Parenting Support

Parenting Support

Parents have a critical role in supporting Play Therapy.  Parent assistance, if required, as part of the Play Therapy process.  Parents are assisted in finding practical and down-to-earth solutions and strategies that are appropriate to your child and family.

At Perth Children’s Counselling, we have a few different approaches:

Parenting Support when your child attends Play Therapy, or parenting support as the main approach

Every family is different: we offer practical guidance that is based on what you and your family need.

Parents are empowered

We help parents put into practice many of the things they already know about how to parent effectively and manage their children’s behaviour.  We support parents by modelling parenting skills and ways of being with children.  We can help you become more effective teaching and/or fine tuning your behaviour management.

We help parents understand children and their perspective on the world.

In doing so, we deepen parents’ understanding of how to work effectively with their children. So not only do parents become more successful with their parenting, they also grow closer to their children as a result of this process.

We focus on strengthening and deepening the parent-child bond.

This connection between you and your child is one of the key foundations of parenting. Building a strong, loving and functional connection with your children in the early years will be very helpful for when your children reach the more tricky teenage years.

Empowering parents: Filial Therapy – when parents assist directly in their child’s therapy

We teach parents how to enrich, enhance and deepen parent-child bond through Filial Therapy. In Filial Therapy, parents are taught how to participate in and set up special, weekly, therapy-strength playtimes.bAs well as being powerfully therapeutic, these playtimes are deeply enjoyable for the child and parent.

Evidenced-based research shows that Filial Therapy can be as effective as Play Therapy with a therapist – and sometimes, even more so.

Parents use specifically learnt and systematic skills during Filial Therapy playtimes. The “side-effects” of this training are that parents  (1) feel empowered and (2) improve/refine their parenting skills. Parents are supervised throughout the process to ensure that the therapy runs as smoothly as possible.  Every family is unique, so training and supervision is tailored to the needs of each family.

Filial Therapy develops the quality of the parent-child relationship. The one-on-one quality time you spend playing in this way will strengthen and deepen your bond with your child.

Filial Therapy’s benefits extend long after therapy is over.  “……The most important aspect of Filial Therapy is that the program focuses on the relationship between parent and child. It is this relationship, which will continue long after the professionals are out of the picture, and it is the positive changes in the interaction cycle that are healing….” (Pernet, K. , Play Therapy Vol. 6, Issue 3, September 2011).  This close relationship is the foundation will help you when you navigate the potentially tricky teenage years.

Filial Therapy is an investment. The parent-child relationship is an important and powerful force in a child’s life. This relationship is the bedrock that sets the stage for the child’s future ability to cope with crises and provides a template for how children interact with other people and with life in general. It can help your child work through and heal from current issues.

Filial Therapy may help your child with a very wide variety of issues: ring us or email to talk about how this can apply to your specific situation.

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