Parent Coaching
Has Parenting Become Increasingly Challenging As Your Children Get Older?
Are you often overwhelmed by parenthood or worry that you’re failing at it? Has your child grown distant, making you fear that your attempts to exert influence over them are no longer working? Do you wish you could spend more time enjoying your children rather than feeling stressed out and frustrated?
Perhaps your children have reached an age where parenting them no longer feels as intuitive as it once did. When they were younger, your duties were clear. But now, it may seem like your relationship has become disconnected or punctuated by conflict. If your child is struggling academically or socially, you might blame yourself for their shortcomings and wonder whether you should be doing more.
You May Feel Uncertain About Your Everchanging Parenting Responsibilities
It’s hard to know how best to parent when the goalposts keep moving. The same child who once relied on you for everything may now be pushing you away. Rather than enjoying time together as a family, you might have become disengaged or distracted by other demands and commitments. This lack of cohesion might make you worried that your family is growing apart.
If your upbringing wasn’t ideal, you may be hoping not to repeat your parents' mistakes but don’t know how to avoid the same pitfalls. Ultimately, you want to deepen your connection with your kids to ensure a healthy, long-term relationship with them.
Parenting is a lot of work, but with the support and guidance coaching offers, that work can become much more manageable. A parenting coach can help you develop skills that are specific to your family and reflect how you show up for your kids, offering effective tools and strategies to empower the entire family.
As Parents, We Must Develop And Grow As Constantly As Our Children Do
The journey of parenthood is always evolving. Initially, we bring home a helpless infant who requires round-the-clock care. But soon, that baby transforms into a toddler in front of our eyes, gaining more ability to function independently. As our children continue to develop and mature—transitioning from full dependence to eventual independence—so too must our parenting style. Gradually, we must switch gears from hands-on caregivers to consultants and coaches.
Being a parent is challenging, especially today. We live in a fast-paced society where we often juggle numerous obligations at once and struggle to keep all the balls in the air. What’s more, we face new challenges that didn’t exist when we were kids, like living online, social media, and existential threats—like global warming and school shootings. Each has the potential to become overwhelming to our children and challenge us as parents.
We May Become Too Overwhelmed To Seek Help
When we feel like we’re failing as parents, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and remain overwhelmed. Whenever we perceive danger or feel out of control, our brain and nervous system can go into fight-flight-or-freeze mode, preventing us from remaining calm or making sound decisions. In this state, good parenting becomes elusive.
Sadly, we often avoid seeking parenting support because we think that asking for help signals defeat. Or perhaps as busy as we already are, we resign ourselves to slogging through our parenting challenges rather than seek guidance, support, and resources.
But as some seasoned and battle-scarred parents have quipped, having children is the first sign that you could benefit from coaching. A parent coach can give you space to take a deep breath, assess your needs, and create a plan to take actionable steps toward improving your family's needs, goals, and day-to-day functioning.
Parent Coaching Provides Skills And Strategies For Your Family To Thrive
Parenting is challenging for everyone, even those who seem to have it all together. There is no shame in admitting you could benefit from help. Parent coaching focuses on re-prioritizing your relationship with your child and empowering your family to navigate a busy world. Your coach will help you dispel the notion that being a good parent means having to be perfect.
Our practice specializes in working with young people as well as supporting their parents and caregivers. Our parent coaches provide a nonjudgmental, compassionate, and supportive environment to develop effective and specific tools to integrate with your family. With this guidance, you can begin your journey towards feeling confident and capable as a parent.
What To Expect From Parent Coaching
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to parent therapy. After all, a family is the whole of many parts. Depending on the situation, the focus will either be on the family system or its individual parts, ensuring your family’s specific needs are being met. By exploring the relational patterns you developed in your families of origin that impact your current dynamic, we can help you shift away from any unhelpful behaviors that cause conflict or misunderstanding.
Once we identify your challenges, we will work together to understand what contributes to these issues. Utilizing a solution-focused approach, you and your parent coach will collaborate to solve problems. They will offer you and your family alternative strategies that encourage improved communication and emotional expression while setting healthier boundaries.
Your child’s social and emotional needs are quite different at each developmental milestone—infant, toddler, child, tween, teen, and young adult. Parent coaching takes these developmental considerations into account when addressing the overall needs of a family while also assessing the inherent strengths and growth areas of parents.
A Values-Based Approach To Family Life Coaching
While coaching for parents may include elements and skills taken from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and trauma-informed modalities, we don’t overly rely on any one approach. Instead, we work to ensure that your goals are met and the path forward is clear. We utilize a values-based approach to empower your family to define its priorities and implement a plan to live in alignment with those values, even during difficult moments.
Recognizing that you are the expert of your family, we are here to support you on your journey to achieve equilibrium. Parent coaching gives you the best opportunity to realize your family's full potential. With a trained professional guiding you each step of the way, our parent coaching services offer you practical tools to get your family moving in the right direction.
But Maybe You’re Not Sure If Parent Coaching Is Right For You…
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When you’re struggling to get your footing as a parent, feelings of dislike are actually normal and something many parents experience. In parenting therapy, your coach will provide you with emotional support and tangible skills that help you build up your confidence to parent effectively. As you work towards reconnecting with your child and developing helpful strategies and tools to navigate your day-to-day challenges, uncomfortable feelings will begin to fade away.
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Before answering this question, it’s important to first define what being “normal” means to you. A parent coach can help you establish a definition that honors your values and goals rather than trying to adhere to society’s version of what normal should look like. In parenting counseling, you can work towards functionality by learning how to navigate through challenging moments more thoughtfully and effectively.
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While all parents struggle in different ways, what they all have in common is trying to figure out how to best support their family. Navigating through the many chapters of our child’s development isn’t always easy. Parenting coaching offers strategies that grow and evolve with your family’s everchanging needs. With a values-based approach to counseling, you will have a clear understanding of your goals at all times that will guide how, as a parent, you respond to situations as they arise.
We Can Help You Find Your Groove As A Parent
If you or your child is struggling, parent coaching at Rocky Mountain Counseling is a resource to help get back to a place of thriving and connection. Call 720-252-0345 or email today to set up an appointment at our Denver practice. In your free 30-minute phone consultation, we can answer questions and set up an initial meeting to discuss the benefits of working with a parenting coach.
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