Parent Counselor In St. Louis
Supporting parents through difficult child-rearing journeys.
Feel like parenting is easy for everyone else but you?
“I try to give everything I can to parenting, but sometimes I just feel like it just isn’t enough.”
“I feel overwhelmed and exhausted running from one thing to the next.”
“I wish things were easier, and then I feel guilty for feeling that way.”
“I feel so alone. No one gets it.”
“Friends and family try to comfort me, but they just don’t understand what I’m going through.”
Parenting a child who needs extra medical, behavioral, or other supportive care can be overwhelming and exhausting.
Often it feels like there is never any relief and you are just living in survival mode. Without time for you, making time for you and your partner takes a back seat and the physical and mental effects of stress prevail. Physically, you may experience headaches or a stomach that never seems to unclench. Mentally, you may feel anxious or you may become more irritable because you’re just so tired.
As the stress piles up, you may miss more days at work, miss meetings or deadlines, or you just no longer feel as productive. Your relationships may also suffer because there is no opportunity to just be together without the crushing worry over your child.
It’s time to get the support you need.
When you take care of yourself, you allow yourself the space to be the best version of you, whether as a parent or a partner.
No one is a perfect parent. All we can do is try our best and accept ourselves with all of our faults and limitations. You can’t change what your child needs, but you can change how you handle these daily challenges. When we have these additional responsibilities, it’s critical that we get the support we need. This support can come from a partner, a friend, a family member, local resources and even a counselor.
I’m here first to listen to you.
I want to learn about your parenting journey and honor your experience and perspective. Instead of looking back to assign or accept blame for any past “mistakes”, we will be forward looking to jointly develop a plan to help you going forward. Working together, we will identify your most urgent needs and how we can leverage existing resources to support you in your parenting journey.
Once your most immediate needs have been addressed, we will take the time to process some of the difficult emotions you may be experiencing and then develop tools and strategies to address your needs.
I’m here to help you…
Identify practical ways to tap into necessary support and resources
Explore and process the source of difficult emotions
Reduce feelings of shame, inadequacy and guilt as a parent/partner
Learn tools to reconnect with partner and child
Invest in your child, your partner, your life.
FAQS
Common questions about parent counseling
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That is very common. One of the goals in counseling is to find a way forward that makes sense to both parents while advancing the best interests of your child.
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No. The tools and strategies will be helpful to an individual parent. I would encourage both parents to attend, but I also understand that is not always possible.
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Counseling parents is not about making “good” and “bad” value judgments. It’s about meeting parents where they are on their path to trying to improve. There are no perfect parents, just parents in process.
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In our first 50 minute session, I will learn about your background and your goals for therapy. After that, we will work together on the goals that you have set.
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These difficult journeys can include autism spectrum disorder, physical or developmental disabilities, illness or emotional/behavioral needs that take a toll on individual caregivers and their relationships.
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Absolutely. A child who has additional or special needs can run the gambit from autism, disabilities (developmental or physical), chronic illness, ADHD or children who just have additional needs emotionally or behaviorally.
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Of course. That’s a common concern. I try to make accessing therapy for parents as easy as possible by offering online therapy as well as offering limited scholarship opportunities for those unable to pay full cost.
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We can be a better parent when we feel better about ourselves. Just think about how you are able to parent when you feel relaxed and happy versus stressed and unhappy. The time you invest in you is also time invested in your child.