HI, EVERYONE! I'M TOM.
HI, EVERYONE! I'M TOM.
IDENTITY CHILDREN COACH
My name is Tom, The Identity Coach
Ever since I was a little boy, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. Before I qualified, I volunteered as a TA across multiple primary schools for five years and have been a qualified teacher for four years. I have always enjoyed working with and getting to know children as unique individuals and I consider my passion for working with children and my ability to build strong, trusting relationships with children to have been particular strengths of my teaching career.
I have noticed that children today have to manage far more than I did as a child. The online sphere has grown into a particularly important part of children’s social lives, which exposes them to an ever expanding variety of pressures to fit in. I have seen children dealing with pressures such as cyberbullying or wider ‘culture war’ topics, including children under 10 being pressured to state their sexual orientation. All of these problems have become particularly pronounced in the last few years, which has fed back into children’s school life.
It is for this reason that I started Identity Coaching. Through a personalised 1:1 mindset coaching curriculum, I aim to equip children with the tools they need to make their own way in the world, filter out the voices that don’t matter and focusing on those that do. This will help them to build their confidence and identity for themselves free from external social pressures.
My approach
My approach to coaching is exemplified in my logo. Like all plants, our identities and sense of self is rooted in something. Our identities are made up of both things we cannot choose - such as our immutable characteristics, family and cultural background - and things we can choose - such as our interests, friendships and style. These aspects of our identity are not separate and (like in a tree) the roots and the leaves work together as one system to grow our identities.
My approach is to delve deep into a child’s roots to help them gain a secure and strengthened understanding of who they are and where they have come from, including their core values, before looking at how they can sculpt their unique identity without abandoning their past selves.
Each child will start their journey with a blank tree like this, which we will fill out by starting with the roots and then using these to inform the sort of leaves that grow. Using effective and personalised coaching techniques, together we can help children to sculpt their own identities in their own way on their own terms.
