When working with parents I use my psychodynamic understanding of child development to promote parents’ reflective stance and empower them in their task of parenting their child. I do this by examining with parents their concerns about their child and their child’s emotional distress.
Sometimes it is straight forward to establish what might have triggered the child symptoms and parents recognise the trigger [s]. In such cases, parents may need some parenting guidance to help their child.
Sometimes parents may need some help to talk to their child about a situation or a significant change affecting the whole family such as a terminal illness, a marriage break up, etc… In this case I offer consultations to help parents think about how to approach a difficult conversation with their child.