CAREGIVER CONSULTATION & COACHING

Individualized Support for Caregivers and Families

Open Path provides individualized support for caregivers working through difficult behavioral patterns, conflicting information, and everyday challenges. Families may choose a focused consultation or coaching to work through concerns, try new approaches, and make adjustments.

WHEN FAMILIES REACH OUT

When What You’ve Been Told to Try Isn’t Helping

Sometimes the challenge is not a lack of effort, information, or recommendations. You may have already tried different strategies, followed guidance from schools or providers, changed routines, and sought out services — and things are still hard at home.

When you have already tried so much, another list of things to do can feel like the last thing you need. Open Path starts by looking at what has already been tried, what happened, what may be contributing to the pattern, and what may have been missed.

The goal is not to add more to your plate. It is to find a clearer path forward that makes sense for your child and is realistic for your family — including on the hard days.

HOW SUPPORT CAN HELP

What We Can Work Through Together

Caregiver Consultation

A one-time consultation for caregivers who want help making sense of information, understanding what may be going on, or figuring out what to do next. We can review records, talk through recommendations or services, prepare for an upcoming meeting, or focus on questions you have about your child’s behavior and needs.

  • Review IEPs, evaluations, behavior plans, treatment records, or other documents to understand what each provider or team is seeing, what may be contributing to your child’s needs, and whether important information is being overlooked.

  • Prepare for an upcoming school, provider, or treatment meeting by organizing concerns, identifying important questions, and clarifying what you want to better understand or address.

  • Families may not know what services are available, what each service is designed to address, or where to begin. Consultation can help clarify possible options, referral pathways, and questions to ask providers, schools, agencies, or insurers.

    This may include discussing in-home services, outpatient care, care coordination, school-based supports, evaluations, crisis resources, or more intensive services. Open Path can provide education and navigation support but does not determine eligibility, medical necessity, insurance authorization, or admission to a particular service or level of care.

  • Families may receive different guidance from school staff, clinicians, behavioral providers, or treatment programs. Consultation can help clarify what each recommendation is intended to address, where the guidance differs, and what questions may need to be brought back to the professionals involved.

  • When there are multiple concerns, recommendations, or services to consider, consultation can help sort through what needs attention first, what may be less urgent, and who or what may need follow-up.

  • Build a fuller understanding of what may be influencing your child’s behavior, including diagnosis, development, communication, regulation, trauma, stress, lived experiences, learning history, and environmental factors.

    This can help caregivers make sense of reactions that may otherwise feel confusing, recognize what may be contributing to recurring patterns, and better understand what their child may need from the people and environments around them.

Caregiver Coaching

Coaching is for caregivers who want support working through day-to-day challenges and making changes over time. Sessions focus on understanding patterns, trying individualized approaches, reviewing what happened, and adjusting based on what is realistic for your family. Coaching can also provide support while waiting for other services to begin.

  • A simple “no,” request, or limit turns into negotiating, arguing, refusal, or a much bigger reaction than expected. We work on where to hold the boundary, where flexibility makes sense, and how to stop getting pulled into the same battle over and over.

  • The same behaviors keep happening, even though you have tried consequences, rewards, ignoring, talking it through, or strategies recommended by other providers. Coaching looks at what is actually happening in your home, what may be keeping the pattern going, and what you can realistically do differently.

  • Sometimes it is not just what is being asked—it is how, when, and how often it is being communicated. We look at directions, expectations, choices, validation, repeated prompting, listening, and connection so communication is less likely to create frustration and more likely to actually work.

  • Your child can go from okay to overwhelmed quickly—or you can see it building but nothing seems to stop it. Coaching focuses on recognizing earlier signs, figuring out what helps before things reach a breaking point, and helping caregivers stay effective when emotions are high.

  • Mornings, bedtime, screens, homework, getting out the door, stopping a preferred activity—sometimes the same parts of the day fall apart again and again. We troubleshoot the actual routine, not an ideal version of family life, and build changes that can still work on busy or difficult days.

  • Not every hard moment is going to be prevented. Coaching can also focus on what happens afterward—how to reconnect, repair after things were said or done, return to expectations without shame, and keep one difficult interaction from taking over the rest of the day.

SERVICE OPTIONS

Pathways to Work Together

Open Path offers three levels of caregiver support, allowing families to choose the format that best fits their current needs, goals, and the type of support they are looking for.

01 Caregiver Consultation

A focused 90-minute session to step back, make sense of a specific concern, and identify practical next steps. It can also be used to review records or recommendations, prepare for a school or provider meeting, or sort through service options.

Best for: Specific concerns • Understanding conflicting recommendations • Record/document review • School or provider meeting preparation • Navigating services or next steps

One 90 minutes | $150

02 Individual Coaching Session

A focused 60-minute session to work through a current challenge, troubleshoot something that is not working, or adjust an approach you have already tried. The session is centered on what is happening right now and what would be most useful to change or strengthen.

