Parental Counseling
"Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when risk disappointing others."
-Brené Brown
Parenting during the teen or young adult years can be rewarding for some, but difficult and sometimes lonely for others, as their child becomes more independent. This process of individuation can be complicated when your child engages in troubled behavior, such as:
- Skipping school
- Sneaking out at night
- Running away
- Refusing to comply with basic requests
- Angry outbursts
- Drug use
- Sexually acting out behavior
- Extreme disrespect of parental authority
- Lying
- Lack of motivation
As a parent of a troubled teen, homework completion and good grades are the least of your worries! You may experience shame, embarrassment, frustration, uncontrollable anxiety or fear about your teen’s future, and even despair. You can feel all alone in this parenting struggle because parents of the average teen or young adult simply do. not. get. it!
We can be so desperate to change our child's behavior that we're willing to spend gobs of money on residential treatment programs or teen bootcamps to "fix" our child. I used to work in one of these programs with troubled and defiant teens. Sometimes these resources and programs are helpful, at least temporarily . . . until your child returns home.
Many of these programs fail (especially if their primary focus is on the child) because misbehavior is influenced by an interaction between the environment and child.
Unlike other treatment programs, I DO NOT promise a change in your child's behavior or guarantee a radical transformation in your relationship with your child. Rather, I focus on helping you change YOU!
My goal in parental counseling is to empower parents to set age-appropriate boundaries wtih their child and to respond gracefully in the face of teen defiance. My goal is to help you be in control of you, your emotions, and your response.
My hope is that you can respond in a manner that is in keeping with your values and with your life goals so that you can increase the likelihood that you can reclaim your relationship!
