Kaizen Executive Function Coach

Joy Ronaghan

Empowering Brains for Learning & Life

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Joy Ronaghan - Executive Function Coach with Kaizen Education

Joy Ronaghan

Executive Function Coach
B.A., B.Ed., M.C., Certified Canadian Counselor (CCC)

Joy brings a diversity of education and experience to her role as a coach for Kaizen. Her teaching and counseling background make her both an empathetic listener and a skilled executive functioning coach. Upon completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Joy taught English abroad in South Korea for seven years. There, she discovered the joy of teaching and developed her approach to pedagogy. Teachers are not only bearers of information; they collaborate with students as they experiment with new skills and help them to achieve their best. With this in mind, Joy was guided by this philosophy as she moved on to college instruction, and then to corporate training for several prominent Korean companies. She is proud of the contributions she made to helping build English skills and intercultural understanding.

Returning to Canada as a student as student once again at the University of Alberta, Joy earned her Bachelor of Education degree. Joy now has over 15 years of Canadian teaching experience, working in both rural Alberta and in Calgary. She has extensive experience teaching language arts, social studies, drama, and learning strategies. She believes that learning is most successful when students directly engage in and reflect on the learning process. All students are unique and have potential; Joy loves guiding and supporting them as they make meaning of new concepts and skills.

Joy’s commitment to lifelong learning spurred her to achieve her Master of Counselling degree from Gonzaga University. She is a Certified Canadian Counselor (CCC) and has experience in individual and group counseling with adults and children. As an ADHD coach for Kaizen, Joy’s counseling skills help her empathize with students navigating the education system. She can help students use emotion regulation and distress tolerance strategies to cope with and manage stress. Attention and concentration improve with calm emotions, allowing students to access their brain’s executive functioning skills. Students with ADHD need to feel heard, understood, and accepted. Academic success is achievable with skill-building, support, and the right guidance. Joy’s goal as a coach is to empower and support students as they both accept themselves and work towards positive change.

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
– Carl R. Rogers

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Frequently Asked Questions

Below is a list of answers to our most commonly asked questions. If you can’t find the answer to your question, please contact us and we’ll get right back to you.
How does Kaizen determine what my child’s Executive Skills strengths and deficits are?
We are data collectors. We gather as much relevant data regarding your child's learning as possible. This includes feedback from the parents, educational psychological assessments (if available), information from Kaizen's free questionnaire, and any school evaluations or assessments that can be shared with us.

Kaizen has partnered with Mindprint Learning, creator of the world’s leading online cognitive test developed by neuroscientists in the Brain Behavior Laboratory at Penn State University’s Perelman School of Medicine. This Learning Profile Assessment, combined with two, 1:1 consultations with Kaizen’s Director gives you a clear picture of where your child shines and where they need support.

Learn more about the Learning Profile Assessment.

We also offer a FREE online questionnaire to help you identify your child’s Executive Functioning needs & strengths before committing to the Coaching Intake Process.

Is Kaizen Coaching the same as tutoring?
No. Tutoring teaches students WHAT to learn; Kaizen teaches students HOW to learn and WHY it’s important. The essence of Kaizen Education Services is to foster results through incremental steps, focused on building confidence through understanding. Our objective is to highlight the importance of establishing differentiated processes and systems that contribute to the overall long-term personal and academic growth of each learner. Empowering brains for learning and life. Skills that can be applied across your child’s entire curriculum and beyond.
How does my child start their coaching sessions with Kaizen?
Contact us to book your intake, and we will match your child with a coach so that they can get started.
My child has had a psychoeducational assessment completed and needs help. Is Kaizen the right fit?
Certainly! Oftentimes, a psychoeducational assessment is completed and results are shared, but lack guidance and support for the appropriate next steps leaving you, the parent, wondering, “What now?” If strategies are provided, you are often left to your own devices which can create additional frustration.

The curriculum from which Kaizen operates is tailored to your child and their very specific needs. By sharing the results of your child’s psychoeducational assessment with your child’s coach, we can work together to best support your child academically, intellectually, and beyond.

My child has ADHD. How can Kaizen Coaching help?
Typically, executive functions are delayed up to 30% in a child diagnosed with ADHD. More than 85% of Kaizen’s students have been diagnosed with ADHD, and more than 70% with an additional or other learning difference. Executive Function deficits are amplified in those with ADHD and, as a result, our coaches are specially trained in effective strategies and methodologies to best support your child.

Empowering Brains for Learning & Life

We help your child reach their true potential through neuroscience and coaching their unique strengths and needs for lifelong success.

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