Best for: Power struggles • Routines and transitions • Escalation patterns • Caregiver responses • Boundaries and follow-through • Troubleshooting something you’ve already tried

One 60 minutes | $125

03 Caregiver Coaching Package

Three 60-minute sessions | $350

Three 60-minute sessions that allow time to try changes, see what happens in everyday life, and adjust the approach as you go. The package is designed for patterns that may need more than one conversation and for caregivers who want support applying and refining changes over time.

Best for: Recurring patterns • Concerns affecting multiple parts of the day • Trying and adjusting changes over time • Building consistency across caregivers • Support while other services are pending

HOW IT WORKS

A Clear and Individualized Process

Step 1: Schedule a Free Introductory Call

Schedule a free 20-minute introductory call through the Contact page. We’ll briefly discuss what is bringing you in, answer initial questions, and determine whether Consultation or Coaching may be a good fit.

Step 2: Complete Required Paperwork

You’ll complete the required service forms, including a comprehensive caregiver intake form that provides relevant history, current background, services and supports, and information about the concerns bringing you in. Relevant documents may also be submitted when helpful.

Step 3: Schedule Your Session

Once your paperwork is complete, you’ll receive a private scheduling link to book your consultation or coaching session(s).

Step 4: Meet With Open Path

Your intake and any submitted information are reviewed before we meet so the session can focus on meaningful discussion, recommendations, and next steps.

Schedule Introductory Call

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • Consultation is for stepping back and making sense of what is happening. A 90-minute consultation may focus on a specific concern, reviewing information or recommendations, preparing for a school or provider meeting, navigating services, or identifying practical next steps.

    Coaching is more action-focused. A coaching session may be used to work through a current challenge, troubleshoot what has been tried, adjust an approach, or focus on something happening in everyday life. Coaching may be scheduled as a single session or across multiple sessions when more support would be helpful.

  • No — a diagnosis is not required to reach out. Open Path works with a wide range of children and teens, from youth struggling with school refusal, significant conflict, emotional or behavioral concerns, or repeated crises, to neurodivergent children including those with autism or ADHD, to children with no formal diagnosis at all.

  • No. Consultation and Coaching are caregiver-focused, so your child does not need to attend.

    This gives caregivers space to talk openly about what is happening, ask questions, and work through concerns without also having to manage the conversation around the child.

  • No. Caregiver Consultation and Coaching are private-pay services, and Open Path does not bill insurance directly. A superbill can be provided upon request if you would like to explore possible out-of-network reimbursement through your insurance plan. Reimbursement is not guaranteed.

  • es. If a document is relevant to what you want help with, it can be shared in advance. This might include an IEP, FBA, behavior plan, evaluation, treatment recommendation, discharge summary, or other information you are trying to understand or apply.

    Relevant information is reviewed before the session so your consultation does not have to begin with you explaining everything from scratch.

  • Yes. Caregiver Consultation and Coaching are provided virtually, making it easier to meet from home without adding travel, childcare, or another appointment location to your day.

  • All services include review of the intake form and relevant information submitted in advance, so session time can stay focused on the concerns you want to work through.

    Caregiver Consultation
    Includes a 90-minute consultation and written follow-up summarizing key recommendations, resources, and priorities discussed during the session.

    Individual Coaching Session
    Includes one 60-minute coaching session and brief written follow-up summarizing key takeaways and what to try or focus on moving forward.

    Caregiver Coaching Package
    Includes three 60-minute coaching sessions, review of what happened between sessions, adjustments as needed, and brief written follow-up after each session.

  • No. Recommendations cannot be based on perfect circumstances.

    Real life includes rushed mornings, exhausting evenings, competing responsibilities, unexpected changes, and days when everyone has less capacity. An approach that only works when everything goes smoothly is not especially useful when you need it most.

    Whether we are consulting or coaching, the goal is to identify approaches that make sense for your child and are realistic enough for your family to use on the harder days too.

  • Yes. Coaching can provide support during the gap while you are waiting for in-home, outpatient, or other ongoing services to begin.

    Rather than simply waiting, sessions can focus on what is happening at home now — trying manageable changes, working through difficult patterns, and adjusting as you learn more about what helps.

    Coaching is not intended to replace a service or level of care your child needs, but it can provide meaningful support in the meantime.

  • Yes. More than one caregiver can participate when it would be helpful.

    Families do not always see things the same way or respond to situations in the same way. Having multiple caregivers involved can help bring those perspectives together and identify an approach that feels realistic for the people actually carrying it out.

  • Yes. If you would like continued support after completing the initial three-session package, discounted extension packages are available.

    This allows you to continue building on the work already underway without having to start over.

  • That is a good use of a Consultation. You may have evaluations, school documents, recommendations from different providers, or years of history and still feel unsure what matters most right now.

    Consultation gives us time to sort through the information, connect what may be related, identify where things are unclear or conflicting, and focus on what is most relevant to the concern bringing you in.

You do not need to have everything figured out before reaching out. A free 20-minute introductory call is a chance to briefly share what is bringing you in, ask questions, and determine whether Consultation or Coaching may be a good fit.

NOT SURE WHERE TO START?

Contact Open Path