The Tools

The way to get started with the Whole Family Approach

This toolkit will act as your companion.

The Whole Family Approach isn’t just a philosophy, it’s a set of practical tools — a group of activities and reflection prompts designed to help you understand, acknowledge, and move beyond your current situation.
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You can do the activities in the tools, on your own, with your coach, and in some cases, with your family.

Where should you start?

There’s no wrong way to dig in and start the Whole Family Approach, but with more than 15 tools, you might not know where to begin.

Use a collection.

Collections are sets of tools we’ve grouped together to help guide you in tackling a big aspirations you might have like: Strengthening your relationships or "Setting goals with your family".
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Collections can help you jumpstart your work in the Whole Family Approach.

Follow your gut.

In addition he topic or aspiration you want to explore, you might want to consider how the activities of a particular tool will make you feel or the level of intensity required for the activity.
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You’ll find the intensity rating and the state of mind rating as a part of each tool description, along with an estimate of how long it will take to complete the activity, and any prerequisite activities you’ll need to complete first.

Let a coach, or a mentor guide you along the way.

Many people work with someone who can act as their coach and guide them through the Whole Family Approach, selecting the right, next tool to work on.

The Tools

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AllYour StoryYour PeopleYour HopesYour PathYour JoysBy Collection

GET REACQUAINTED WITH YOURSELF

TOOL
Describe yourself in a way that, if someone were meeting you for the first time, they’d know the most important things about you.

WRITE YOUR STORY

TOOL
Reflect on your past experiences in order to better understand your present circumstances.

REVIEW TODAY TO UNDERSTAND TOMORROW

TOOL
Evaluate your economic mobility in order to identify a compassionate next step forward.

Setting goals as a family.

Often we want to progress on goals for both ourselves and other members of our family. Try out these tools to help you visualize goals both for yourself and your family, and figure out what the baby steps are to get there.

NAME THE PEAKS & VALLEYS

TOOL
Identify the high and low points of your life in order to build perspective about your experiences and how they might be connected.

DRAW YOUR FAMILY TREE

TOOL
Fill out your family tree in order to get a sense of who you are and uncover the generational history that impacts your family’s story today.

Planning for a big dream.

It can be overwhelming to start thinking about longer-term dreams. These tools will help you align and make a plan for different parts of your life so you can get started on achieving your goals.

RECOGNIZE HOW YOU 
GIVE LOVE

TOOL
Knowing how you prefer to express love and how your loved ones prefer receive your expressions of love can make your relationships run more smoothly.

Understanding where you’re at today.

It’s easy to get caught up in the everyday stresses of life and miss seeing all the pieces that led you to where you are. These tools will help you articulate your world today and allow others to see the context in which you come from.

VISUALIZE YOUR VILLAGE

TOOL
Map the relationships in your life in order to understand who makes up your support system and what kind of support you give to and receive from them.

TAKE AIM AT A BIG GOAL

TOOL
Unlock a big goal to move toward by thinking about how it relates to your interests, strengths, and skills.

PRESSURE TEST A BIG GOAL

TOOL
Make sure you are choosing big goals for the right reasons by reflecting on your motivations for pursuing them.

PLAN YOUR PATH FORWARD

TOOL
Consider the key stages you’ll need to pass through in order to reach one of your big goals.

UNCOVER AND SHARE YOUR NEEDS

TOOL
Establish guidelines for how you would like to be treated and how you prefer to interact with others so you can communicate your preferences and boundaries to others.

IDENTIFY THE STEPPING STONES

TOOL
Making a plan of the actions and small steps you can take on your way to reaching a big goal make you much more likely to achieve it.

Strengthening your relationships.

Family conflicts can be stressful and arise at any given time. These tools help create a strong sense of what the relationships that exist in your family are currently like, and what goals could be set to collectively come to a resolution.

CONSIDER THE OBSTACLES

TOOL
Anticipate the obstacles that stand between where you are and where you want to go in order to prepare yourself to overcome them.

Building a relationship with your coach.

You and your coach will be working together closely to create the life you’d like to live. Since the two of you will be getting to know each other intimately, these are a couple of tools that will show you uncover the best ways to work with each other, and what to use as a warm-up when starting a session.

RECOGNIZE HOW YOU RECEIVE LOVE

TOOL
Knowing how you prefer to receive love and how your loved ones prefer express their love to you can make your relationships run more smoothly.

CELEBRATE THE HIGHLIGHTS

TOOL
Honor significant moments with rituals and events that spark joy and invite celebration from you and your family.

Feeling good about where you are today.

Celebrating milestone moments, both big and small, are important steps that should be taken on your journey. Here are a couple of tools that will help you find what would bring you the most joy in celebrating any accomplishments.

PICK A ROSE, A THORN AND A BUD

TOOL
Share a joy, a struggle, and something you’re looking forward to reflect on your life and better understand each other.
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