FOR SCHOOLS
The students who need support, but not a referral.
Coaching in decision-making and self-trust, for girls aged 14 to 18.
The Clarity Practice · Jeanne Richterich · ICF-certified · Zurich and Athens
THE GAP
There's a student you can picture. She hands work in. Nothing is wrong on paper. But she's gone quiet this year, or she's snappish in a way she didn't used to be, or she's visibly carrying more than she can hold, and you've thought more than once that somebody should probably talk to her.
You have two options, and neither fits.
Your counselor is good, and your counselor is one person with several hundred students. Getting on that list means being one of the most concerning cases in the building, which most of these girls will never be, and if they were, they'd be taking a place from someone in crisis.
There's also the visibility. That office is in the building, and being seen going in is its own cost. Nothing to do with your counselor, everything to do with the setting.
Referring out means a clinical route. A doctor, a diagnosis, a waiting list measured in months, and a conversation with parents that starts by suggesting something is wrong with their daughter. For a girl who is overwhelmed rather than unwell, that's too much, and everyone involved knows it. So mostly nothing happens, and you keep an eye on her.
This is for that girl.
The overwhelmed ones. The ones who've gone quiet. The ones carrying more decisions, more comparison, and more performance pressure at sixteen than any cohort before them, with the same amount of guidance.
Often what she needs isn't treatment. It's an hour with an adult who isn't her parent, isn't her teacher, and isn't going to repeat any of it.
WHAT THIS IS
One-to-one coaching in decision-making and self-trust.
Each session starts by agreeing what she wants to get out of the hour. It ends with what she's taking from it, something she's decided to do, and how she plans to hold herself to it. In between she talks and I ask questions.
That sounds simpler than it is. The work is in which questions, and in hearing what's underneath the thing she came in with rather than the thing itself.
Somewhere in the exploring, a moment of clarity usually arrives. Getting to it is what we practice together, and the more we do it the more she can get there on her own.
WHAT THIS ISN'T
Not therapy, and not a substitute for it.
Not a mental health intervention. Not a service that will hold a student who needs clinical support.
On self-trust and authority
A girl who trusts her own judgment is easier to teach, not harder. She pushes back with a reason instead of going quiet or going along. Nothing in this work positions her against her parents or her teachers. The noise we help her filter is social media and group chats.
FORMATS
Five ways to work together.
Assembly talk · 20 minutes
Fits an existing assembly slot. Introduces self-trust as a practical skill, with one exercise students can use the same week.
Workshop · one hour · all the girls in a grade, or a smaller group
With a whole grade, structured exercises and paired work on decisions they're facing now.
Program · four consecutive weeks · one hour weekly · 10 to 12 girls
The full arc, delivered in person throughout, with a short self-report at the start and end and a written summary for your wellbeing team.
Parent evening · 15 minutes including questions
Slots into an existing parents' evening. Why girls this age struggle to locate their own judgment, and what parents can do at home.
One-to-one · by referral
Arranged directly with families, outside school time.
Most schools start with the talk. A common first visit is the talk in the morning, a workshop after it, and a parent evening that week.
CREDENTIALS
Anyone can call themselves a coach. Not everyone has been certified.
There is no licence required to practise, which is exactly why the certification matters.
I hold a credential from the International Coaching Federation, the profession's principal global accrediting body. It requires accredited training, supervised practice, examinations, and ongoing adherence to their code of ethics, including a complaints procedure I don't control. Credential holders are listed on a public register, so my standing is verifiable rather than something you take on trust.
SAFEGUARDING AND GOVERNANCE
Documentation available on request.
Swiss Privatauszug, available on request
Sonderprivatauszug, the extract specific to regular work with minors, obtained on engagement
Professional liability insurance
ICF Code of Ethics and complaints procedure
Written confidentiality and disclosure policy, shared with students and parents before any session
Anything suggesting risk goes to your designated safeguarding lead the same day, following your procedure
Happy to complete your own vetting process and provide references.
SCHEDULING
Booked in blocks, around my dates in each city.
I spend blocks of time in Zurich and Athens and book school visits around those dates. The group program runs over four consecutive weeks, delivered in person throughout, so there's no gap in the middle and nothing falls back to video.
Talks and workshops are single visits.