Therapy With Parents
Our knowledge about child development is expanding at rapid speed in the U.S. and throughout the world, and that expansion is greatly changing our attitudes and behaviors around parenting our children. Never before in history have we had the science the way we do now to help us understand our children's behaviors and feelings. That science is helping us to grow as parents, deepening our compassion for our children and for our own selves and our childhoods, thereby taking our joy and gratitude in parenting to new heights. Never before in history has there been so much room to spread our wings of self-actualization as parents. And our children become the lucky recipients of this bounty of love.
Yes, it is exciting. Yet, American parents struggle under pressures of living. We want our children to thrive to the fullest extent possible. We want our children to have more than we had. More opportunity, more love. So, of course for that to happen, we know we must give our children all kinds of our energies: time, money, emotional and mental presence. So it is understandable that we at times become perplexed and overwhelmed with fear, guilt, sadness, confusion, and even anger when we find ourselves parenting in ways that do not meet our ideals. And yet, despite how hard it can be, we know that parenting is one of our most important endeavors, and where we find our greatest joy. Supportive counseling and psychotherapy may greatly help a family to find more connection, fulfillment, and appreciation with one another.
Yes, it is exciting. Yet, American parents struggle under pressures of living. We want our children to thrive to the fullest extent possible. We want our children to have more than we had. More opportunity, more love. So, of course for that to happen, we know we must give our children all kinds of our energies: time, money, emotional and mental presence. So it is understandable that we at times become perplexed and overwhelmed with fear, guilt, sadness, confusion, and even anger when we find ourselves parenting in ways that do not meet our ideals. And yet, despite how hard it can be, we know that parenting is one of our most important endeavors, and where we find our greatest joy. Supportive counseling and psychotherapy may greatly help a family to find more connection, fulfillment, and appreciation with one another.
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Unique Concerns May Arise With Parenting the Infant Parenting the Toddler Parenting the Growing Child Parenting the Teen Single Parenting Step Parenting Blended Family Two Parent Family LGBTQ+ Parents Multi-Generational Household |
Parents May Have Questions About
Discipline
Childhood Development
Crying and Tantrums
Nursing
Bed Sharing
Day Care
Education
Substance Abuse
Violence
Social Support for Parents
Parents’ Family of Origin Issues
Sexuality and Intimacy While Parenting
Individuality While Parenting
Divorce and Separation
Post-Divorce/Separation Co-Parenting
Childhood and Teen Depression
Chronic Childhood Illness
Death of a Loved One and Its Impact on Children
Pregnancy and the first year of life are times of great excitement, great change, and sometimes, great stress. It is a sensitive time during which attachment with your baby is your central focus, and rightly so. A strong attachment between parent and child increases a child’s long-term chances for emotional stability, positive self-regard, and ability to care for others. Parents who are strongly attached to their children derive greater satisfaction from parenting as well. Good physical and emotional self-care for the mother and the parenting partner are vital elements to creating strong attachments with children.
Having a new child in the family, whether as a result of pregnancy, an adoption, or a blended family, is an exciting time, with its own unique set of frustrations, fears, and joys. And the circumstances of the arrival of the child can greatly impact these feelings. I offer supportive counseling for families transitioning new children into their lives, in the hope that such an experience may be primarily one of joy and wonder for you, and one that will help your new child into the family as gently as possible.
Parenting Resource Links
Naomi Aldort, PhD
“Naomi Aldort is a parenting counselor, internationally published writer, and public speaker.” She has written, Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, which is available for order from her website, where you may also find insightful parenting articles.
Any Baby Can / Candlelighters
Resources and support for families with children with disabilities and chronic illnesses, including childhood cancer.
(512) 454-3743
AustinMamas.com
“Connecting and celebrating Austin’s varied community of thinking mamas.”
Aware Parenting Institute
Run by Aletha Solter, PhD, “Aware Parenting is a philosophy of child-rearing that has the potential to change the world. Based on cutting-edge research and insights in child development, Aware Parenting questions most traditional assumptions about raising children, and proposes a new approach that can profoundly shift a parent's relationship with his or her child. Parents who follow this approach raise children who are bright, compassionate, competent, nonviolent, and drug free.” Dr. Solter has written, The Aware Baby, Tears and Tantrums, Helping Young People Flourish, andRaising Drug-Free Kids, all available for order on her website.
Mothering Magazine
“Mothering celebrates the experience of parenthood as worthy of one's best efforts and fosters awareness of the immense importance and value of parenthood and family life in the development of the full human potential. As a readers' magazine, we recognize parents as the experts and wish to provide truly helpful information upon which parents can base informed choices.”
Dr. William Sears
“Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his 'little patients' call him, is the father of eight children as well as the author of over 30 books on childcare. Dr. Bill is an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine.” Dr. Sears has written several parenting handbooks promoting attachment theory.
Daniel J. Siegel, MD
Dr. Siegel is a renowned psychotherapist, speaker and author with a background in attachment theory as it relates to emotions, behavior, and autobiographical memory and narrative. He has written, The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience, and Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive, which may be ordered from his website.
Texas Parent to Parent
“Providing support and information to families of children with disabilities, chronic illness, and other special needs.”
Toll-free: (866) 896-6001; Austin Local: (512) 458-8600
Wildest Colts Resources
Run by John Breeding, PhD, Wildest Colts Resources “offers support for adults in their work with young people, especially in challenging situations, and defense of parents from coercion, and young people from labeling and drugs.” Dr. Breeding has written parenting books, The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses, and True Nature and Great Misunderstandings. These books may be ordered directly from Dr. Breeding's website where you will find additional parenting articles and tremendous information and literature pertaining to biomedical mental health.