Family Counseling – For Kids and Parents
Conflict Resolution
Once each family member takes accountability for their victim mentality, they become free to ask for what they need and negotiate solutions. I will help create reliable solutions that incorporate better boundaries and communication to replace old patterns of fighting and manipulation. Once agreements and therapy homework decreases the conflict, the concept of Love Languages is used to help each family member get more of the type of love that they need from each family member.
Parent Coaching
Even the best parents are challenged and stretched by parenting. Parenting is complicated and emotionally confusing and we do not live in a society that adequately prepares parents for how to parent their children. When it is welcome, I guide parents through adjusting parental roles, healthy boundaries, positive discipline, behavior charts, and Love and Logic. The expression “good fences make good neighbors,” holds true within all families.
I offer assistance coping with divorce, remarriage, and blended families. Families change over time and those changes can be challenging for both the parents and the kids. Talking through hurts, resentments, and needs are the best ways to not act them out. I offer co-parenting sessions for divorcing/divorced parents who wish to work through their own resentments in order to prevent further burdening the children.
We can develop your parenting styles by using Love and Logic inspired approaches to make the family more peaceful and loving. This can be especially useful with a child that appears to be more defiant than their peers. I often have children and parents co-create and maintain behavior charts so that anger and frustration are used less as a parenting technique; behavior charts free up emotional space for more connection and quality time.