Help for Parents

How Can I Help Single Parents?

To help you identify your social and emotional needs and support you to get them met outside my office.
To nurture you so that you don't burden your children with needs they can't satisfy, and so you have the energy, patience and desire to give your children what they need.
To model for you and provide you the experience of a growth promoting and nurturing relationship so that you feel deserving of and know what to look for when looking for another partner.
To provide you a trusted parenting philosophy and help you gain confidence to apply it with your children.
To support you to change learned habits of parenting that are painful, depressing and leave your kids unappreciative and uncooperative.
To guide you through the process of grieving the loss of your two parent family so that you have the energy and motivation to create a new life for yourself and your children.
To educate and support you on how to co-parent when you and your ex have conflicting parenting styles.
To understand and learn from the mistakes you made in the past so that you do not repeat them moving forward in your hopeful search for a suitable partner.

How Can I Help Parents Use Discipline to Educate for Success?

Instill confidence in your ability to learn and apply new and effective parenting strategies as well as break ineffective habits of parenting you know are unhealthy.
Provide you a reliable and understandable parenting philosphy you can confidently apply to children of all ages.
Comfort and reassure you that it's normal and unavoidable to make some of the same mistakes your parents made with you, and teach you how to prevent these mistakes from becoming long standing and potentially harmful patterns.
Help you and your partner resolve disputes over how to parent your kids so that your kids are not confused by mixed messages, do not use your conflicts to take advantage of you, and don't get caught in a tug of war.

Relevant Articles

Dating Tips for Single Parents: Overcoming the Fears of Repeating Costly Mistakes

This article discusses the importance of grieving the loss of a marital partner before re-entering the dating scene. It emphasizes the importance of developing self-sufficiency so that we don’t confuse falling in love with running from being alone.

Don’t Let The Fear of Screwing Up Your Kids Screw You Up As A Parent

This article discusses how to overcome the challenges of meeting the needs of our children when our needs as children were not adequately met. It’s a testament to the importance and power of personal forgiveness to give up on “doing over” what is already over and done.

The Difference Between Irresponsible and Responsible Exercises of Parental Authority: A Few Respectful Degrees of Separation

This article grew out of experiences interviewing adolescents, young adults and their parents prior to their children’s arraignments on a host of criminal offenses. My findings are instructive for all parents interested in raising respectful and law abiding citizens.

Single Parents and Security Blankets

This article explores the implications and consequences of single parents turning their children into security blankets if they don’t meet needs left unmet in the wake of separation/divorce.