What is Parent Coaching?

Parent coaching is all about the here and now.  Unlike traditional therapy where you might focus on your past, coaching is about identifying your present-day challenges as a parent and marshaling your own strengths to address these challenges.   It is about being open to new ideas and to seeing your life with clarity and with compassion. Most importantly, it will involve deep diving into what you appreciate about yourself and how you care for yourself.  

The process of parent coaching will also invite you to a new way of seeing your child. Not someone else’s kid who is an all-star athlete or a Harvard-bound student.  Not the child on Facebook who always looks happy. But your son or daughter who you love more than life itself – their idiosyncrasies, their interests, and their personalities.  We don’t ignore what might be troubling you about them, but we will spend lots of time talking about what you admire in them and how you as a parent can see them with fresh eyes and with renewed energy to parent them. 

How does it work?

Parenting coaching with me will involve 10 – 12 weekly, one-hour sessions.  We can meet in person, on the phone or by Skype. Before the first session, I will invite you to complete a detailed, in-take form that will tell me more about you and the reasons you are seeking parent coaching.

• Initially, we will focus on you, your family and your self-care.  Over the course of the first two sessions, we will talk about what is working in your family and what is not and delve into ways that you have tackled tough challenges in the past.  We will identify the roadblocks to the kind of family life you want. We may talk about your values and your parenting style. 

• Then, in sessions three and four, we will talk about what it is you want.  What is the ideal for you in terms of your child and your family life? How do you want to feel about your day-to-day parenting?  What would give you a sense of calm and reassurance as a parent?  

• Next, we will spend four to six sessions crafting the steps you might take toward that ideal.  It may involve small changes. It might take some experimentation. It will be all about moving forward, finding balance and reconnecting with the kind of parent you want to be.

• We will end our time together with a session or two devoted to what is next, what you have learned about yourself and how you think any positive changes can be sustained.