Farah Kalsekar

I never imagined I'd become a coach. I became one because I needed to understand people starting with myself, then my family, and eventually the countless children, parents and women whose stories reminded me of my own search for answers.

Like many women, I became very good at carrying things quietly.

I had children young, before I had finished my studies, before I had truly figured out who I was. My personal life was difficult. My relationships were under strain. And no matter how much I gave and I gave everything nothing seemed to land the way I intended.

Like many women, I became very good at carrying things quietly while making sure everyone else was okay. I had made myself very small, very quietly, for a very long time.

Eventually I found my way to coaching, and then back to my faith in a deeper way, and back to my studies. Slowly, I began to understand myself. Not just what I was doing, but why. And something in me began to shift.

The moment everything changed.

Then my daughter started school. And she started struggling. I did what any mother would do. I looked for help. What I found were waiting lists, conditions, and the suggestion that perhaps I was simply loving her too much.

I knew it was there. I kept looking. I found a kids life coach. And I watched something happen in my daughter that I hadn't seen before. Not overnight. Not dramatically. But steadily, quietly, she began to find her footing.

The moment I knew this work had truly taken root wasn't in a session. It was on an ordinary day out with her cousins. Without anyone prompting her, she gathered them and led them through a mind holiday one of the tools she had learned. She was six years old.

I needed to understand why it worked.

Watching my daughter grow wasn't enough for me. I wanted to understand why those changes were happening. What was it about coaching that allowed a child to express themselves differently? Why did play work so powerfully? How did emotional skills become lasting habits?

That curiosity became a direction. I trained as a certified play-based coach through Kids Life Studio® Coach Academy®, under the mentorship of its founder, Zelna Lauwrens. Then I kept learning through life coaching, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Islamically Integrated CBT, First Aid Mental Health, and my continued studies in Psychology and Islamic Psychology.

The answer, I have come to believe, is not advice. Not instruction. Not correction.

They need to feel understood. Everything else flows from there.