Introduction to Therapy Blog Series: Why Parent Consultation?

If you have browsed our website to check out the services that we offer at Thrive, you may have noticed a section discussing parent consultation. Our passion for working with and supporting parents is a big part of what separates Thrive Therapy from other child and teen therapy providers, who may focus more just on the child or teen rather than the whole family system.

Since parent consultation is a service that is lesser known than individual or family therapy, I thought it might be helpful to share a bit about what parent consultation is and when it might be beneficial for you. First, parent consultation can be a separate service for parents or something incorporated into their own individual therapy or their child/teen’s therapy services. Often, when I am working with adults who happen to also be parents, we spend some of our sessions talking about their child or teen and how they are feeling about parenting, questions they may have, or how to best support their child/teen. When I work with children/teen clients, I also really like for parents to have a check in parent session with me around once a month or once every few months. This helps make sure that we are all on the same page and parents are feeling involved and supported as well.

When meeting for parent consultation sessions, you can definitely expect that we may discuss some things about your parenting approach or style that could be changed or improved. The really great thing about the way we work at Thrive though is that these recommendations come from a place of caring and wanting parents to feel more effective as parents, not ever from a place of judgment or criticism. At Thrive, we feel that everyone, including parents, kids, teens, are doing the best they can. We strive to help everyone in a family build understanding of each other and communicate effectively. Sometimes this might take dramatic parenting style changes – for example, setting more or less limits with your child/teen – and while this may be difficult, it is so rewarding to see the changes that can happen when all parties are open to it!

Here is a brief list of situations/challenges where parent consultation can be helpful:

• Your child is exhibiting behavioral challenges (tantrums, aggression, emotional outbursts) and you just don’t know how to help them or make them stop
• Your child has anxiety and you are unsure when you should push them to do more or allow them to do less
• You feel that you are no longer sure of your parenting approach or style you want to use
• You notice that you do not feel connected to your child or as though you understand them very well
• Your child has a diagnosis that has been difficult for you to cope with
• You have a history of neglect, abuse, trauma in your childhood that is making parenting feel like a triggering experience for you

In all of the above situations, parent consultation sessions can be enormously beneficial in helping parents manage their child’s behavior more effectively, regain confidence as a parent, feel supported, and improve your connection with your child/teen. At Thrive, we love supporting parents through these kinds of challenges and only wish that more parents took advantage of the support we can offer!