Parent Coaching and Counseling
As a parent, counseling can help you deal with the many challenges you and your child may face as you raise him or her from infancy to adulthood. Together, we will work to help you feel more confident as a parent. We will also focus on finding ways to strengthen your relationship with your child. When you all get along better, you will enjoy a happier and more peaceful family life.
Parenting Challenges are Unique to Each Family
Parenting can be so rewarding, but it’s also tough work. There is no shortage of self-help books to guide you, but these books can’t speak to the distinctive dynamics of your particular family. Each child is unique, with his or her own personality, temperament and issues. Also, you bring your own history and life circumstances to your role as a parent. Parent counseling offers a personalized approach to help deal with the challenges you face.
From the moment your child is born, your life changes in dramatic ways. If you’re a new mother, your days may suddenly be filled with endless hours at home caring for your newborn. The adjustment can be overwhelming, bringing up conflicting feelings about yourself and your new identity as a mother. Post-partum depression, striking more than one in seven woman, can leave you feeling overwhelmed with despair and completely debilitated. Parent counseling offers support to help you focus on your needs while also helping you adjust to your new responsibilities. When you take care of yourself, you will be better able to care for your baby.
As your children grow up, new challenges arise. Whether it is power struggles that first surface when your child is a toddler, or dealing with a moody, rebellious teen, the list of trials you can face is endless. You may feel angry, frustrated or disappointed when your child doesn’t behave in the ways you’d prefer or had expected, or if other unanticipated issues arise. Parent counseling can help you find effective ways to manage these difficulties.
Being a parent can present many exciting, but also emotionally difficult transitions for you and your child. Sending a child off to kindergarten, sleep-away camp or college can be stressful for both of you. Parent counseling provides you with support and guidance to help you successfully navigate the many changes that you and your child will face over time.
My Approach
My approach to working with parents is less about helping you find ways to discipline your child and more about supporting you to understand what you and your child may be going through. With a little perspective, you can find effective ways to respond to, or prevent, behavior problems. When consequences are called for, we can discuss different approaches that make sense within the context of your particular family. Throughout this process, we’ll focus on helping you build a strong relationship with your child.
As a parent, you bring your life experiences from the past and present, along with concerns about the future, to this incredible journey. I can help you look at how your own life experiences may be influencing your parenting. This awareness can free you to be more adaptable and flexible in dealing with your children and can make life at home better for everyone. While parenting is your most important job, balance in life is also important. We’ll also work together to help you find fulfillment in other areas of your life.
Sessions with parents can take different forms. Often there is much overlap among parent feedback, parent coaching and parent counseling. We’ll work together to find the approach that’s best for you and your family.
Parent Feedback
If your child or teen is in counseling with me, we’ll schedule sessions to discuss how your child is doing in therapy, at home, in school and with friends. I’ll also offer feedback on ways that you can help enhance your child’s emotional well-being and strengthen your ties with your child.
Parent Coaching
When it comes to managing specific concerns, such as power struggles or emotional outbursts, speaking with an objective, trained professional can be helpful. Through parent coaching, I offer you different perspectives that can open a path to considering new ways of dealing with these and other issues that may arise.
Parent Counseling
At times it can be helpful to look at issues in more depth. Through parent counseling, I offer a safe space where you can access and process feelings about your children, your parenting style, parenting identity and many other issues. So many different emotions arise as you and your child experience various life changes. When you are attuned to your inner feelings, you can be a better mom, dad or role model for your child.