Running head: GRPSY613 1

A Care Coaching Module for Brightwoods School

Master of Arts in Guidance Counseling

Holy Angel University

Submitted to:

Dr. Clarissa F. Delariarte

University of Sto. Tomas

Submitted by:

Mary Florence Valencia-Baltazar

August 13, 2018

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A Care Coaching Module for Brightwoods School

When Brightwoods school reached its statistic of more than a thousand students, this

recent development in due course set conditions and circumstances that made it essential for the

co-curricular aspect, particularly in the area of student development, to flourish and be

redesigned in a way that would expand and bring to better focus particular areas in the school’s

program foci including personal skills, group skills, life skills, and transdisciplinary skills outside

the shelter of the Teacher-Advisor approach – the school counselling model that Brightwoods

educators had practiced since the start of school’s inception.

Eventually, incremental steps towards the development of a school counselling program

need to be undertaken in order to accommodate and address students’ increasing developmental

needs. Recently, the school has come up with a roster of professionals within the school – Care

Coaches, in-house and trained Brightwoods Staff with a background in psychology to assist High

School students deal with issues of their teenage years. These Care Coaches are invited to

participate and to assume the temporary role of a school counsellor. The basic idea behind Care

Coaching is to provide student support through collaboration with designated Helping

Professionals within the school during moments when they need a compassionate and emphatic

adult within the school who cares for their personal growth and well-being.

This module intends as a proposal to guide initial sessions with seven (7) students who

have chosen to undergo Care Coaching sessions as an avenue for them to speak about issues

following a previous focus group discussion aimed at processing grief after the death of one of

their Grade 10 batch mates. Issues that concerned these students vary including self-concept,

self-efficacy, self-improvement, parent-child communication, and how to deal with friends in

danger of self harm.

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By defining an organized structure that aims to ignite student development through the

theoretical underpinnings of positive psychology, the student aims to contribute in developing

the school’s Care Coaching program as a valid and evidence-based ancillary avenue in the school

designed to support comprehensive and meaningful student development.

Module Objectives

 To provide a structured and defined guide for initial Care Coaching Sessions

 To ignite learners’ self-awareness through concepts inspired by the theoretical

underpinnings of Positive Psychology

 To guide learners in recognizing and applying personal strengths in everyday living

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Module 1: Getting to Know YOU

Aim

The objective of this exercise is to establish a stable avenue for rapport in the initial contact

between the Care Coach and Coachee.

Materials: One fishbowl, cut and rolled strips of paper with prompts/questions, glass soda bottle

Method

 Prepare fishbowl and place rolled strips of paper with prompts/questions

 Prepare glass soda bottle

 When the Coachee arrives, communicate welcome and let the Care Coach introduce

himself/herself

 Explain the objective behind the meeting

 Introduce the activity and take turns answering questions by the twisting of the glass soda

bottle

Rationale

It is essential to initiate rapport between the Care Coach and the Coachee because the

trust that develops between them within the initial meeting will set the stage for the helping

relationship. The prompts/questions prepared are to be based on concepts of positive psychology

such as:

Eudaimonic Ideas: Describe a time when you felt the greatest joy.

Wellbeing: What constitutes stress in your life? Do you often feel anxious? Why?

Emotions: What emotion are you often feeling these days? If you can assign a color to it, what

would it be and why?

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Strengths and Virtues: What is your strongest character? Share a time when this character

manifests.

Coping: Are you a planner or a worrier? Why?

After answering a series of 10 questions, process the idea behind the activity to the

Coachee and then set an appointment for a second Coaching session. Insights from this activity

will be used to springboard goal-setting for success.

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Module 2: Here are my STRENGTHS

Aim

The objective of this activity is to introduce to the student the idea of character strengths and

positive psychology concepts for personal development (O’Hanlon & Bertolino, 2012).

 To assist Coachees in identifying their personal strengths

 To engage Coachees to use these character strengths in their everyday life

According to Peterson and Seligman (2004), there are six core virtues wherein twenty-four

character traits are classified.

