiming for. ‘Family Development Coaching' can help you walk through all the steps from trying to conceive to either adopt or live childfree. 'Family Development Coaching' should not be limited to 'Infertility Coaching', 'Adoption Coaching', 'Parenting Coaching', 'Grief Coaching' or 'Relationship Coaching' since much of it often goes hand in hand!

 

A good coach is there to listen to you while you consider, and go through, ALL of your options. They can help you look into each one of them, and provide you with the skills to make an informed decision that works for YOU! Dealing with fertility treatment and family relationship issues are long difficult battles. The biggest thing to deal with is your emotions and your personal decision making ability. Your ‘Family Planning Coach’ is not there to judge what you do, how you do it or how you feel; they are there to support you while you work your way down the difficult road toward having the family that makes you happy.

 

To discuss ‘Family Development Coaching', contact Judi. As an adoptive mother, (a widow and mom of a child with special needs) who has faced many family development issues, she is not just trained to help you work through your difficult times, she has been there as well!