Northlight Family Services


	The Life Learning Plan The Life Learning Plan is a comprehensive tool for supporting families who have a child at a program. It is a therapeutic curriculum that a family is guided through by a coach. It helps parents make positive change while participating in a student’s residential process. The Life Learning Plan helps parents strengthen communication and develop healthy boundaries. It honors the family’s belief systems, individual values, and helps family members develop a vision of what is possible. The curriculum leads to a plan for success at the end of a residential program that includes house rules, budgets, schedules, and new tools for communication. A Life Learning Plan is a significant endeavor. Family members work with written materials and receive regular coaching, instruction, and guidance. The LLP coach meets regularly with the parents and also travels to the student’s school. Regular phone appointments are scheduled with the student when they are nearing transition out of the program. Some Exercises in the Life Learning Plan: •Clarify the purpose of the child’s emotional growth work •Identify areas for parents’ emotional growth work •Expose patterns of relationship in the family •Provide “tools” to interrupt and change dysfunctional patterns •Connect emotional growth work to individual needs, values, and beliefs •Help families improve communication and create their own unique tools for decision-making, planning, and conflict resolution •Help families understand and work with issues of power and control •Help families create schedules, budgets, expectations, and consequences •Create “structures” for accountability •Identify and work with core needs and beliefs •Improve personal boundaries and emotional contact in relationships •Heal old wounds •Identify local resources to support long lasting change, learning, and growth •And much more… Families are advised to start the Life Learning Plan early in their student’s residential program. We have found that the earlier that a family begins the process, the greater the payoff of the work.