Alan Wilson, Founder of Develop Your Child

Alan began his career in the advertising and marketing industry over thirty years ago and has a proven track record of achievement, developing a successful group of creative production companies. His ethos was to challenge and support his clients to create a differential from their competitors. A marketing strategy was created to promote their unique solution, which invariably led to satisfied and profitable clients despite their competitive environments.

Going inward and making a difference
He became frustrated with a lack of new challenges and began to look for something more meaningful. Alan underwent a period of self-examination and reflection and investigated many complementary therapies. He came to the conclusion that, in order to fulfil his purpose, he needed to pursue a career where he could make a real difference to other people and, in particular, to the lives of children.

Alan has been married twice and has three children, Toby - 31, Holly - 29 and Cassy - 18. When Cassy was born, he realised he needed to reassess his parenting skills. He also recognised that his perspective of children related to his business philosophy i.e. find your good points and then build on them. It seemed a logical progression to marry that philosophy with his business acumen to set about making a positive impact on people's lives - but how?

Humbled, moving morward
Following a meeting with a Life Coach, this idea became a serious goal for him - to find a way to help people to achieve their potential. His own life coaching training followed and he describes this experience as 'humbling and exciting'. To further enhance his skills in enabling others to become self-empowered, he has trained in parent coaching, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and complementary therapies. Alan is now committed to a life-long quest of personal development and growth.

Eureka!
Realising that these techniques could be adapted for children, Alan approached the Head Teacher of his children's school and together they developed a pilot scheme to help the children become more confident, more fulfilled and better learners. His target group of eight-year-olds responded well but, although the project was reasonably successful, it was far from perfect. A similar project, this time targeted at teenagers, was developed for a local YMCA. Again, it had limited success but it was from these early beginnings that Alan went on to develop a wide range of practical, workable and successful coaching programmes.

The strategy
He started by writing programmes for children of all ages to create a sound foundation of self-esteem and confidence. We have to feel good about ourselves before we can do any personal development work. On top of this, we need an understanding of how our thoughts and feelings affect our behaviour. When we become truly aware of this, we can move on to develop our creativity and connect with our inner knowing.

This will help us to connect with our intuition which is, consciously or - for most of us - subconsciously, the driving force in our lives. Many of you might recognise this as your 'gut feeling'. Generally we ignore this in order to 'keep the peace' externally at the expense of our feeling good internally. He believes that, when we learn to "listen to our intuition", we are self-empowered. The earlier children learn these techniques, the more enriched and fulfilling their life will be.

Positive Parenting
It soon became obvious that, although the children benefited from the experience and it was fulfilling to help them, they still went home to the same environment. He realised that, for the programme to have maximum impact, parents needed to be involved too. This motivated him to get a job as a Parenting Tutor for Medway Council where he could deliver his Positive Parenting programme. Conventional 'parenting skills/courses' tell parents what to say and do in particular situations. Our unique approach asks the parents what they want to achieve by asking powerful questions to help them unlock the answers and strategies they inherently hold. This programme has been extremely successful in helping parents from all walks of life to move forward, value their children and create more respectful family relationships.

He completed a whole-family coaching programme to engage all members of the family. This work has been written up in the the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, CCYP Journal, here. He plans to extend this approach into schools and work with educators. Alan sees these schools creating an ethos of empowerment at the heart of the community, along the lines of Children's Trust and extended schools.

Playing it Forward
Alan has also written courses for delivery by other professionals - including life coaches, youth workers, teachers and child development specialists. Some additional applications have been 'Train the Trainer' and a special course for foster carers and their children. Kent County Council has incorporated this programme into their training for foster carers.

He has published his first book 'Listen to your children... and they will listen to you' to break through the communication barrier. Produced a video 'Kids are really different these days' to explain how and why parenting and educational methods of the past are no longer working for today's children. Started a charity Every Family Matters and is now extending the work world wide with the establishment of a network of trainer/coaches.

With his expertise and specialist knowledge, he is in much demand by other life coaches and he has written a course on parent coaching for inclusion on the website of Fiona Harrold 'the country's top life coach' - Daily Mail.

The Founder's Foundation
Alan's success is based on his passion and underwritten by his coaching philosophy:

I believe every child has limitless potential. It starts as a spark catching fire and needs to be identified, protected, nurtured, developed and respected. This spark must grow into a strong flame to survive the school system, parents under pressure and the influence of some peers.

My passion is to - wholistically develop millions of children globally. I am achieving this by using my experience of life, coaching techniques and the laws of the Universe to empower children and the people that influence them. My vision is to - create an ethos of empowerment around young people.

Together, we will fan the flames of self-esteem and confidence to explode the potential of the world's children.

Read why I'm the luckiest Dad in the World

See some interviews and articles on the Media page

Qualifications
2002 Life Coaching Academy - Coach training
2002/3 Neuro Linguistic Programming - Practitioner level
2003/4 Parent as Coach Academy (Oregon) - Advance coach training (ICF accredited)
2003/9 Parenting Tutor - Medway Adult Learning Service
2005 C&G 7307 Certificate in Teaching
2005 Principle Based Psychology - Introduction
2005 The Evolutionary Institute - Advanced coach training
2005 Advanced Certificate in Education, Stage 1
2006 The Evolutionary Institute - Train the Trainer
2007/8 Industry training inc. Safeguarding Children, Children’s Workforce Development Council and Common Assessment Framework
2009/11 Continuing Personal Development and elected Chair of Bligh Children's Centre Advisory Board

Complimentary therapy training:
Reiki I and II
Emotional Freedom Technique - Switching Children on with EFT

Corporate Member of the Association for Coaching

A member of the Kent Coaching and Mentoring Network

A Kent County Council External Training provider

1963 - 1973 City of London Poly - HNC Business Studies and Degree in Marketing