Is Parent/Teen/Family Counselling for you?

WE ARE HERE FOR YOU

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT TO YOURSELF, I JUST WISH MY KID CAME WITH A PARENTING MANUAL?

GREAT NEWS! YOU JUST FOUND ONE…

Addiction

Is your child obsessed with their devices?
Are you or your child using drugs, alcohol, or food to numb out and suppress emotions?
Is addiction impacting your ability to parent?

Your child can’t control their screen use… Loss of interest in other activities… It preoccupies their thoughts… It interferes with socializing… Screen use causes serious family problems… Your kid shows signs of withdrawal… Their tolerance is increasing. … They’re deceptive about it.

When someone is experiencing emotional pain and they do not possess the skills and tools necessary to cope in a healthy way, this often leads to coping in an unhealthy way. Addiction often begins by engaging in a certain behavior or using a certain substance that temporarily ‘takes away’ this emotional pain. The signs of an addiction are when someone is continuing to engage in a certain behavior even though it is harming their overall mental, emotional, and physical health.

Anger

Are you constantly yelling at your kids?
Are you getting mad at the people around you?
Is your child threatening you, breaking things or hitting you?
Does your home feel unsafe?

Anger is that emotion that is hard to talk about because many of us have been taught that feeling angry is not ok. We are taught to suppress anger, instead of experiencing it and releasing it in a healthy way.

Anger is scary, when you feel angry, your primitive instincts (stress response of fight, flight, and freeze) engage which makes you want to yell and hit, or run away, or ignore what is happening because you just want the emotional hurt to go away.

You may feel threatened and want to protect yourself and this initiates anger. I teach parents and children healthy ways to cope with anger and what to do when the stress response automatically initiates, while engaging intense emotions such as anger.

Anxiety

Is your child consumed by worries and fear?
Do you and/or your child frequently think about worst case scenario?
Does anxiety negatively impact your parenting ability?
Are you and/or your child missing out on what life has to offer?

Anxiety is an emotion that a person experiences in the face of ‘perceived’ threat or danger and the belief that something negative is about to happen.

As a parent, sometimes we tell ourselves a story that something negative is going to happen and then we re-enforce this story by telling ourselves thoughts such as:

“I am a bad parent” “I can’t do this; parenting is just too hard” “My child is just a difficult child” “My child can’t handle that situation.”

Co-Parenting and Divorce

Are you dealing with a challenging Ex-Partner?
Do you require conflict resolution?
Looking for ways to emotionally support your children?
Looking for ways to emotionally support yourself?
Are lawyers, legal bills and the courts stressing you out?

When we go through a divorce or a major break up, this will often leave the parents feeling angry, hurt, sad and scared which is part of the process but we do not want to take this out on our children. Parental conflict affects children directly and indirectly. Conflict between a mother and father drains both parents’ emotional resources and diverts their attention from
their child’s needs. I can help you, to help your children through this difficult process so that their emotional needs are being met. I help parents figure out how to navigate their new co-parenting relationship with the best interests of their children in mind.

Diagnosis (Complex Needs)

Does your child have a diagnosis of some kind, and has complex needs?
Does your own diagnosis impact your ability to parent the way you want to?
It is scary, stressful, and emotionally draining when your child has complex needs, and this is not what you expected or were prepared for as a parent.

Your child has complex needs therefore they are more:
Intense with Emotions
Challenging
Sensitive (mentally, emotionally, physically)
Distracted
Uncomfortable with Change

I have significant experience working with and fostering children with complex needs. It is my specialty! Trust me, hope is not lost, and I can help you and your family deal with this in an effective manner now and moving forward.

Depression

Are you and/or your child diagnosed with depression and this is impacting your parent-child relationship?

Depression is hard, it can often ‘take over’ your family’s day-to-day lives. I have worked with and foster parented many Teens suffering from depression. I have also helped many parents who find that their own depression is impacting their ability to parent the way that they want to. I help Teens and Parents realize that depression does not have to define you entirely.

Stress

When you’re stressed…
Do you engage in “fight” such as yelling, arguing, punishing your child?
Do you find yourself going into “flight” by avoiding and ignoring an issue with your child?
Do you “freeze” and end up giving in to their demands?

These are examples of what often controls us as parents – when our emotions take over, this is our stress response controlling how we interact and deal with our children. Stress is often the reason behind your child’s difficult behaviors. I can teach you and your child effective strategies to deal with stress so that it does not lead to certain behaviors.

TRAUMA OFTEN LEAVES US FEELING STUCK OR TRAPPED:

Trauma

Has your family endured an unexpected tragedy, a death in the family, a divorce?
A traumatic incident or incidents can lead to ‘scary’ and ‘challenging’ behaviors. Often our children’s challenging behaviors are a result of unprocessed and unhealed Trauma. Often, we cannot parent the way we want to because of our own childhood trauma and emotional triggers.

“Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood and untreated cause of human suffering”

– Peter Levine

The bulk of my experience working with and fostering teenagers has been centered around developing a home environment and parenting in a way that effectively heals trauma. This is my specialty! Trust me, trauma does not have to be a ‘life-long’ sentence of pain and misery. I will teach you what you need to know as a parent when dealing with certain behaviors that your child is showing because of trauma that has taken place in their life.

What is Trauma?

Experiences or situations that are physically, emotionally, or mentally painful and distressing.
These experiences overwhelm a person’s usual ability cope and their belief that they can cope with the situation.
It can be a situation that is threatening (physically, emotionally, mentally) or is perceived as threatening.
It can be a situation that is new and different.
It is often a situation that the person has no control over what is happening, and no choice.
What is traumatic to one person, may not be traumatic to another person. It differs person to person.