A Message From the Founder
AURA was created in the fall of 2019 after I made the decision to resign as a school principal. A confusing barrage of neurological issues had become too much to juggle. The loss of vitality and income without knowing what was going wrong in my body felt hopeless, but nothing compared to the loss of identity. If I’m not a principal, who am I?
I’m still unclear about how I ended up in a seat in iPEC’s certified coaching program, but I am still so grateful I did. It’s here that I found the beliefs necessary to feel better and that life, even in its darkest time, presented an opportunity to recreate life centered around my gifts, strengths, talents, perspectives, passions, and health—whatever that may be. After a long road, I finally discovered Lyme Disease was the cause of my health issues and I am now thriving beyond what I even thought possible back then. A little bumped and bruised, but grateful for the ride.
As a special education teacher and school administrator, I always found myself caught between the decisions made in the systems of school and the decisions that I would make as an individual in a given situation. Often they aligned. Often, not so much. There are a million ways to build a bridge over these gaps, but over time, you’ll find that all the rationalizations, practiced responses, and words where “I don’t know” belongs start to crumble beneath your feet. And what is left is the realization that the true sense of self necessary to navigate the world is absolutely stuck—mouth sewn shut—on a crumbling island of your own doing and the only way out is to define that self and speak it into the world. I had work to do.
I thought a lot about the systems of schools as I worked with them, not in them, during the pandemic. With so much of the school's structure stripped away, the kids obviously struggled. I paid attention to all of the ways we describe and prescribe success and watched them dissolve from under their feet as school massively changed before their eyes.
Even outside of the pandemic, I thought of all the ways we shape the identity of students from outside expectations and all the normal ways they act as a result of it all. Lack of motivation and stress. Depression and anxiety. Lost learning opportunity to it all. I then could see the entire economy of interventions built to support the understandably struggling students while missing the root cause. Humans don’t feel good when they aren’t firmly planted on the ground with a strong sense of self and belonging.
From this perspective, I started to see all the ways we may be creating the very problems we’re losing our minds trying to solve. All the ways I was creating my own. Every person strives to be their best self and create a life that gives them room to grow. So much of what can happen along the way makes us lose sight, our footing, and our sense of self. In the absence of this self, we bumble through life creating one with little room for our truest calling.
High-quality coaching helps an individual understand, develop, and articulate a strong sense of self and a vision of the future that gives the purpose necessary to thrive in life. Adolescence is a unique time of life specifically designed to recreate an identity away from childhood and into adulthood that allows and dictates who the adult will be. Our world provides so much input and expectation on who we should be on purpose—and in ignorance—and in massively overt and subtly covert ways. It’s a lot to hold onto yourself along the ride but is clearly the best option. This is why I truly believe in the mission of AURA Coaching & Education Services.
Bringing coaching to the lives of Teens & their Parents and Schools.
It’s time to honor and support this natural development and give space for teens to develop a well constructed vision of themselves in the future.
To find out more about me and how I’m building a life centered around my passions, talents, interests, and perspectives, you can find my photography at www.instagram.com/paulmbenton or say hi on facebook at www.facebook.com/paulmbenton.atx.
~Paul M. Benton