Counsellor/Therapist, Clinical Supervisor, Master of Counselling
Parenting is not easy. Having the skills and knowledge to enable children to grow up making the correct choices and become responsibility is the answer to being a good parent. Parenting assists parents to focus on planning so that things go right- it enables tem to become a rereflective listener, enables them to be soloution foccused and not a rescurer. Importantly it gives them the skills not to be a dectective to their children but a support person their young can rely on.
Parent counseling is an invaluable service that will offer you unbiased guidance and support; helping you understand and identify the needs of every individual in your family and better look after the well-being of your family unit.
Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist and Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
Parenting is always a joint process. For this reason I urge both parents to attend as they are the key people in the lives of their children. When both parents are involved they become a parenting team and can be helped over a shorter period of time to address problems that may arise for their children.
Parenting is one of the hardest things we have ever had to do. Our children are our mirrors and force us to look at our deeper self; our triggers, our hurts, the yearnings of our hearts. Wanting to offer our babies the best possible launching pad to create their own meaningful and satisfying lives means we need to attend to our own stuff so that we can put it aside and be with them completely. I can help you meet your hurt inner child and empower you with tools to support the loving connection you wish to foster within your family unit.
Whether you're a first-time parent or a tenth-time parent there will always be more to learn and more challenges to overcome. Oftentimes, parents can be triggered by their children and be unaware of it. Sometimes this can be due to the way they were parented and/or unresolved issues they may have with their own parents. I work collaboratively with clients to help them explore their parenting style and work through unresolved issues they may have with their own parents.
What a difficult time to parent! At Hargan Psychology, we understand the impact of social media, screen time, busy lives, anxiety, communication difficulties, bullying, academic concerns, body image - just to name a few of the challenges our parents report. We provide both counselling for individuals, couples and families in this important area, along with our group program B.E.S.T. Parents.
One of the roles that requires the most skill, we are often not trained to be parents until starting to think about having a family, and then it is often just focused on the giving birth process. We then see parents who may be reluctant to ask for support until their situation feels desperate and their children are demanding, clingy or displaying other challenging behaviours that prompt help-seeking. Our therapists provide supportive guidance to parents using a range of treatment modalities that include attachment-focused therapy and practical environmental analysis and change implementation.