Parenthood is an enriching yet challenging journey, especially when a child/adolescent grapples with significant emotional or behavioral issues. In such situations, parents often find themselves feeling helpless, guilty, and stuck, unable to navigate their child's difficulties.

Parent work seeks to empower parents by encouraging reflection on their experiences and delving into the emotions that may underlie their child's behavior.

During parent work, parents can;

• gain support and insights into their child's developmental needs, emotions, and challenges.

• find more constructive ways to respond to their child's communications.

• learn to discern the connections between their own emotional states and life experiences and the emotions, behaviors, and developmental needs of their child or adolescent.

Therapeutic work with parents is flexible, either as an independent intervention for those seeking a deeper understanding of their child or as part of a comprehensive therapeutic plan when the child is already undergoing psychotherapy with another therapist.

Parents often seek sessions with a child psychotherapist to collaboratively explore their interactions with their child, addressing developmental needs through various stages. These sessions serve as a platform for developing effective communication skills, setting boundaries, and creating a safe and stable home environment.

This approach is applicable across all age and developmental stages, addressing challenges such as;

• sleep and/or feeding difficulties in infancy,

• handling aggression towards a new sibling

• establishing boundaries for an adolescent seeking autonomy

• worries about the relationship with your teenager is breaking down

• my child does not want to go to school

• wanting to talk to your child about difficult situations (e.g. parental separation, terminal illness, a move to another location

Parental support during critical transitions contributes significantly to smoother resolutions, benefiting the child or adolescent in negotiating new milestones while enhancing trust and communication.

In cases where parents bring diverse childhood experiences and parenting styles into the partnership, therapeutic work becomes a bridge, acknowledging differences and facilitating the establishment of a common approach for effective communication with the child. This collaborative effort reduces the likelihood of conflicting behaviors from the child, fostering a sense of security in the knowledge that parents can collectively decide what is in the child's best interest.

When a child or adolescent undergoes psychotherapy, working with parents helps them comprehend challenging behaviors as transitional stages in the child's efforts to build a relationship with the therapist or negotiate past experiences. This approach aids parents in understanding the child's unconscious anxieties and reinforces the child's commitment to therapy during moments of mixed emotions.