Parent Coaching
Keeping your child as the focus
Parent coaching is topic that has gained much attention in the recent years. There are times when a judge or magistrate will court order a parent to engage in parent coaching if there are concerns of alienation or a parent not supporting the other parent’s relationship with the child/ren. This offers parents an opportunity to work with a therapist in looking at connections between feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Creating insight into these associations and understanding how volitionally, or more commonly inadvertently, they may be negatively affecting their child and potentially sabotaging the relationship between parent/child. This is very important work as if this is not addressed, the child will suffer.
There is another aspect to parent coaching that allows parents to bring current struggles that they are having with their child/ren to our sessions, exploring a wide variety of responses and the possible outcomes of each.
This is particularly helpful when children begin to the transition into teenage years and may challenge household rules. Parents can learn new and more effective strategies to communicate with their children that removes the often-heightened emotional reaction and focuses on a calmer approach.
Blending families can pose some unique challenges for parents. Parent coaching for couples offers a safe space for each to explore their own emotional responses to their present-day family system and the complex dynamics that arise. Helping couples understand one another’s perspective and the emotions attached to their responses can decrease conflict and open pathways to more creative parenting.
There are no perfect parents, but through the process of parent coaching, parents are able to safely share their questions, feelings of frustration and fears of failure and construct new ways of interacting with their children to create a healthier family system.
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