Is Parent Counseling a need for modern day parents?

Becoming a parent and raising a child brings out a range of emotions from excitement and wonder to fear and worrying. Despite the ups and downs of parenting, it is one part of life that many people want to or will experience in their lifetime. To be able to raise a child is no easy undertaking but one that brings great value, meaning, and purpose; to be able to witness the transformation of a life from infancy to adulthood. In that time, there are many changes and transitions that will need nurturing and support. There is a reason why people say….it takes a village to raise a child. So, is parent counseling a need for modern day parents?

What is parent counseling?

In today’s world, a village looks like tapping into all or any resources available to support a parent as they navigate the various phases and transitions of raising a child who is growing up in a very complex society and who is trying to make sense of their environment. Living in a complex world is what makes parenting children extremely challenging and why it’s so important to seek out support and guidance along the way.

Who needs parent counseling?

Parent counseling is a service for parents who recognize they are struggling to manage their own personal issues which are impacting their parenting capacity. It aims to help parents through the use of therapeutic modalities to gain insights of their parenting styles while unpacking how their problems affect the way they parent their child. This process will help parents to be more present and better able to provide attention to their child in order to foster or restore a more stable and harmonious relationship with their child. 

You can think of this similarly to how frequently we update our tech devices. When our device software begins to glitch or needs an update we don’t hesitate to take action to complete those updates for our cell phones or computers. One course of action usually involves contacting a professional to help us navigate our technology issues. In today’s world, updates and technology advancements are a standard practice. We must think about our parenting approaches in a similar fashion, we must regularly monitor and evaluate our capacity to parent. When things shift or there are changes in a child’s behavior or the environment, we must make it a standard practice to seek out updates to our parenting practices in order to stay current and to be most effective. Essentially, this means being open to seeking out professional help.

Benefits of parent counseling 

Adopting a mindset to actively seek out resources like parent counseling can provide parents with more effective skills and practices to navigate unsettling or turbulent times. If there is one thing the experience of going through a pandemic has taught us, it is that we must learn to ‘pivot’ which essentially was an intensive exercise of developing our adaptability and flexibility to adverse situations. The pandemic has shed light on many areas that are lacking.Parenting children through a pandemic has highlighted the need for parents to continuously be engaged with their children as well as for them to get a handle on their own personal issues.

The benefits of parent counseling are infinite and can offer immeasurable value for the management of the well-being for the entire family dynamic such as:

• Being able to gain guidance and support through difficult periods,
• Learning how to better understand your child’s needs and how to respond to them 
• Ensuring you are more effective at managing the well-being of the family unit. 

It’s important to recognize that accessing this service does not mean you have failed as a parent. In fact, attending therapy is much more normalized in today’s society and is no longer seen in such a negative light. It is imperative as a society to encourage parents to access parent counseling services, to eliminate the shaming and blaming language that is all too common and to embrace a world where we come together as a community to lift each other up so that families can build happier and healthier societies for the future generations ahead. 

Is parent counseling a need for modern day parents? …Wholeheartedly….yes!