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    Parenting

    Parenting Support and Counselling

    Parenting is one of those things that can be both the most rewarding experience of your life and the most challenging thing you’ll ever do. There’s no manual for how to do it, we didn’t all have good models of how to do it well, and there’s always someone close by who looks like they’re doing it better. Very few people are born great parents — it’s something we learn through experience, and we can improve on it with the help of a trusted mentor.

    There’s no single way to parent well. How do you get a baby to sleep through the night? How do you help young children self-regulate and not tantrum, bite or lash out? How hard do you push your underachieving or shy student? How do you handle conversations about dating, curfews, drugs and school when you come from one culture and your children are being raised in another? How do you raise someone to be a good human being? And importantly, how do you ensure you meet the emotional and practical needs of your family when you barely get enough sleep, have your own full-time job outside the house, and barely get any time for yourself?

    We Work with Children of All Ages

    Our team of psychologists, registered psychotherapists and social workers work with parents of children of all ages to help them find solutions that work. We will work with you, your partner and some or all of your children to understand why you’re facing those challenges and find solutions to resolve them. Some families benefit from realizing that the same parenting style might not work for all kids in the house. Every child develops at their own pace and has a unique temperament and learning style. Holding too rigidly to a one-size-fits-all approach can put unfair demands on children who might not be quite as capable or ready as others.

    Our therapists help parents understand which behaviours are typical for their child’s stage of development and can advise about when your parenting model might need to change to continue being effective. When children are young we need to control them to keep them safe. But as they mature and begin making more decisions on their own, parents need to become mentors, trusted advisors whose goal is to help young adults learn responsibility and independence.

    We can also assist when parenting challenges expose other issues, like anxiety, post-partum depression, and relationship issues. Parenting and couples’ therapy can also help when child behaviour problem cause disagreements between spouses and when minor issues erupt into major battles.