Being healthy is much more than diet and exercise. Being healthy should be looked at holistically. Buckner family coaching seeks to serve families by challenging, encouraging and empowering them to be their best, healthy and complete selves. Families can plug into one-on-one coaching, classes and more at Buckner Family Hope Centers.

Recently, we had a chance to sit down with a few family coaches in the Rio Grande Valley who gave us the inside look into what family coaching is all about.

“What we do in family coaching is not just explore their desires, their interests and self-determined goals, but we also take a look at their overall health,” shared Jorge Rodriguez, Buckner Family Hope Center director and former family coach. “The family comes to us at a point in their life – sometimes a crisis, sometimes just looking to develop a particular skill in their family."

Each family receives coaching personalized to their goals and needs. No two families receive the exact same coaching, but each coach is dedicated to coming alongside them to reach a place of self-sustainability.

“We want to challenge them, not only in the goals they determined, but also some of the things we feel will help them become more resilient. Some things they might even be blind to,” Jorge said.

Through the family coaching model, both families and children:

• Learn care and respect for self and others
• Discover their talents and opportunities
• Become servant leaders
• Break poverty cycles through education and jobs

The biggest testament to the power of family coaching is seeing self-sufficiency.

“One of our favorite things to hear at the end of coaching is, ‘Hey, we finished these goals,’ and then they tell us, ‘This is what I want to do next,’” Jorge shared. “That’s when we realize they are setting their own goals now. We’re no longer coaching them on what’s needed to take the next step.”

For Lili Alejandrez, Buckner family coach at the Family Hope Center in Peñitas, the relationship between her and her families is paramount. Because of the relationship built over time with one of her clients, a recent widow who came in timid, isolated and didn’t know how to drive has now blossomed into a business owner and independent mother who takes her son on fun road trips.

“All we have to do is be the person that believes that they can do it,” Alejandrez said.

See how Buckner Family Hope Centers empower families to reach their fullest God-given potential.