Teen Testimonials

I wouldn’t change anything about the coaching!

I feel very safe talking to John and I feel I can talk about anything around him. During the sessions I feel calm and happy and afterward always a huge sense of relief from whatever I was dealing with.

Some of my biggest benefits from working with John are I feel way more confident and I know how to handle my own situations better. My relationships with family, friends and teachers are so much better because I know how to talk to others in more effective ways.

I am now experiencing all the changes that I want in my life. I am looking forward to becoming even more confident and even more assertive with others everywhere going forward.

Working with John has led to major changes in my life. The coaching has helped me support myself more. 

During the sessions with John, I feel able to talk about problems that need solving.

After and between sessions I am motivated to actually take action on areas that need work. I also am more motivated to go out and do stuff like get a job, meet with friends, exercise and hang out with my family despite my fears and anxiety.

 I’ve developed a more PMA (positive mental attitude) towards others and worked through some trust issues, although I may have somer more to work through, it has set me on the right track for sure. My pessimistic views have lessened significantly.

I was very interested in creating deeper relationships and I now try to be kinder to others than I was before and have realized that when others seem upset or “attack” with words, they must be going through their own battles. 

In the first 6 weeks I felt significantly more freedom, more peaceful, more adult, and better capable of having more enjoyable conversations than the last 2 years!

I continue to take action and improve in becoming more comfortable around new environments and look forward to getting into a better eating/exercise habit.

I have to say, there is nothing I would change about the way John coaches. I have never in my life felt as able to say things without being judged by another, nor have I been given as much freedom as I was here. 

By working with John I have seen improvement in every aspect of my life thanks to the coaching.

Michael Peel

I reached out for coaching because I wanted help in preparing myself to make the transition from club to collegiate soccer.

Until I committed, I did not realize the true demands both physically and mentally required to play college sports.

 I chose individual coaching because I wanted the close attention to detail that I felt a group would not provide.

 I chose John as my coach because I enjoyed John’s positive attitude and friendly demeanor. I would say that John is very supportive and is flexible to build a plan that meets your goals.  

 My main concern about working with a coach was feeling that I might be pushed too hard and that I might end up with something I didn’t want. My fears were put to rest quickly because John listened to me and never made me do anything without my permission and clear understanding. He also made sure to incorporate what was necessary to keep my skill set intact. 

 During our work together, John helped me learn new approaches and safely add on more responsibility. He introduced me to new ways that complemented the skills I already had. Having John lay out a game plan for me was extremely helpful.

I was empowered by being more knowledgeable. I went into my collegiate soccer career strong and fit. I felt confident in my body and in my performance on the soccer field.

 In college, I felt more comfortable. I also knew how to manage all the aspects of competing at this level. I was more practiced and comfortable with my work ethic because of our time in coaching and that provided me the confidence to make a real impact on field.

 I would highly recommend coaching with John to anyone because it helped me with my confidence on the field. Today as a post-college adult, I continue to apply the skills I learned.

 John is very approachable, and I felt very comfortable expressing any concerns and totally supported to do so.

 John is fully committed to your own success! 

I wanted to work on my anticipatory anxiety especially in more social situations. I also wanted to improve my discipline and commitment to my goals and plans.

I have made great strides in both of these aspect since working with John. The decrease in anxiety in general is astounding. I’m facing similar situations that I experienced before the pandemic and approaching them with a much clearer mind. As well I have notice an increase in my commitment to a routine and process in most aspects of my life. It has been easy to apply a processed based mentality to anything I want to do, which is the beauty of working with John. Everything we’ve discussed it’s universally applicable!

I was doing psychotherapy for about a year or so and that seemed to be working well enough. I was steadily improving with the anxiety and was scared that if I transitioned to a coach I would lose progress. However transitioning to coaching was a great choice and actually accelerated my progress from the start. I enjoy the sessions with John significantly more than the therapy sessions, and I actively look forward to each discussion.

