"Behind every young child who believes in their self is a parent who believes first."  Matthew Jacobsen

Parent Coaching

​

​

​Parent Coaching versus Individual Therapy​

Parent coaching is a good fit for parents who are looking for  feedback on their parenting styles, wanting to learn more about their child's behaviors through a developmental lens as well as increase their confidence in dealing with their child's big feelings. The focus of parent coaching is enhancing parenting skills, improving parent-child communication patterns, and introducing new parenting strategies aimed at improving their child's overall well-being.  Child therapy focuses more on addressing a child's emotional, behavioral, and psychological needs and challenges. The child therapist will work directly with a child to strengthen self-confidence, improve self-regulation, and assist in exploring a child's thoughts and feelings in a safe, supportive environment. Utilizing parent coaching and individual child therapy at the same time can be very effective at maximizing a child's progress. ​

​

​

What is Positive Discipline?​​

Positive Discipline (PD) teaches children to "develop self-discipline, responsibility, cooperation, and problem-solving skills." (Jane Nelson, Positive Discipline) PD focuses on teaching rather than punishing to change and manage children's behaviors.  Several key principles of this approach include: mutual respect, understanding behaviors, effective communication, building connection, problem-solving, and encouragement. Clinicians work with parents and impart this information through role play and experiential activities to help parents feel more comfortable and confident with these encouraging and mutually respectful approaches. 

​

​

What is Child Parent Relationship Therapy​

CPRT is a play therapy-based approach for parents with "young children presenting with behavioral, emotional, social, and attachment disorders." A primary belief of this approach is that having a secure parent-child relationship will improve a child's well-being and decrease problem behaviors. Parents will learn new skills to help strengthen the connection and attunement to their child while also decreasing the stress in the parent-child relationship. Parents become the change agents for their children's growth and development through this training. 

​