Parent Therapy
Does the emotional load of parenting leave you feeling exhausted?
Is your child struggling with mood or behavior issues and you don’t know how to help them?
Are you losing your cool even when you don’t want to?
Do you feel like your family could be in a better place but you don’t know what steps to take to get there?
All families face struggles along the way...
We have yet to meet a family that didn’t hit some bumps in the road. Today’s families are faced with new challenges that prior generations never imagined: access to cell phones and social media, the need for two incomes, pressures to perform academically and athletically, and the constant exposure to confusing messages through the media If you find yourself feeling like a failure because you can’t live up to the Instagram worthy families you see online, please know that you are not alone. Not every family moment can be social media ready. In fact, most moments are far from it!
Studies show that parents face far more challenging and stressful moments than joyful ones. This doesn’t mean that you’re doomed to a life of stress and misery until your children grow up. You can find your focus and truly enjoy the work of raising children with the support of parenting counseling and family therapy online or in-person.
Our unique approach to parenting therapy
If your family and children are struggling, you have probably done some soul searching on how you got here. Perhaps you’ve placed your child in therapy or have looked for a therapist for your child. Maybe you’ve talked to friends or studied the Instagram accounts of parenting gurus. But you still haven’t found the answers and you want a better understanding of how your behaviors shape the day to day life of your family. Whether you call it parenting therapy, parent counseling, or therapy for anxiety, you’re looking answers on what you can do to make the family happier and healthier.
We’ll start our work with a thorough assessment of your family’s history, honing in on the values and major experiences that shape your unique family. Through years of working with children and families, we’ve learned how important it is to truly understand the hopes, dreams, values, and challenges of the parents we are supporting. Parents are the true experts on their children. With this knowledge, we can help you develop goals to address your family’s challenges that reflect your values for your family. Your plan for treatment is based on your unique circumstances and challenges, offering both concrete strategies and deeper insights. Those deeper insights can include searching your own family history for themes and coping strategies that are no longer functional. Many parents find that uncovering the source of their triggers will help them to face their challenges at home with a newfound sense of calm and clarity. We utilize a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy strategies with deeper psychodynamic understanding to reach your family’s goals.
Why family work should start with parents first...
We start our work with parents first because parents or primary caretakers (foster parents, grandparents, step-parents, etc.), are the secure base that sets the stage for a healthy family. There’s a reason the airline tells you to put your oxygen mask on first! After years of treating children with emotional and behavioral challenges, we have learned that it’s secure and regulated parents that have the greatest impact on the functioning of the whole family! While many therapists would be happy to meet with your child alone for session after session, we think it’s important to teach you the tools to help your family reach it’s fullest potential. A therapy session is just one hour per week. Parents and caretakers are with their children for hundreds of hours each week! If you’ve struggled with your responses to your children, or you have tried all of the recommendations from others and nothing works, it’s time to self-reflect. We never blame parents for the challenges at home. We truly believe you will birth or adopt the children that will shine a light on your own wounds that haven’t healed. We seek to give you a better understanding of your past so you can really live in the present and strengthen your whole family.
If you’re still struggling even after starting individual or couples therapy sessions, we can incorporate family therapy sessions to dig deeper into dynamics and interactions that are barriers to your family goals. Incorporating our years of experience working with families, we make sure each family member’s perspective and voice is heard.
The magic behind our method
By building the secure base and strengthening you, the parent, we set a foundation that can overcome any challenge coming your way. Your children will face challenges that you would love to prevent, but your skills as their foundation will help them face those challenges and triumph in their own resilience.
If your own childhood wasn’t picture perfect (who’s was, really?), you might find yourself struggling to find a model for how to approach the struggles in your family. Am I doing the right thing? The online parenting gurus say one thing, your mom says another, and don’t even get us started on what your judge-y neighbor thinks! Wouldn’t it be amazing to confidently make parenting decisions without wondering if you’re screwing up your kid? By building your confidence as a parent in parenting counseling, you will have the tools to recognize when you’ve lost your way, gotten caught up in the mixed messages, and get back to decisions that are true to your values. We can’t guarantee your kids are going to be awesome humans, but we’re pretty sure you’ve got the tools to get them there with the support of therapy for parents.
But we don't have time for therapy right now...
We get it, we’re moms too! There are so many demands on you and you don’t want to waste your time. We value your time and make scheduling easy. It starts with a free 15 minute phone consultation which you can schedule online, via phone or by e-mail. Our sessions are available online in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, in-person in our Morris County (Succasunna) office, or a hybrid of both options! We trust that you’ll be glad you invested your time and money into your family.
If you’re worried that your partner or fellow co-parents won’t buy in, we encourage you to reach out and discuss how we work with individual parents to make changes that can improve family life right away.
If you’re hesitating because your family is unique and you aren’t sure we can really help with your problems, please reach out. We’ve worked with families in a multitude of settings from many backgrounds. We have experience with families dealing with chronic illness, special needs children, foster care and adoption issues, and many other unique challenges. We are an inclusive practice that truly supports families of all kinds- same sex parents, transgender parents, working parents, stay at home parents, and more! We won’t teach you the right way to raise your children, we’ll help you find your “right” way.
Call us today for parenting counseling that really works...
As the owner and director of Skylands Wellness, LLC, I only hire therapists that I would trust with my own family. We have undergone years of specialized training and supervision to hone our skills. We regularly engage in ongoing training and consultation to make sure we’re providing the best service to our clients. Most of all, we have our own families and we truly empathize with modern family challenges, scheduling difficulties, and the feeling of having too many tabs open on your “mental browser.”
Wouldn’t it feel good to close some tabs and focus in on what matters most to your family? Contact us today for your free 15 minute phone consultation. Share your pain points and we’ll share how we can help.
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