My relationship with my parents has changed tremendously due to the coaching. Not only have I become closer with both my parents but the dynamic of the relationship is constantly evolving. I’m being seen as more of an adult and less of a baby in our conversations. I’m allowed to take charge of discussions, but I can still go to them for advice when needed.

My outlook on life has changed for the better due to the conversations I’ve had with John. I have a process oriented mindset rather than a result oriented mindset. This has dispelled my tendencies toward anxiety about my future and allowed me to focus on what I want to do with my life (not what someone else wants for me).
I believe my thought process is what coaching has affected the most. I have enjoyed learning about how to reframe language to help me get through situations. Along with that, John is an incredible person to talk through anything with. With his help and guidance I can now think differently about situations that used to cause me anxiety and face them head on.

What parents are saying

• What was the issue you wanted to work on before hiring a coach?

I think the main issue our daughter wanted to work on was her anxiety. She experienced a bullying incident in grade school that continued to manifest in her thoughts. Also, she felt jilted by old boyfriend that also continued to affect her daily life.  In addition, she was very anxious at the beginning of the fall 2021 school year.

• What results have you gotten from coaching with John?

Okay, here is the meat of it…

·      Anxiety – Our daughter is considerably and noticeably less anxious – the bullying incident no longer appears to resonate with her or bother her. It has become something in her past from which she can learn how to deal with challenging circumstances. Same with the old boyfriend – a learning experience.

·      Our daughter has found it much easier to communicate verbally, particularly about difficult or challenging subjects.  Whereas before she would avoid responding to questions that made her uncomfortable, now she appears to be able to calmly respond even if her response may not please the other person. This seems to convey a greater confidence and self-esteem.

• What kept you from hiring a coach sooner? 

  Our daughter’s issues appeared to come to a head at the start of the fall 2021 school year. She started a new school with a military focused structure and did not know any of the other students.  This event caused her great anxiety, and seemed to bring up deeper issues that had not been dealt with in the past. It then became evident that we needed to seek help at this time.

• What exactly did you like most about working with John? 

  John is a very articulate and personable coach. His intelligence, warmth and understanding allowed our daughter to open up and express herself. He was able to maintain confidences gained with our daughter while communicating with her parents in an effective manner about her progress.  Our daughter made it clear that she felt comfortable with John and gained a new friend.

• Why would you recommend this to someone who might be on the fence about coaching? 

  If someone is feeling stuck or if emotions or behaviors are out of balance, we would highly recommend that they engage John as a coach as we were able to see positive results in our daughter.

• What was your main concern that would have prevented you from hiring a coach, and what put your fears to rest? 

  We did not have any concerns about hiring a coach.

• If you were to recommend coaching with John to your best friend, what would you say? 

  We would say have you considered engaging a life coach? We can highly recommend John Tretheway.

• What made you choose coaching with John over anything else you could have done? 

  To be honest, John is someone we immediately felt comfortable with engaging.  Also through coaching, John is looking forward, as opposed to therapy, which tends to look backward and looking to the future seemed like the more positive and productive approach.

• What are three benefits you've experienced as a result of coaching with John? 

  First, our daughter has gained numerous benefits through the coaching engagement. Second, all parents involved have a shared understanding of the tools (I.e., expectations vs. agreements) that our daughter learned. And lastly, we have a comfort level if we need to engage him in the future.

• What was life like before you started with coaching? 

  We weren't always sure how our daughter felt about certain situations and as mentioned above, she experienced a high level of anxiety at the beginning of her school year.

• What is life like now that you've experienced coaching? 

  We feel we have much more open communication with our daughter.

• What surprised you the most or made you the happiest about your investment in coaching? 

  We are happy that our daughter is gaining the emotional intelligence at age 15 that sometimes takes adults many years to achieve. Her mood is consistently upbeat, the smile on her face is big and genuine, and a bonus she a has been highly successful in her schoolwork.