PARENT AND FAMILY THERAPY
Gabor Maté said, “Children swim in their parents’ unconscious (the atmosphere at home) like fish swim in the sea”. Our children absorb our moods and interpret our nervous system. We come into this role influenced by how we were parented, as well as by what our experience of being a child and teenager was like. Additionally, when one is a parent of a child with high needs and/or various diagnoses, we are often in uncharted territory and are presented with a whole other set of expectations, responsibilities and systems.
Parent and Family Therapy is an opportunity to learn about the developmental stages of your child plus the necessary coping skills to have the presence to look at your child’s actions and interactions through a lens of curiosity in order to respond to the message they are trying to communicate rather than responding only to the behavior. This does not mean accepting the unacceptable; rather it’s an opportunity to be clear about your family values and reinforce your family rules and boundaries.
With our clinical therapist you will discuss different parenting styles: authoritative vs. permissive and authoritarian vs. overprotective. You will discuss raising resilience children today, how stress is both a stimulus and a response, the importance of co-regulation, and emotion coaching techniques to build self-esteem in your child. You will discuss the inevitable but necessary reality of rupture, and the key to repair in building interpersonal bridges with your child. You will discuss understanding your child’s needs and expectations within your attachment relationship.
Each set of parents and family is unique, so the frequency and duration of parent sessions as well as family sessions will depend on a mutually agreed upon goal between you and our clinical therapist. The sessions will be based on what is in the best interest of the treatment plan.