Brief Parent Consultations
Parenting your child or adolescent may be confusing, frustrating, or lead to symptoms of stress, anxiety, and worry. You may have questions about your child or teen’s behaviour, which may seem alarming or cause disruption in your day-to-day family life. You may feel as if you have “tried everything” and aren’t sure what to do next.
There are many reasons you might request a consultation with one of our clinicians. Typically, it is because you are seeking guidance, insight, and support in determining if your child or teen’s behaviour is “normal”. You may be wondering how you can best parent your child/teen and support them with their current life challenges.
What to Expect from a Parent Consultation
Brief parent consultations can be a good starting point for connecting with our team and learning about services that could help you and your child or teen. These services may be available through our practice (e.g. psychological assessment or therapy) or in the broader community (e.g. speech-language intervention, occupational therapy, tutoring, specialized resource groups, etc.).
Our clinicians are very knowledgeable and will be able to provide you with both print and web resources. We can also advise you on strategies to help you with your parenting concerns and provide you with additional relevant information.
During a brief parent consultation, the clinician will ask for information and background history about the child or teen’s present challenges and provide psychoeducation, support, and focused recommendations or strategies for the family going forward. This can take anywhere from 1 to 3 sessions.
Common Challenges
Parent concerns/questions will often include:
- Academic difficulties
- Behavioural challenges
- Co-parenting challenges
- Developmental concerns (e.g. challenges in development or social functioning, parent support through difficult developmental phases, etc.)
- Discipline struggles/practices
- Grief support
- Handling differences in parenting approaches
- How to support an anxious or depressed child/teen at home
- How to support shy or highly-sensitive children and teens
- Parenting a child/teen with an intense or reactive temperament
- Peer/social concerns
- Problematic toddler/preschool behaviours (e.g. biting, tantrums, toileting, hitting, etc.)
- School refusal
- Sleep problems
- Specific challenges in parenting a child with a disability, such as a learning or intellectual disability, ADHD, autism, etc.
- Support during specific transitions (e.g. starting high school, death/loss, separation/divorce, etc.)
- Teen concerns (e.g. risky behaviour, drug/alcohol use, excessive gaming/electronic use, etc.)
Book a brief parent consultation with our experienced clinicians today.