Unmasking Hidden Struggles with Hope: Gifted Education Practitioners as Social and Emotional Coaches and Mentors

Like any individual, gifted children face struggles as they grow from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. They can become expert at masking their struggles, however, and gifted education practitioners can be useful resources in helping these students normalise struggle and find a way to understand, accept and respect themselves and others for who they are and who they are becoming. Social/emotional coaching and mentoring by gifted education practitioners at school can be a powerful means of collaboratively finding a positive pathway towards self-understanding, self-actualisation and hope. This session will share effective social/emotional coaching and mentoring strategies and approaches.