How I Help

Services

Less stress

More control

More confidence

Greater independence

 

It feels like there’s never enough time to slow down and think about what’s ahead.

 
How Marianne helps her clients

  • understand and leverage your strengths

  • understand your challenges and how to build around or tackle them

  • create an individualized time-management plan

  • design manageable, daily goals that make sense to you

  • collaborate on a way for you to hold yourself accountable, with my support

  • develop tools for greater independence

“Brains, minds are built, not born.”

- Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University

Who I Help

 
Marianne helps teens improve Executive Function skills

TEENS

Middle and High School Students

A teenager doesn’t need a disorder or learning difference to struggle with Executive Functioning. Recent research suggests our Executive Functioning may not reach full maturity until our early 30s.

This means our ability to plan ahead, self-regulate, and control impulses is not fully mature until well into adulthood.

Perhaps there are underlying learning differences or disorders, but a student may simply require targeted EF skill and strategy development.

Developing Executive Function skills can also increase a student’s ability to advocate for themselves, a critical skill for success in high school.

Executive Function Coaching is driven by the client as a willing and active participant. Depending on the age of the teen, the parent is either an active participant in every meeting, an occasional partner, or simply an advisor. 

Marianne helps College Students and Adults improve Executive Function skills

ADULTS

College Students and Adults

The lack of structure in college and the workplace, especially for small business owners, can be overwhelming. The list of complicated, long-term to-do items can be paralyzing.

According to Dr. Jack Naglieri, “Executive Function is the most important ability we have because it provides us a way to decide how to do what we choose to do.”

Adult clients often know they are capable of the work. It’s the process - the “how we do what we choose to do” - that often causes the most stress.

Build Up’s adult clients have appreciated a chance to re-focus on skills and strategies that will serve them as adults and increase their ability to tackle what’s coming at them. Their newfound sense of control and confidence is palpable.

 

 What Is Your Role?

 

Developing new skills takes time, effort, and an open mind. During coaching with me, the client can expect to:

  • actively collaborate and drive this process

  • communicate honestly and openly with me, so we can figure out how to best support your development

  • focus more on process than content

  • expect change to be slow and steady

 

“We succeed in fixing our weaknesses only when we are (also) making the most of our strengths.”           

 -Lea Waters, The Strength Switch

 
 

Investment

 

TIME: 12 weeks is the minimum commitment

MEETINGS: Twice a week, ideally: one 40-50 minute meeting with a 15-20 minute follow-up meeting later in the week. For the first one or two weeks, we meet twice a week for 40 minutes. Daily check-ins - even a quick text - can be helpful in the beginning 

COST: $125 start-up fee and $125/hour for the time Marianne meets with the client, parents/guardians or other relevant professionals. This rate will also be charged for time spent preparing documents for mental health professionals, educators, etc.

LOCATION: Telepractice or possibly in-person meetings, depending on the evolving Covid-protocols and schedules 

FAQs

  • Executive Function skills include attentional control, cognitive flexibility, self-regulation, response inhibition, strategic planning, and impulse control. Some models also include working memory which is critical to success in school and in the workplace. Examples of working memory include holding a thought during dinner while someone else is talking, continuing to listen to a presenter while jotting down notes, or remembering - upon finding yourself in your bedroom - what you wanted to get there.

    Self Regulation and Executive Function skills “... are like an air traffic control system in the brain — they help us manage information, make decisions, and plan ahead.”

    -A Guide to Executive Function. Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University

    Executive Function skills have nothing to do with intelligence. In fact, middle and high school research suggests “mastery of EF Skills is a better predictor of success in school than IQ.”

    -Duckworth, A.L. & Seligman, M.E.P. 2005, Psychological Science

    “Executive function refers to brain functions that activate, organize, integrate and manage other functions.

    - Retrieved on May 7, 2022, from https://chadd.org/about-adhd/executive-function-skills/

    • Plan and prioritize better.

    • Stay focused.

    • Adapt. Be flexible.

    • Reduce stress.

    • Begin hard tasks.

    • Get organized.

    • Manage your time better.

    • Work smarter and more efficiently.

    • Better control impulses and emotions.

    • Find better balance.

    • Manage life, work, school, sports, and/or tech better.

    • Assess what is working & what is not.

    • Size it up. Break it down. Play it out.

  • This is possible in a pinch, but a laptop or tablet works far better.

  • As described under SERVICES, there is a 10-12 week minimum commitment, and we will target two or three executive skills. As with laying down any new habit, executive function skill development is slow and steady. Clients need time to learn a new strategy or tool, tweak it to fit their needs, practice with support, and then practice independently.

    • Executive Function Skills from CHAD.org: https://chadd.org/about-adhd/executive-function-skills/

    • A Guide to Executive Function by The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/guide/a-guide-to-executive-function/