Providing you with parenting support
Does your child's behavior dominate family life? Are you frustrated with his or her behavior? Are you more irritable or impatient with your child than you would like? Has your child had a difficult or traumatic experience that has left you worried or unsure of how to best offer support? Is the co-parenting relationship between you and your partner or spouse characterized by disagreements and conflict? These are some of the situations that can create a compelling need for parenting sessions.
Parenting sessions at important junctures in a child's life can avert more serious problems in later developmental stages, help a child achieve and express their potential, and create more harmony and closeness in family life. In fact, even though a child is struggling, a parent's work in parenting sessions can often eliminate the need for a child to receive individual therapy.
How I can support you as a parent
Understanding the relationship you have with your child, knowing who your child is, understanding the fit between you and your child, and helping you develop effective strategies to assist your child cope with problems he or she faces, are all achievable goals in parenting sessions.
The starting point for parenting sessions
One of the most important ways that I can support you is by providing accurate information and perspective on your child's current developmental stage, and exploring how it relates to a problem your child may be experiencing. Taking a thorough history from parents, both of the current situation as well as of the child's development up to present, is the starting point in my work with a child, and also the starting point in any or a series of parenting sessions.
Helping you gain understanding and perspective
The quality of the parent-child relationship is one of the most important factors influencing a child's development. At the same time, the quality of this relationship has a profound effect on the personal happiness of the parent, and the emotional environment of family life.
The development of a child is shaped by interactions between the child and his or her environment. Recent research indicates that social interactions influence brain function during the first year of life. The quality of parenting, as well as other opportunities and stressors in family life, have a major influence on who a child becomes. The first five years of a child's life are the most rapid period of development. Healthy development during this time is extremely important because it establishes either a strong or vulnerable stage for what follows. Even if your child is past that stage, it is essential to understand what occurred in the first five years of life.
The fit between parent and child is a crucial concept to understand if parenting is to be largely healthy and successful. What kind of fit exists between the personalities and temperaments of you and your child? Understanding this can enhance your ability to respond adaptively to your child's unfolding development, and help establish a positive, early foundation for your child. The parent-child relationship can frequently re-stimulate unresolved issues or unfinished business for parents related to their own early history. Reflecting on your personal history as part of this process can prevent repeating or passing on difficult or dysfunctional generational patterns, and allows you to be fully present for your child.
Children have a built-in instinct to master their problems. Recognizing this instinct, identifying obstacles to your child's growth, and helping you to develop strategies to enable you to respond more effectively to your child's difficulties can all be addressed in parenting sessions.
Supporting parents of children who have experienced trauma
Parents need strategies to enable them to be supportive and confident with their children, even though parents themselves are likely to be experiencing grief and worry. Parents become traumatized themselves when their child has experienced an overwhelming event. I can provide the support parents need for their own grief, in order to be available to support their child.
Helping your child with life transitions
Supporting important life stage transitions and understanding the impact these transitions have on family life is another important focus in my work with parents. Settling a child into daycare, beginning school, the onset of adolescence, leaving for college: these events involve separation and can affect both child and parent strongly.
At my Santa Cruz office, conveniently located between downtown Santa Cruz and the Seabright area, I offer couples therapy and individual and family counseling and therapy. I also specialize in child therapy, including art and play therapy
Please call 831-423-7027 to schedule an appointment or discuss your specific needs.
The images on this site are from "The Lost Star" children's book I am currently writing, and were taken by Michael Strong.
