Evolution Mentoring and Coaching provides private life coaching for families in Marin County, California and worldwide who require a high level of access, discretion and personal attention. Jeffrey Leiken, MA is an experienced mentor with more than 25 years of practice, working with a small number of families at a time. This is mentoring, not therapy.
When Access Is the Point
Some families do not need an appointment. They need someone who already knows the situation, answers when it matters, and exercises judgment without having to be briefed from the beginning each time.
Private life coaching is the comprehensive level of Jeff’s work. It exists because the useful moments in a young person’s life do not arrange themselves around a calendar, and because some families are managing circumstances that make discretion a requirement rather than a preference.
What It Includes
- A minimum of three personal appointments each month, in person or remotely
- Unlimited access between meetings by text, email and phone
- Parent consultation and family meetings as part of the engagement
- School visits and attendance at events where it would help
- Additional meetings during urgent situations
- Informal time together, such as a walk or a meal, where the real conversations often happen
Discretion
A number of the families Jeff works with are visible in their communities, their industries, or publicly. Nothing about an engagement is discussed, referenced or used, and the practice carries no promotional interest in who it works with. That is a condition of the work rather than a feature of it.
Why It Is Deliberately Small
Unlimited access is only meaningful if very few people have it. Evolution Mentoring and Coaching therefore takes a small number of families at a time, and intensive engagements are limited further still. If your concern is finding someone with genuine room to invest in your child rather than a practice where your child is one of many, ask about current capacity directly. Jeff will tell you honestly whether he has room.
Most families reading this page have already tried the standard model — therapy, scheduled coaching, the waitlists between. Something about this season needs something different.
Evolution Mentoring® is not therapy.
At the private tier, Evolution Mentoring® 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 Evolution Mentoring 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.
Meetings run to a minimum of three personal appointments each month, in person in Mill Valley and Marin County or remotely by video and phone. 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, meetings begin on a regular monthly schedule, in person in Marin County or remotely by video and phone.
- 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.
Meetings are available in person in Mill Valley and Marin County or remotely by video and phone.
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)
When This Level Is Warranted
Comprehensive access is not the right choice for every family, and Jeff will say so directly. It suits situations that move quickly and unpredictably, a young person at a genuine turning point, a family managing significant change, or circumstances where the demands on parents make a reliable outside adult genuinely necessary rather than merely convenient.
For a more straightforward situation, the limited engagement at $750 a month covers what is needed. Part of what the first conversation is for is working out which of those is true, and it costs nothing to find out.
Not Clinical Care
Jeff is a life coach and mentor, not a therapist. He does not provide therapy, does not diagnose, and does not accept insurance. He does not work with untreated substance abuse, clients in traditional psychoanalytic therapy, or situations that call for clinical treatment, and will say so plainly if that is what a family needs.
Fees and Next Steps
Comprehensive engagements are $1,800 per month, or $1,500 per month on a one-year commitment. Intensive intervention, where circumstances require multiple meetings weekly and daily availability, is $3,500 per month and is limited to one family at a time. Parents can also begin with a parent coaching consultation. Schedule a free consultation to discuss your situation.
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?
A minimum of three personal appointments each month, in person or remotely, plus unlimited access between meetings by text, email and phone.
Are sessions virtual or in-person?
Both. In person in Mill Valley and Marin County, or remotely by video and phone anywhere in the world. Jeff’s practice 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.
What makes private life coaching different?
Access. It includes unlimited contact between meetings, family involvement, school visits and availability during urgent situations, rather than scheduled sessions alone.
What does private life coaching cost?
$1,800 per month, or $1,500 per month on a one-year commitment. Intensive intervention is $3,500 per month.
How is confidentiality handled?
Engagements are never discussed or referenced. Discretion is a condition of the work, particularly for families who are visible publicly or professionally.
How many families does Jeff take?
A small number at a time, by design. Intensive engagements are limited to one family at a time.
Our child is coming home from a residential or wilderness program. Is this appropriate?
It often is. Families regularly finish an intensive clinical program and find there is no plan for the months afterward, when structure disappears and the young person has to rebuild an ordinary life. Comprehensive access suits that period well. Jeff works alongside clinical care rather than replacing it, and will tell you directly if what your family needs is clinical rather than mentoring.
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.