Child coaching is a fairly new form of service. The severity of the psychological treatment is gone. Coaching is above all practical, positive and affirming. A specialty within child coaching is the approach to a specific target group. Gerda Brussé is a children’s coach in the NLP method, or Neuro Linguistic Programming. Because she noticed that little attention is paid to Dutch orphans, she now focuses on these children with a coaching program. Orphan child. Traditionally, that term has a rather charged content. The word is reminiscent of times gone by, or else of distant lands where disease and war can tear families apart. But also in our time and in our country there are of course children who lose their parents, at an age when that loss causes extra major problems. NLP Children’s Coach Gerda Brussé from Dordrecht wondered: what about the care of Dutch orphans?
Dutch orphans: cannot be ‘googled’
Gerda Brussé did an orientation tour on the internet via Google. But despite the use of all kinds of different search terms, the term ‘orphan child’ repeatedly appeared to refer to content about foreign children and the various organizations that work for that target group. Brussé wondered how it was possible that there is virtually no information on the internet about Dutch orphans. Precisely because the story of any child who has lost their parents testifies to a great loss.
Orphan at age seven
Brussé herself lost her biological father when she was seven. Her mother remarried two years later to the man whom Gerda came to see as her own father from then on. Based on her own background and her work area, she decided to focus on the target group of orphans, through NLP Children’s Coaching. She gives free introductory workshops every two weeks. Gerda also involves those who raise and care for the children, supervisors and teachers in her approach.
NLP Children’s Coaching
Gerda was a skipper’s wife on inland shipping for many years and a mother of two children. Then it was time for a life on shore. She didn’t really find everything she was looking for in volunteer work with children. She studied NLP (or Neuro Linguistic Programming). She discovered that NLP was a nice combination for her with working with children. This gave rise to her specialty, NLP Children’s Coaching. As a coach, Brussé helps children to deal with difficult situations positively and to channel negative feelings in the right direction. In line with the current trend in psychology, the emphasis is not on the question of where in the past the source of the current situation lies and what exactly happened in the past. The question is precisely how you can improve your situation in the present. Gerda: ,Thanks to my NLP training, I now know that you can learn positive emotions at a fairly young age, as well as a lack of them; it is clear to me that I can make a difference here.
About Gerda Brussé
Gerda Brussé (1965) is a certified NLP Master and applies NLP to children. She has turned her passion into her job and wants to help children, parents and caregivers of Dutch orphans process the loss through NLP Children’s Coaching. Her website is www. denlpkindercoach.nl