Parenting Support Groups.

(c) Jjeff, Flickr

I have had 5 years experience running parenting skills support groups in association with The Parent Network, providing a group-based programme of 12 weekly workshops for parents of children, of all ages, focussing on skill building and support for one of the most important jobs in the world.

Topics include:

• Exploding the myth of the ‘perfect parent’
• How to listen to your kids so they will listen to you
• Creative Problem Solving
• Developing a healthy relationship with your children
• Dealing with tears and tough moments
• Setting and maintaining realistic expectations for parent-child relationships
• Helping children to manage their feelings without doing it for them
• Being firm and fair and dealing with the feedback
• How to offer really useful coaching to your child
• Developing a really supportive relationship within a group of parents

As a counsellor offering parenting support and coaching to couples and individuals, I focus on the relationship between parent and child and the development of effective communication skills.

Counselling before conception or surrogacy

(c) BuckDaddy, Flickr

I have a particular interest in supporting couples, before a baby is conceived, to discuss the questions and issues each partner considers about becoming a parent.

I have worked for 14 years as a trainer with PIPPIN (Parents in Partnership – Parent Infant Network), which developed programmes for women and men in the transition to parenthood: expectant and new parents, as well as parents adding to their families. The focus was on developing and enhancing relationships between the parents and between the parents and their infant.

Often men and women wonder:

• should we become parents now, later, or at all;
• what might it be like for me, for my partner, for our relationship;

…and a great many questions that start with the words, “What if…” regarding pregnancy, childbirth, postnatal support.

What if…

• my baby won’t stop crying?
• my baby won’t sleep at night?
• my baby won’t take a breast or bottle?
• my baby doesn’t like me?
• I don’t like my baby?
• my partner doesn’t help?
• my mother tells me things I don’t agree with?
• I can’t cope?

Becoming a Parent

Counselling before conception, surrogacy,  fostering or adopting a baby, provides an opportunity to discuss these and other issues about being and becoming a parent, without being told what to do.  It’s an opportunity to discuss imaginings, expectations, and anxieties about parenthood and where they may have originated.

Expectant & New Parent Groups

While my work has involved running groups for expectant and new parents and their infants, it has also involved travelling around Britain, responding to requests by health authorities and Sure Start programmes, to train professionals who work with expectant and new parents, to change the way they work with their clients by developing an understanding of the emotions involved in becoming a parent and to develop and pass on effective communication skills.