Is Parent Coaching Right for Me?

Do you feel like you just don’t know what’s going on with your kiddo anymore? One minute they were this happy, playful, sweet kiddo and the next minute they’re this not-so-little person! Just when you thought you had this whole parenting thing down everything changes. Suddenly none of those tried and true techniques and hacks work anymore! 

Sounds like we need to learn some new tips and tricks to up your parenting game, get you back in the know, and feeling confident in what you are doing again. During some of those late night google searches you have might have come across the term parenting coaching. You figure, “Maybe it’s a good idea to ask someone for some guidance. I don’t have all the time in the world to figure this out and I definitely don’t want things to stay they way they are right now.” 

Let me walk you through what Parent Coaching is, how it differs from psychotherapy, and the benefits of coaching so you can decide if this is a right fit for you.

So what exactly is parent coaching? The way I handle coaching with my clients is by taking a team or partnership approach. I offer education to help parents understand what is happening for their teen from a developmental stand point. This helps us then work on identifying the best strategies for improving communication, setting realistic expectations, how to be supportive of their teen, how to set effective limits and related consequences, as well as how to develop deeper relationships with their teens. I help parents focus on their present concerns and work towards future goals. 

Parent coaching does not have us focus on the past extensively, provide a psychological diagnosis, file with insurance, look at how you feel or look at why you behave the way you do. These are the typical markers of a psychotherapy session. Parent coaching is highly structured and goal/task oriented. If there are struggles with reaching these goals, then it is possible that psychotherapy is necessary to help us understand and work through the blocks. If this is the case then I would refer the client out for therapy services. It is important to keep the two, parent coaching and psychotherapy, separate because they have different goals/purposes in mind. 

Now, what exactly do you gain from Parent Coaching? While this is not an exhaustive list by any means, here are some of the things my clients gain from working with me: confidence in their parenting skills, healthier communication within the home, build a stronger relationship with their teens, better able to stick with and maintain parenting goals, develop positive and respectful parenting solutions, learn about the best parenting practices based on current research, how to handle parenting in the tech era, and learn how to implement healthier self-care practices to prevent burnout. 

So if these benefits sound like exactly what you need, then Parent Coaching just might do the trick!

For more tips and tricks for healthier communication with your teen, check out my 3 Leading Communication Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them Handout.

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