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The Wellschool Mentor Peer Coach Training program is for mentors of children and youth who have experienced abuse and/or neglect that can affect all domains of development – physical, psychological, emotional, behavioural, and social. For children and youth who are surrounded by adversity, having the quality and skills of resilience, self-regulation and wellness has been shown to be highly valuable protective factors.

The Wellschool Mentor program has been based on evidence-based research in resilience, self-regulation, strength based thinking, positive relationships and solution focused therapy. The program trains and supports mentors in coaching communication and wellness skills that support themselves and the mentee in developing resilience & wellness.

We use a strengths based inquiry approach to provide a safe opportunity for the mentee to better understand their needs and goals in the areas of wellness of body, mind, heart and being connected. It also considers the foundation skills needed to develop these aspects of wellness.

Wellness is understood through our unique wellness literacy model as illustrated in our ‘Licence for Life’ book, which uses the therapeutic metaphor of a car traveling down the road of life. Research has shown that the use of therapeutic metaphor can strengthen empathic connection and provide the mentee a new language by which to be understood.

Licence for Life (L4L) is a non-threatening tool for the mentee to learn about and explore wellness. The car and the path one chooses becomes a source of personal empowerment as one learns they can steer towards where they want in life, independent of others, and be the determinant of their own journey.

As the mentor and mentee explore and discover the challenging aspects of wellness together, the needs of the mentee get translated into their vision of the future,  setting specific and actionable goals to drive them there.