IN-PERSON IN STUDIO CITY & ONLINE across CALIFORNIA

For the person who can, but can't start, finish, or follow through.

Skill-based coaching for focus, organization, planning, time management, and emotional regulation. For ages 8 through adulthood.

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When "just try harder" has stopped working

Maybe it's assignments that get started at 11 p.m. the night before, if they get started at all. Maybe it's a job application that's been sitting half-finished for three weeks. Maybe it's a kid who is clearly smart and still can't seem to remember gym clothes, homework, or the permission slip that was due yesterday.

”Just try harder" has already been tried. It hasn't worked, because the problem was never effort.

The skills we work on

Eleven core skills that determine whether your kid can take an idea ("study for the test") and turn it into a sequence of actions that actually happens. Most of us develop these gradually from elementary school through our early twenties. Kids with ADHD, autism, or anxiety often develop them more slowly or in patches.

  • Initiating and starting tasks

  • Maintaining focus and attention

  • Planning and goal-setting

  • Time management and time awareness

  • Organization (physical and digital)

  • Working memory and information retention

  • Prioritization

  • Task switching and flexibility

  • Self-monitoring and self-evaluation

  • Emotional regulation

  • Follow-through and task completion

Coaching ≠ therapy ≠ tutoring

  • Tutoring

    Teaches the academic content. Works on what the kid is learning.

  • Therapy

    Addresses emotional and psychological dimensions. Works on how the kid is feeling.

  • EF coaching

    Teaches the meta-skills. Works on how the kid is functioning around the work.

What changes with coaching

What changes isn't intelligence or motivation. Both were already there. What changes is the system underneath: a way to start a task without dread, a planner that actually gets opened, a job search that has a next step instead of a stall.

Most clients notice some shift within a few weeks, before the bigger habits have even fully formed. For a student, that might mean a first draft that gets started before midnight. For an adult, it might mean an inbox that stops feeling like a threat.

Answers to Your Questions

  • A useful starting age is around 8 to 10, when academic demands start requiring multi-step planning. Earlier work is usually parent-focused: building routines and structures that scaffold what the kid will eventually do themselves. Coaching peaks in usefulness during middle school through early college.

  • Many families do 6 to 12 months of regular coaching, then move to occasional check-ins, for example at the start of each semester. Some clients benefit from continuing through the college transition or a job change.

  • Yes. Many clients are doing both, sometimes with me on both fronts, sometimes with another therapist for therapy and me for coaching. When the same person does both, the integration is tighter. With separate providers, communication is set up explicitly.

  • Yes. Late high school through adulthood is a high-impact window: accommodations from K-12 don't carry into college, and many young adults and adults discover their EF gaps for the first time once they're managing their own schedule, or their own job search.

  • Coaching is usually not covered by insurance because it’s not a medical service. Therapy that includes EF skill-building can sometimes be billed as therapy and reimbursed via Superbill. Specifics depend on your plan and the structure of the work.

Wondering if EF coaching is the right fit?

Free 20-minute consultation. We’ll figure out the right next step for your family, whether that’s working with me, working with someone else, or starting somewhere different entirely.

Schedule a Free Consultation