Executive Skills are a collection of brain functions that help regulate the completion of tasks, the ability to shift from one thing to another, the ability to maintain focus both on school tasks and social relationships. Here is a list of 11 recognized Executive Skills.

If a young adult is attending post-secondary, weekly, one-hour sessions are recommended. This allows us to help you plan week-by-week and deal with assignments, tests and post secondary situations as they arise. For young adults in transition from high school who have no specific plan for post secondary education, sessions are available weekly, bi-weekly or on an as-needed basis to assist with job search, connection to community services and general life planning.

This very much depends on your learning/cognitive profile, your willingness to try new things, your initial level of emotional reactivity and the nature/severity of your Executive Skill difficulties. Most young adults need roughly one year of weekly sessions to improve although some individuals require a shorter time or only need intermittent support. We “fade out” support when a young adult is feeling more confident by dropping the frequency of sessions and will let you know when it is time to do this.

While we are not trained counselors or therapists and cannot provide services for young adults who have significant mental health issues, we can teach ways to manage anxiety, perfectionism, procrastination and negative feelings surrounding post secondary schoolwork and general life choices as they relate to your learning profile. To do this, we take a positive approach, focusing on strengths and embracing “failure” (which is absolutely necessary in order to learn and grow!) We also strongly encourage a flexible mindset, incorporate elements of mindfulness training, work to alter distorted thought patterns (i.e. “I will never be able to do this”) and we teach about brain functioning during our sessions. Executive Skill (Academic Strategy) Coaching can be a great addition to therapy with a Psychologist or other mental health professional but should not be considered as a replacement for therapy if you have significant mental health issues.

Medication for ADHD, depression and anxiety is always a touchy subject and everyone needs to make this decision in collaboration with their physicians and other professionals. Generally, medication is only recommended by health care professionals when the symptoms of ADHD, depression or anxiety significantly limit someone’s ability to function at school or in life. These symptoms can sometimes be enough to slow the progress of all learning, including the learning that should happen in our Executive Skill (Academic Strategy) Coaching sessions. Executive Skill Coaching can be an excellent addition to the use of medication but should not be considered a replacement for medication if your symptoms are significant.

Please call or email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!