Moving FORWARD Through Family Challenges: How To Take The First Step. Clarify your family values to use as an internal compass. When your family is dealing with a tough challenge—whether it’s an eating disorder, a mental health challenge, or any unexpected disruption—there is a natural, almost universal instinct to leap into action. You start researching, calling specialists, rearranging your schedule, and trying to solve the problem as quickly as possible.
💬 When Urgency Takes Over
That urgency is born from love. You want your child to be okay. You want your family to feel steady and safe again. But in the rush to do something, it’s easy to skip the foundational step that makes every decision clearer, every action more effective, and every family member feel more supported: defining your family’s core values and vision.
🧭 Why We Start with Values and Vision
This is the very first step in my Move FORWARD coaching program—a framework I developed after years of working with parents, individuals, and professionals navigating eating disorders and other complex issues. While Move FORWARD was originally designed to guide families through disordered eating, I quickly realized it could serve as a model for supporting all kinds of situations and transitions:
- Anxiety and depression
- Medical diagnoses
- Family disruptions like divorce or relocation
- Academic pressures and burnout
- Life events that shake a family’s sense of safety and connection
No matter the situation, one truth remains: if you don’t first clarify what matters most to you as a family—your shared values and your vision for how you want to walk through hard times—it becomes much harder to chart a path forward.
Family Values/Vision: First Step: Why is this step so important?
Because when you’re in survival mode, you will always be tempted to react to whatever feels most urgent or loud. And while urgency has its place, it rarely aligns with your deeper purpose or long-term goals.
🌟 Your Family’s Internal Compass
When you take time to define your family’s values, you create an internal compass. You don’t have to guess which decisions are right for you—you have a clear reference point to guide you.
🖼️ What Does a Family Vision Look Like?
Your vision is equally important. It’s the picture you hold of who you want to be as a family, even in the middle of struggle. It might include how you communicate, how you make space for rest and recovery, or how you remind each other that you are a team.
🛠️ Real-Life Application
Family Values/Vision: First Step: What does this look like in practice?
In coaching, this is not something I ask you to figure out alone. We sit together and explore questions about what matters most to you as individuals and together as a family.
I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. Every family I work with has a different set of experiences, cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and hopes. The Move FORWARD program honors this by meeting you exactly where you are.
Moving Forward Through Family Challenges: How To Take The First Step. You don’t have to do this alone. If you’re reading this because you’re in the middle of a challenge or even crisis—or because you sense one brewing—please know that you are not failing. You are human. You are trying to love your child and hold your family together in a world that doesn’t always make it easy.
The first step is not to have all the answers. It’s to pause, breathe, and get clear about what matters most to you. From there, every next step becomes a little easier, a little steadier, and a lot more intentional.
If you’re ready to explore how the Move FORWARD coaching program can support your family through this season, I’d love to connect. This work is my life’s calling, and I believe wholeheartedly that every family deserves to feel supported, respected, and empowered to heal.
Learn more about Move FORWARD Coaching or schedule a free consultation here.
Siah Fried, MPH, NBC-HWC
