Mental Health Support Designed for Parents
- Kelsey Barrett
- 12 hours ago
- 3 min read
A specialized counseling experience means having a developmental understanding of each stage of life, knowing the challenges you might be facing, and then helping you get unstuck if those stages go awry.
How Might Counseling Work for Parents?
There are a variety of reasons and types of counseling a parent might seek. For many people this means the counselor would work with the kid directly as the client and see the adult via parent consults in a time limited context that changes based on the child's age.
At every age you can seek out counseling for yourself to process the big parenting choices and concerns about your kid to help you become more proactive in those choices. Having a parent support team is so useful for everyone, but especially if you don't have family present or a large network of parents to turn to about everyday issues. As your kids age you may need an outside perspective to help ground you into decisions that are from your specific values rather than the values of your social circle.
Beyond seeing a parent individually I might work with the family temporarily to work through a pattern or conflict.
For new parents focusing on fertility, pregnancy, postpartum care, newborns, infants, and toddlers up to 3:
Being a parent is a journey of becoming that starts as early as the fertility process. At these unique stages I would see the parent in counseling as the client. We would focus on mental health, coping skills, and watching for signs of Post Partum Anxiety and Depression. This process often includes psychoeducation about what you might face in each stage. Like in other major life transitions it helps to have someone to talk through your opinions and responses to each choice to help come to something that works for you and for your family. As your child ages that treatment might evolve to parenting strategies or parental support on topics like discipline or potty training or toddler transitions.
For children 3 to 8, your child might see a play therapist with regular parent consultations. While I am by no means an RPT (Registered Play Therapist) I did attend UNT which is a premier program for play and attended courses in play, family, and couples during my time there with extra supervision in play techniques, activity techniques with adolescents, expressive arts, and sand tray which all work together to go beyond that 8+ to the tween ages. I also have attended extra CEUs at the Summer Institute at UNT. I no longer have access to a play room due to my current space constraints, so I see kids transitioning out of the use of play specifically as the client or I can act as a parental support. I can work exclusively with you as the client to develop your parenting style and process how you want to approach each stages unique challenges. I can also work with your family to work through a set of issues as a group.
For children 9 - 14, your child will be seeing a therapist as a client utilizing expressive art, sand tray, or activity techniques alongside talk therapy. For children this age you can still expect parent consults. At the end of this age range you might see less contact with you and more with the child.
For parents with a child 14-18, your child will be seeing a therapist using talk therapy unless they are coming in with a specific concern that changes the modality. An example might be high functioning Autism spectrum or OCD. For the majority of this group parent consultation will begin to drop because privacy is very important to make sure counseling is effective. For teenagers the relationship has to be safe in order to share.
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