Learning & Life Coaching

Bright, capable teenagers still get stuck — usually for reasons school never taught them to notice.

One-to-one online coaching that builds the learning-to-learn skills behind lasting change: focus, study systems, motivation, and exam strategy — led by a coaching psychologist and 20-year pastoral leader with a Master's in Applied Positive & Coaching Psychology.

this is the skills gap, not an ability gap

It's rarely about ability. It's about how they've been taught to learn.

Most academic struggle in capable teenagers isn't a knowledge gap — it's a skills gap that no subject actually teaches: how to plan before starting, how to notice when a study method isn't working, how to recover after a setback.

Coaching works directly on those underlying skills, so the change carries across every subject, not just the one you hired help for.

This is worth a conversation if your teenager…

  • Studies for hours but results don't reflect the effort
  • Avoids starting tasks until the pressure is high
  • Seems to have "lost" a subject they used to enjoy
  • Is anxious about exams despite knowing the material
  • Is heading into IB, GCSEs, or a big academic transition

A structured program, not open-ended chat.

Metacognition

Learning to notice their own thinking — what's working, what isn't, and why — so they can self-correct without you having to step in.

Study systems

Practical planning and revision structures that fit how they actually work, replacing guesswork with a repeatable process.

Focus & motivation

Addressing avoidance and procrastination at the root, drawing on positive psychology rather than pressure or punishment.

Exam strategy

Turning knowledge into performance under time pressure — the skill most students are never explicitly taught.

20 years inside the schools where this problem lives.

Karla Hawkins
MSc Applied Positive & Coaching Psychology
  • 20+ years as pastoral leader & safeguarding lead, international schools
  • IBDP Psychology teacher (Years 1 & 2)
  • Senior leadership: Assistant Head, Head of Key Stage 3
  • Member, British Psychological Society
  • Certified Child Protection & Safeguarding Lead
  • Author of three books, incl. "Raising iGen"

Before coaching, I spent two decades leading pastoral care, wellbeing strategy, and psychology teaching in international schools across Asia, Africa, the UK, and the US — working directly with thousands of teenagers and the families supporting them.

Unlike most coaches, whose training is a short certificate course, mine is a postgraduate Master's in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology — the same academic discipline behind evidence-based approaches to motivation, resilience, and behaviour change. That's the foundation this program is built on, not generic productivity tips.

Author of three books on teenagers, family, and resilience — "Raising iGen: Tackling the Teen Mental Health Crisis through Understanding," "Don't Slam That Door," and "The Cost of Being Easy" — all available on Amazon.

A simple path from first call to real change.

1

Free discovery call (20 min)

We talk through what's actually going on — not just the symptoms, but what's underneath them — and I'll tell you honestly whether coaching is the right fit.

2

A 6-session coaching program

One-to-one online sessions, roughly every two weeks, each 45 minutes — working through study systems, focus, motivation, and exam strategy at your teenager's pace.

3

Ongoing check-ins with you

Light-touch updates so you can see the shift happening, without turning coaching into another thing to police at home.

Start with a free 20-minute call.

I'm currently taking on a small number of founding clients at a reduced rate, in exchange for feedback as the program grows. No pressure, no obligation — just a conversation about what's going on and whether this is the right next step.

Book your free call