In the past 20 years of working with families and adolescents, I have found one common occurrence or theme within the families I have served: regardless of socio-economic status, gender(s) or cultural/racial background, most parents are lost parenting their teenagers, let alone trying to self-care while parenting their intelligent, resourceful, and strong-willed teenager.
There are a plethora of parenting self-help manuals; unfortunately, to weed through all the well-intended advice is a daunting task! I can help guide you through the latest research in positive parenting skills combined with my years of practice wisdom to help ease the transition back into being a loving, effective, and respected parent. I do this by concentrating on your parenting and self-care strategies by working exclusively with you and your co-parent.
It will require effort, quite often a lot of effort, but it is an investment in your relationship with your teenager. The most effective parenting strategy you have is focusing on the relationship with your teen. Research shows us that teenagers who are well-grounded in their families do better in all areas of their lives and they feel more connected to their parent(s).
I often remind my clients that they have done their work in raising a good child over the first 12 years. Those were the easy years! We were teaching them right from wrong, the good from the bad and it was often unambiguous and clear-cut parenting. Then, they hit their teen years and you get fired as the boss! Now what?
You are not alone, and it is not a helpless endeavor. As I guide and coach you to improve your parenting skills, and to reinforce what is already working. The strongest leverage you have with your teen is love. Learning to be an “askable parent” is only one of the many key skills I will teach and guide you to implement in your home.
The key component is teaching you effective positive parent-child interaction skills such as emotional communication. Teaching you how to help your teenager to recognize their feelings, how to label, and identify emotions, and appropriately express and deal with emotions. Quite often, we parents have not learned this skill ourselves and I work with you to learn or relearn these skills and to model, implement, and enhance your relationship with your teenager.
This is your child. They need your unconditional love, your understanding, your consistent parenting and to connect with you as a loving, askable, and approachable parent.
Call today to get started on your path as a positive and effective parent to your teenager!