Parent Guidance
Every parent deserves support and guidance.
What is Parent Guidance?
Parent Guidance is a therapeutic service aimed at supporting, educating, and strengthening parents so that they may access their fullest capacities as parents. Most parents anticipate that they will encounter challenges in the course of raising their children, but if you have found yourself thinking “it isn’t supposed to be this hard,” or feeling that something just isn’t right, it is important to pay attention to that feeling. If you have tried everything and still feel like nothing is working, it does not mean that you are a bad parent. It means you are not getting the support and guidance that every parent deserves to have.
There are numerous reasons for why a parent might seek parent guidance. Perhaps your family is going through a major transition, such as divorce, and you are not sure how best to support your children during this process. Perhaps there has been a traumatic experience for you, your child, or your family, and you don’t know how to navigate all the intense emotions that both you and your child are experiencing. Or, as is common for many parents, you are finding that your past is interfering with your ability to be the kind of parent you want to be.
What is Intergenerational Trauma?
It is well known that how we were parented has a strong influence on how we will parent, in both positive and negative ways. If the pain and hardship that one experienced in childhood is never examined, it is likely to show up in how one parents. In this way, we pass on our experiences of pain from one generation to the next, until someone decides that the cycle stops with them. Parent Guidance is a highly effective way to put an end to this cycle and restore your family to a more balanced, harmonious, and joyful trajectory. It is an opportunity to provide your child with the freedom to live life unburdened by the ghosts of the past.
How Does Parent Guidance Work?
While Parent Guidance is therapeutic, it is therapeutic work specifically done by the parents in service of the child. The work involves a combination of education around child development, techniques for addressing problematic behaviors, developing a stronger ability to understand the meaning behind your child’s behavior, and identifying the things that “get in the way” of you being the calm, loving, creative parent of which you are capable. This sometimes means spending time talking about your own childhood experiences or more recent painful moments. While this may seem daunting, many parents are surprised at how significantly relieved they feel once they have had the chance to be heard. Especially for parents who have never had this opportunity before, it can feel as if a weight they didn’t even know was there has been lifted.
Is Parent Guidance a Substitute for Child Therapy?
In some cases, Parent Guidance can sufficiently address a child’s behavior without the child needing to attend therapy. This can take place either as a handful of sessions as consultations, or an ongoing, more consistent commitment. In other cases, Parent Guidance is a first-step towards addressing a child’s behavior, which may or may not be followed by the child attending therapy. Depending on the situation, the therapist may recommend that the family engage in Parent Guidance and Child Therapy simultaneously. In some cases, the therapist will request to meet with the child in order to assess which approach will best meet the child’s needs.