Parenting Counseling
Are You Second Guessing Your Parenting Skills And Looking For Answers?
Do you lay awake at night worrying that you’re not doing enough to help your child? Have you lost your patience with the small things your kids are doing that aren’t necessarily wrong? Are you going in circles helping your child manage their anxiety but whatever you try isn’t quite right?
As a parent, it’s so hard to know if what you are doing is enough. Perhaps when your child struggles with anxiety or depression, you’re not sure how to help them. Although you know that you want to raise happy, healthy, well-adjusted children, maybe that wasn’t modeled for you when you were growing up so you’re uncertain how to achieve this.
Should You Give In Or Hold Firm?
It can be so challenging knowing how to handle when your child wants to stay home from school because school makes them anxious. You may vacillate between allowing them to stay home or pushing them to go despite them not wanting to.
This ongoing indecision about whether to give in to their wishes or hold firm can erode your confidence as a parent. You may wonder how to set appropriate boundaries for your child’s emotional needs, handle tantrums and meltdowns, or make the right decision that doesn’t make their anxiety worse by feeding into it. After all, you don’t want their world to grow smaller as a result of phobias or fears.
You may wish you had an expert at your side at all times who would be able to coach you through any challenging parenting situation. Fortunately, parenting coaching with a therapist is the next best thing to having an expert help you navigate the often-unpredictable moments you face with your kids.
Pressure To Be The Perfect Parent Has Flourished In The Digital Age
Although every generation has contended with the expectations placed on them to be good parents, it seems like in today’s culture, the pressure we’re under to do everything perfectly is extraordinarily high. Because of social media and easy access to the internet, we often feel like we have to research everything we do, and yet, we often encounter conflicting information.
Trying to strike the right balance between not engaging with our kids enough and becoming helicopter parents is a challenge. What’s more, parenting philosophies have evolved since we were kids. Although we might not be sure what our approach should be, we might want to make different choices for our children than the ones our parents made for us.
Transitioning Our Parenting Style As Children Grow Can Be Challenging
What makes parenting all the more challenging is wondering how to adapt to our children’s ever-changing needs. Even though the newborn and toddler years were intense, at least we were clear about what our children needed from us—food, shelter, clothing, love, and protection. Now that they’re getting older, each developmental phase comes with its own set of challenges. We have to learn how to support them while also fostering self-sufficiency.
The other challenge we face is that each child is wholly unique. With different neurological makeups to account for, if we parent more than one child, we have to adapt our parenting styles accordingly. When a child suffers from mental health issues that we’re not familiar with, we lack the experience to know how best to help them.
Luckily, parenting coaching offers the support you need to navigate raising kids. A therapist who is skilled in the latest evidence-based approaches to parenting can ensure you’re doing everything you can to raise a happy and well-adjusted child.
Coaching Provides The Tools And Support For Better Parenting
Scientific research in recent decades has taught us a lot about Interpersonal Neurobiology, the science behind attachment and how our brains are wired for connection and relationship with others. [1], [2] Understanding these principles and letting them inform your parenting can be a game-changer. The tools we teach in parenting therapy fuse these teachings with effective strategies you can use to help your child change unwanted behaviors.
Coaching for parents gives you a safe, judgment-free place to ask questions and learn how to deal with the difficulties that arise with parenting. You can be open and honest about your frustrations and learn productive ways to manage them. If you’re struggling with how to relate to your kids, parenting coaching offers strategies for building stronger attachments with your children.
What To Expect In Sessions
Parents are welcome to attend counseling together or individually. We might also conduct occasional instructional sessions along with your child to observe your parenting interactions and provide you with coaching and feedback. After assessing your needs, your therapist will provide you with an array of skills, tips, and tricks that will make parenting easier for you. In this context, they will be akin to a coach to help you learn the tools and strategies that can support your parenting while providing a therapeutic environment.
Knowing when, where, and how to draw the line with kids can be tricky. You might not know when you’re “giving in” to your child or being “too hard.” We aim to help you better understand your child’s emotional needs so that you, in turn, will know how best to respond to them. We will also help you get on the same page with your co-parent so each of you responds to your child consistently.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) & Supportive Parenting For Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)
PCIT is a modality that helps build and nurture bonds between parents and children. Although studies show that PCIT is great for kids who exhibit disruptive behaviors, anxiety, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or who’ve experienced trauma, we believe it offers skills and tools that can assist all parents.[3] PCIT offers non-coercive techniques to manage difficult behaviors, while also fostering connection and strengthening the bonds between parent and child.
SPACE is a beneficial method for managing anxious children by reducing the accommodations parents commonly make when children exhibit symptoms. SPACE therapy techniques can assist children of any age, even adult children who suffer from failure to launch.
We recognize that you might have one child with a greater need for support, but the skills you will learn can be useful in parenting all the children you’re raising. Once you understand your children’s emotional needs and mastered the skills to help them, you’ll approach parenting with newfound confidence.
With parenting coaching, you’ll have someone on your team who is only a phone call or text away to help coach you should a challenge arise. Knowing what tool to pull out of your tool belt to help your child manage any situation they’re facing will give you peace of mind.
But You May Wonder Whether Parenting Coaching Is Right For You…
We’re already so busy as it is and seeing a parent coach is probably expensive.
Investing in effective parenting is priceless. Parent coaching is therapy that will support you in building a trusting relationship with your child that carries well into the future. Knowing how to respond to your children’s needs and help them manage their anxiety can potentially help reduce the likelihood that they’ll need therapy. When children have parents who they know will support them, it reduces insecurity and nurtures their self-confidence and resiliency.
I’m worried that if we go to parenting therapy, my partner won’t adopt what our counselor teaches us.
Commonly, one parent might not be as receptive to therapy as the other, and that's okay. Even when only one parent is willing to implement what they’ve learned in coaching sessions, it can have a positive benefit on your family. Using effective parenting methods can promote lasting changes in the parent-child relationship you have with your kids. Once your partner sees the difference for themselves, they’ll be more willing to support what’s working.
Our kids’ behavior isn’t so bad. Won’t they outgrow this phase?
Your child does not need to have a problem to benefit from a closer relationship with you. The parenting skills you learn in therapy can be just as useful for kids who behave "normally” and will certainly go beyond the current problems you are facing. These skills can be applied to specific issues as well as more broadly, depending on the situation.
Let Us Help You Take The Struggle Out Of Parenting
Learning how to support your child through any situation will be invaluable knowledge that will strengthen your bond. To schedule a free consultation to learn more about parenting coaching, please call (424) 262-2014 or visit our contact page.
Recent Posts