1) Wisdom and Knowledge

2) Courage and Strength

3) Humanity

4) Justice

5) Temperance

6) Transcendence

Materials

Laptop with Internet/ Desktop with internet, email, paper, pen

Method

 go to website: http://www.viacharacter.org/www/character-strengths-survey#

 click take the via free survey

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 answer the survey.

 List your top five strengths in a piece of paper

What are my five strong character traits?

1. Love for learning

2. Authenticity
3. Kindness
4. Gratitude
5. Spirituality

Fig. 1 Sample My Top Five Strengths

 Ask processing questions:

 What can you say about the results of the survey? Do you agree? Why or why

not?

 How can you apply these strengths in your everyday life?

 What current issues are you facing right now? How can you apply these strengths

to overcome your challenges/crisis?

 Among the five strengths, choose two that you can develop for the period of two weeks.

Write in a journal your reflections.

 Ask what has the student learned about oneself after doing the activity (concluding

remarks)?

 Mindset for next meeting (how personal strengths are created and nullified by the

environment)
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Module 3: My Web of Life

Aim: To present a concept map where the Care Coach guides the Coachee in understanding the

network of one’s psychosocial environment

Materials: My Web of Life worksheet, pen

Method

 Explain about the concept of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s theory on Ecological Systems and

Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development

 Instruct the student to conceptualize a personal map of one’s link of networks: significant

others, individuals, groups, and institutions that currently influence one’s life

 Have the Coachee explain the map that was developed

 Based from this framework, guide the Coachee in understanding how one’s psychosocial

environment system has an ebb and flow effect on well-being, nature of emotions, values,

creativity, coping, and learned helplessness


Name: _________________ Date: _________

Fig. 2 SAMPLE MY WEB OF LIFE

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 Ask the student about his/her thoughts on the ideas discussed

 Ask the student to reflect on his/her personal strengths, especially the two strengths

previously identified

Assignment: Ask the student to reflect on how personal strengths can help the student

respond to the challenges within the context of one’s system/environment

 Ask the student to write this in his/her journal

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Module 4: My Strengths Equipment

Aim: this activity serves to support the learning of concepts about strengths and positive

psychology which were discussed in the previous two modules. Through this exercise, Coachees

would be guided to apply their personal strengths in adaption to present and future life situations.

Materials: Paper, pen, personal journal

Method

 Greet the Coachee and ask how is he/she doing in the previous days

 Ask about the two character traits that he/she had chosen to chronicle for two weeks.

What were the essential realizations of the experience?

 Have the Coachee share what was written in the journal

 Write the following format in the piece of paper:

Day 1

Strength: ____________

Situation: _________________________________________________

How Strength was applied: ___________________________________

Realization: _______________________________________________

Fig. 3 MY STRENGTHS EQUIPMENT

 Ask how the strengths were applied in different life circumstances.

 Based from what the Coachee had learned, set goals and objectives for personal strengths

to be applied in areas of concern in the Coachee’s life (self-concept, self-efficacy, self-

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improvement, parent-child communication, or how to deal with friends in danger of self

harm).

 In conclusion, clarify and build on the positive features of the Coachee’s personal

circumstance to diminish the tendency for negativity and learned helplessness

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Module 5: Conclusion

Aim

 To assist the Coachee in cementing the lessons learned previously

 To assist the Coachee identify short term and long term goals in self-management

through vision making, finding purpose, and applying ways where personal strengths are

used to confront challenging personal circumstances ranging from esteem issues to

helping behaviors

 To guide the Coachee towards positive resources (web pages, books, multimedia) which

can be used to strengthen lessons learned in the Coaching relationship

Materials: Paper, Pen, Desiderata Poem

Method

 Ask the Coachee to share his/her experience throughout the journey

 Identify Short Term and Long Term goals in relation to personal issues identified and

how personal strengths can be used to confront these challenges

 Share the poem on Desiderata

 Conclude meaningfully the objective of the module

 Share to the Coachee web pages, books, multimedia that can aid in rememnbering about

personal strengths and self-development

Resources:
I Never Thought I Had a Choice by Gerard Corey
Strengths Survey: https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register
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References

O’Hanlon, B. & Bertolino, B. (2012) The therapist’s notebook on positive psychology.

Routledge. New York: NY

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and

classification. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.