Counseling and Parent & Co-Parent Coaching
Counseling:
The individual, couple or family who counseling is the best choice for is one who is interested in exploring his or her past and how it influences who they are today and how it affects the choices they are now making. They may want to heal from past traumas, past hurt from a family member or loved one, and strongly believe that understanding the past will help them in the future. They are open to the journey and not as focused on the results. They are also comfortable with the fact that counseling is not time-limited. Those who are involved in a stepfamily situation may experience feelings of anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, confused, and fear that they are or will not be a good enough parent or child.
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Individual Therapy:
Adult: Individual Therapy will benefit the adult who may be struggling with feelings of anxiety, being overwhelmed, confused, angry, and fear. Often these emotions are attached or are triggered because of past experiences. For example:
Sally is divorced of 5 years and has just recently remarried. She has two children. Her own father left her and her mother when she was five years of age. Lately, she has been experiencing anxiety that her current husband will find her and her children as unsatisfying and leave them. Sally has decided to participate in individual therapy to help her work through her anxiety.
Child/ Adolescents: Children can also benefit from participating in individual therapy. This allows them a chance to voice all of their feelings and concerns to an adult who will not be hurt by their comments. Often children are afraid to voice what they are really experiencing because they are afraid that they will cause their parents more pain. Similarly, to how parents go into protective mode so do children. Children are also often very confused and are unsure of what they are feeling. Here is an example of how therapy can help a child or teenager:
Charlie is 11 years old. His mother and father divorced three years ago. They now both are in new relationships and in the last 6 months he has begun to spend time at both houses more regularly. Lately, Charlie has become forgetful and teachers are complaining that he is goofing off in class. He also has become more disrespectful. Charlie’s parents are very preoccupied with their new partners and although they try to talk to Charlie about what’s going on he refuses to talk to them.
Individual sessions are weekly and 50 minutes in length.
Visit Children and Teens to find out more about what groups and workshops are offered.
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Couples Therapy:
For couples in a stepfamily situation there are many obstacles to overcome that couples who are not in the stepfamily situations have to face. The latter couples often have the opportunity to grow together prior to children and then as their children grow. However, the stepfamily couple needs to face parenting issues from the beginning and regarding where the child or children are at immediately without much time for growth. This is not to mention the financial issues, issues from the divorce, dealing with the ex, and so on.
Couples meet with their therapist to achieve mutually agreed upon therapy goals in weekly sessions that last 50 minutes. Typical therapy goals include: healthy communication, conflict resolution, and cooperative goal setting. Couples who find themselves engaging in frequent conflict, experiencing unsatisfying communication patterns, having power or control struggles, experiencing betrayal, having sexual difficulties, or experiencing other threats to their relationship may benefit from couples therapy. A couple’s relationship will shift and change with the growth of the family as a whole. As stepchildren reach different stages in their life, new parental issues will arise.
Therapy will help couples develop a more intimate, satisfying, and healthy relationship, and learn skills that help the relationship continue to grow after the therapy has ended.
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Family Therapy:
Family therapy can be a useful platform for everyone to be able to recognize and mourn the pain and hurt of the past while moving forward. Family therapy will address the feelings and emotions that are present with loss, change, and accepting someone new into the family dynamics. It will give family members the opportunity to speak about his or her own experience and to listen to their family member’s experience as well. Each member will recognize his or her role in the family and understand how they can participate in helping the family move in the direction that will benefit everyone.
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Parent & Co-Parent Coaching:
Parent & Co-Parent Coaching is personal and individualized to your needs. You do not need to weed through tons of information or search the internet for hours to find the information you need because your coach will have the information for you. In addition, you will receive support, encouragement and feedback along the way. You can work through only one problem or focus on being a more effective parent over time. Typically, parents have a specific issue or issues in mind that they would like to work through such as: “My child refuses to speak with my new partner, what should we do?”
Parent Coaching can be with an individual or with the couple according to your needs. Parent Coaching can also be used to work through a couple issue such as: “My partner and I disagree on what school our child should to, can you help us work though it?”
All coaching sessions will start with a complimentary consultation. After the consultation, a session package is developed based on your needs. The session package is discussed and agreed upon before moving forward.
Parent Coaching groups are offered as well. A group coaching experience can be very useful in that not only do you learn from the coach but you learn from each other as well. All members will share in the challenge of a similar issue and work together with the guidance of the coach to facilitate change. An example of a Parent Coaching Group topic would be: Stepparents dealing with struggling teens. Feel free to share any ideas that you may have for a group topic.
Visit Workshops and Groups to find out more about what is offered.