Evolution Mentoring and Coaching provides teen life coaching and mentoring to families in Alpine, Franklin Lakes, Ho-Ho-Kus, Upper Saddle River and Livingston in Bergen County, New Jersey. Jeffrey Leiken, MA is an experienced mentor with 25 years of practice working with teens and young adults ages 13 to 31. Sessions are virtual. This is mentoring, not therapy.
The Kid Who Is Doing Fine and Is Not Fine
Bergen County families work hard and expect a lot, of themselves and of their children. In Alpine, Franklin Lakes, Ho-Ho-Kus, Upper Saddle River and Livingston, kids grow up around real ambition and real success, and most of them rise to it. The ones who worry their parents are usually not the ones who are failing. They are the ones who are keeping up and paying a private price to do it.
Jeff Leiken hears the same opening from parents here again and again: he is smart, he is capable, he could do anything, and he has stopped trying.
Overthinking, Avoidance, and the Quiet Retreat
The young people Jeff works with are bright, thoughtful, sensitive and intense. They overthink until they become their own worst enemy. When the pressure to perform meets a mind that scrutinizes everything, the result is not a breakdown. It is avoidance. Nothing gets started, because starting means risking a result.
Parents describe teens who are anxious or socially anxious, who have retreated into video games and stopped going outside, who quit an activity they loved, who were knocked flat by a breakup, or who are hard on themselves in a way no parent can talk them out of.
Not a Therapist. A Mentor.
Jeff Leiken is a life coach and mentor. He is not a therapist, does not provide therapy, and does not accept insurance. Families often reach him after the clinical route left their child with vocabulary for the problem and no change in how they actually live. Evolution Mentoring and Coaching offers something plainer: growth and learning instead of treatment, and skills a young person can use immediately.
What makes it work is that he is not you. Your teenager has stopped taking direction from home, which is normal and not your fault. The same guidance, from a trusted adult outside the family, gets through.
Jeff also works directly with parents. A parent coaching consultation gives you a clearer read on what is underneath your child’s behavior and a practical approach for handling it at home, which is frequently where the change actually begins. Some families use this on its own, without their teenager working with Jeff at all.
Regular Meetings and Access Between Them
Bergen County families meet with Jeff by video and phone on a regular schedule. At the comprehensive level he stays reachable between meetings by text, email and phone, and is available to parents when something urgent happens. Teenagers open up on their own timing, not on a calendar, and that access is what lets the work catch those moments.
A Small Number of Families at a Time
Evolution Mentoring and Coaching is deliberately small. If you are looking for someone with genuine time to invest in your child rather than a practice where your child is one of many, ask Jeff about his current capacity when you speak. He will tell you honestly whether he has room.
Schedule a free consultation to talk through your child’s situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which New Jersey towns does Evolution Mentoring and Coaching serve in Bergen County?
Alpine, Franklin Lakes, Ho-Ho-Kus, Upper Saddle River, Livingston and neighboring Bergen County communities.
Is this therapy for teens in New Jersey?
No. Jeff Leiken is a life coach and mentor, not a therapist. Evolution Mentoring and Coaching provides mentoring and life coaching, not therapy, and does not accept insurance.
How are meetings held?
Virtually by video or phone for New Jersey families, on a regular monthly schedule.
Our teen has stopped trying at school. Is this the right help?
Often yes. Capable teens who have stopped trying are usually avoiding risk rather than lacking ability, and that is directly what this work addresses.
What is the first step?
A free consultation with Jeff, with no cost and no obligation.