Life Coach Boosts Tweens’ Health & Self-esteem

NORTHFIELD — Life Coach Sherri Lynn Asea is sharing her passion and expertise with fifth-grade girls at Northfield Community School in hopes of boosting their health and self-esteem at this key phase of their development.

She hopes that by helping them explore their areas of interest, or introducing them to new interests, they will not only gain confidence in themselves but spread the positive vibe to other girls their age.

Asea created Integrity Life Coaching’s Creative & Talent Program and is in the middle of her first four-week session. She meets with the girls from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays in the school library, where they explore their interests by brainstorming and creating a project based on their combined ideas.

She said the goal is to “give girls a chance to use their voice, to develop their passions and gain confidence by helping others.”

Asea said she chose fifth-graders because “they are at that point before they are going to get into almost a whirlwind of growing up.”

Asea offers lessons in photography, painting, hospitality, drawing, writing, interviewing, watercolors, advertising, editing, filming, computer design, music, management, coordinating, public speaking, cooking, baking, sewing, runway, style, nails, hair, makeup and skincare, all geared toward boosting self-confidence.

While she does have a master’s degree in psychology from Cairn University, a Christian college, she cannot teach all of these topics on her own. That’s where she uses her friends and connections. Asea believes that the program is going to progress into a community-based approach to teaching these young tweens through networking, establishing and strengthening connections.

“A lot of my girlfriends and other people that I tell about it are like, ‘Let me know, I am ready to help.’ It’s really about bringing communities together and help to pour into fifth-grade girls,” Asea said.

Asea grew up in Barnegat Township and moved to Margate to run a modeling and talent agency. In 2004, she started Glamor Camp, a weeklong camp where girls “did everything from learning how to carry themselves when they walked into a room to how to conduct themselves if they have an interview,” Asea said.

Asea is now a Healthy Food and Wellness Coach and teacher at Janice Picking’s Wellness Center on Ocean Heights Avenue in Linwood and runs her own company called Integrity Life Coaching. She has been counseling since 2009.

Asea said when she designed this program a year ago, her 16 year old daughter said
“It would have made me feel hopeful, like I had a purpose and a direction in life."
Her and her daughter actually began their own company in 2010 called Clips n Sticks. Asea said she did this to encourage her daughter's talent and passions. Her daughter wanted to raise money to help kids so she decided to do it for The Children's Hospital. Her crafts were in local stores and sponsored by Lays Potato Chips. Asea said it gave her daughter and her friends a chance to do what they loved doing while having fun together. This lasted for five years and they were able to raise $3,000 for the hospital!

Asea previously conducted her Creative and Talent Program with an older girl who was dealing with self-esteem issues and making poor decisions.

“I taught a girl who was being bullied and turning to drugs and alcohol, and what this program did for her was make her feel like she had a purpose. She was then not deciding to go and do those things because she was like, ‘Wait, you got me writing a book. You got me doing things I never thought possible about myself.’ I did try it out to see how it would work and it was a success, but now I wanted to bring it to the community,” Asea said. "Girls want to feel valuable!"

One of the students in her first session at NCS, Anna Ekstrom, 11, the daughter of Jon and Leslie Ekstrom, is exploring her love for photography.

“She takes over sometimes because she is so on board with this,” Asea said of Anna. “She loves taking pictures.”

Anna said so far it has been a lot of fun.

“Right now I am helping with an online magazine, and that is really cool because we get to develop all of the articles and we get to design everything and personalize it,” Anna said. “It’s a magazine for girls, geared toward girls, and it’s supposed to help them build up their confidence, and we are going to bring photography and things like that into it to help them develop and discover their talents.”

Asea and Anna are going to create a webpage with mini articles, something they call “marticles.”

“Girls their age don’t always want to sit there and read a whole article, so they will be little bits,” Asea said.

For example, the first thing Anna did was take a picture of a flower, then thought of a way to incorporate that into helping others.

“Instead of just saying it’s a flower, Anna thought it could be a metaphor for opening up,” Asea said. “We are going to use that picture not necessarily geared toward nature but we are going to use it to tell girls to open up and use their talents.”

Anna said she hopes to gain knowledge and help others “become better and learn more about the world.”

“I’m here to help myself and others because I like making other people happy and helping them discover themselves,” Anna said.

Asea said she often works one on one with girls through counseling and coaching, but sees value in brining groups together.

“My passion is to get the girls who just go home and are left to social media to have a place to go where they can just get poured into, where they can get mentored and come with a bunch of other girls and brainstorm and look outside themselves to help other people,” Asea said. “Working one on one with them is awesome but there’s always that next step of them wanting to be a part of something with other girls.”

Every week there also is a health lesson, including communication, journaling, handling emotions in a positive way, goal-setting, budgeting, healthy friendships, respect, etiquette, boundaries, exercise, healthy nutrition and mindfulness.

“Every time we meet together there is a lesson that we talk about,” Asea said

She attends Fusion Church in Somers Point and says her faith is a key part of her life.

“It’s No. 1,” she said. “I’ve been in so many different directions trying to handle my life and it only comes together when I am focused on God!"

Those who want to sign up for the next session or have questions can email Asea at integritylifecoaching@gmail.com. She plans to do a summer session, but is still working out the details. She plans to have 10 students at a time, team them up for brainstorming and bring everyone together to decide what project they will do.

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