Most families reading this page have already tried the standard model — therapy, scheduled coaching, the waitlists between. Something about this season needs something different.
Mentor Counseling® is not therapy.
At the private tier, Mentor Counseling® delivers the full methodology Jeff has refined since 1998 — life coaching, leadership development, and deep listening, applied one-on-one. What changes at this tier is structural, not methodological: a small caseload Jeff caps on purpose, a direct line between sessions, no waitlist. The work serves families navigating complex transitions and adults at the inflection points of their own lives.
This is mentoring for clients whose overwhelm or stuckness is real but not clinical. Many who reach this tier have already worked through therapists. No diagnoses here, no labels, no medication. Private-tier Mentor Counseling sits alongside clinical care when both are needed.
For anyone in crisis, the first call belongs to a clinician.
What Private Life Coaching Is
Private life coaching is a premium tier for families and adults whose situation needs more than the standard scheduled-session model. At Evolution Mentoring and Life Coaching it has three defining attributes: small caseload, direct access between sessions, no waitlist. The methodology is Mentor Counseling.
Sessions are virtual, 50–60 minutes, available worldwide from Jeff’s Marin County, California base. Most premium-tier engagements run six to eighteen months.
The Process
- Schedule a 30-minute consultation with Jeffrey Leiken.
- Receive a recommendation — private tier, standard tier, or referral to clinical care.
- If the private tier is the right fit, begin sessions on a cadence that fits the family.
- Direct access between sessions — your teen and family reach Jeff directly when moments are hard.
Standard agreements:
- No obligation after the first session if it isn’t the right fit.
- Sessions are confidential within the bounds of mandatory reporting law.
- No diagnoses, no clinical labels — clinical care referred when needed.
What We Address
The private tier is built for situations the standard model wasn’t designed to address:
- Situations where scheduled sessions aren’t enough — between-session access is non-negotiable.
- Families navigating complex transitions — relocation, succession, multi-generational decisions that don’t resolve in a single hour.
- Adults at inflection points — empty nest, second careers, retirement, identity shifts that need real attention, not a 50-minute appointment every other Thursday.
- Clients who have already tried therapy and standard coaching and need a different model.
- Situations where the client wants direct access to the practitioner, not handoffs to junior staff or schedulers.
Why Evolution Mentoring and Life Coaching
When a family is navigating a real transition — or an adult is sitting with a decision that doesn’t have an obvious answer — access and continuity are non-negotiable. The standard coaching model, with its scheduled sessions and no between-session contact, wasn’t built for these situations.
Jeff has worked since 1998 — more than 25 years of practice across 17 countries. The work began with adolescents and now extends to families and adults whose situations call for the same depth of attention — at the private tier, as a small-caseload, direct-access model.
The credentials behind the methodology: a Master’s in Educational Counseling, adjunct teaching at the University of San Francisco, guest lectures at Stanford, a TEDx talk and a book on adolescent leadership. The methodology travels — what was developed for adolescents now serves families and adults wherever the standard model isn’t enough.
What Clients Commonly Report
Premium-tier work moves differently than scheduled coaching. A few patterns recur across families and adults at the private tier:
- The pace becomes situation-driven, not calendar-driven. When a hard moment lands on a Tuesday, the work happens Tuesday — not at the next scheduled session.
- Stuck decisions start to move. Decisions that have been deferred for months — sometimes years — gain traction once they’re held in a real working relationship rather than in isolation.
- Family conversations that wouldn’t happen do. When the work involves multiple family members, the conversations the family has been avoiding become possible — not because Jeff stages them, but because the surrounding work changes what’s sayable.
- Identity and direction questions move from intellectual to concrete. “What’s next” stops being an essay topic and starts being a calendar.
- The relationship becomes a thinking partner, not a service. Most clients describe a shift from “scheduling sessions with Jeff” to “having Jeff in the room when the situation calls for it.”
The Process
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- Start with a 30-minute consultation — a working call that surfaces what’s going on at home and whether this is the right work.
- If it fits, weekly virtual sessions of 50–60 minutes begin within a week.
- Direct reach-out between sessions — when something hard happens, you don’t wait.
- Cadence recalibrates as the work matures.
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Standard agreements:
- No obligation to continue after the first session if the fit isn’t right.
- Confidentiality holds within the bounds of mandatory reporting law.
- No diagnoses, no clinical labels, no treatment of mental illness.
If you are not ready to schedule yet, two no-friction next steps-
Read the Book
Jeff’s book distills 25+ years of practice into a framework for raising capable, grounded young adults.
Watch the TEDx Talk
Jeff’s TEDx talk on what it actually takes to mentor adolescents into capable adults.
About Jeffrey Leiken, MA
Jeffrey Leiken, MA, is the founder of Evolution Mentoring and Life Coaching and the creator of Mentor Counseling® — a methodology developed since 1998 across more than 25 years of practice.
He holds an MA in Educational Counseling, serves as adjunct faculty at the University of San Francisco, has guest-lectured at Stanford, delivered a TEDx talk on adolescent leadership, and published a book on the same subject. His work has reached families across 17 countries.
Sessions are virtual and available worldwide from his Marin County, California base.
What Families say
“My kids were grown. My company had sold. On paper everything was fine, and I didn’t recognize the person I was supposed to be next. I tried two coaches before Jeff — both wanted to walk me through a workbook. Jeff is the first person who sat with the actual question rather than trying to systematize it. Whatever this work is, it isn’t curriculum. It’s harder than that, and it’s the thing that worked.”
— Frank, Denver
“I called about my son first, which is a long story. By the third session it was clear the work I needed was my own — what my marriage was going to look like in the next 20 years, whether I wanted the second career I’d been planning, what I owed my parents who were starting to need things. Jeff didn’t blink at the redirect. The small-caseload thing matters: he remembered every thread.“
— Steven, Princeton
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is this the same as therapy?
No. Therapists treat mental illness with diagnoses, labels, and sometimes medication. This work is character and direction, not clinical. It often follows therapy — rarely replaces it.
What does between-session access look like?
When a moment is hard, you reach Jeff directly via the channel established at intake. Response is in hours, not days.
How long are sessions, and how often do we meet?
Sessions run 50–60 minutes. Most teens meet weekly for the first three to six months, then move to a maintenance cadence.
Are sessions virtual or in-person?
Virtual and worldwide. Jeff’s practice is based in Marin County and reaches families in 17 countries.
How do I get started?
Schedule a 30-minute consultation with Jeffrey Leiken. No obligation to continue if the first session isn’t the right fit.
Neighbourhoods we serve in California-
Neighbourhoods we serve in other US states-
- Chicago Teen Coaching
- Dallas Teen Coaching
- Houston Teen Coaching
- Jacksonville Teen Coaching
- Los Angeles Teen Coaching
- New York City Teen Coaching
- Philadelphia Teen Coaching
- Phoenix Teen Coaching
- San Antonio Teen Coaching
- San Diego Teen Coaching
- Austin Teen Coaching
- Fort Worth Teen Coaching
- San Jose Teen Coaching
- Columbus Teen Coaching
- Charlotte Teen Coaching
- Indianapolis Teen Coaching
- San Francisco Teen Coaching
- Seattle Teen Coaching
- Denver Teen Coaching
- Oklahoma City Teen Coaching
Schedule a Consultation for Private Life Coaching
Jeff offers a consultation to learn about your family’s situation and determine whether this mentoring relationship is the right fit. There’s no pressure—just a chance to get real answers and explore a different path forward.