Parent Coaching
Parent coaching gives you practical, evidence-based strategies to better understand your child, respond differently in difficult moments, and foster meaningful improvement without requiring your child’s direct involvement in therapy. Working directly with parents can be one of the most effective ways to change patterns of childhood anxiety, OCD, emotional dysregulation, and challenging behavior.
OCD
Anxiety
Behavioral
Challenges
Emotional
Dysregulation
Parent Coaching for Anxiety and OCD
When your child is anxious, it’s natural to want to make things easier. Over time, however, families can find themselves providing extra reassurance, changing routines, speaking for their child, avoiding certain places, or otherwise helping their child escape uncomfortable situations.
My approach is informed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz’s SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) program. Together, we will focus on two key goals.
Increase support: Learn how to validate your child’s distress while also communicating confidence in their ability to handle difficult feelings and situations.
Reduce accommodation: Identify ways your family has adapted around anxiety or OCD and gradually change those patterns so your child has more opportunities to build confidence and independence.
The goal isn’t to become less supportive, it’s to change how you support your child.
Parent Coaching for Behavioral Challenges
Does your child have frequent tantrums, big angry reactions, physical aggression, refusal, or defiance? Or do they seem to experience everything intensely, from excitement and happiness to frustration, anger, and sadness?
My approach is informed by MATCH-Conduct and Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Children (DBT-C). We start by understanding what is driving your child’s behavior and identifying patterns and triggers that can help you respond more intentionally.
Depending on your family’s needs, you may learn strategies for:
Increasing positive one-on-one time
Validating your child effectively, even when their reaction doesn’t seem to make sense
Using praise and positive reinforcement
Removing attention from certain unwanted behaviors
Anticipating and reducing common triggers
Staying regulated yourself during your child’s most challenging moments
Why Work With Parents Instead of the Child?
Parents sometimes wonder: How will my child get better if they aren’t the one in therapy?
For many younger children, particularly those 12 and under, parent coaching can be a powerful and efficient way to create change. Children aren't always motivated to change the strategies they currently use to cope. Avoidance provides immediate relief from anxiety, while big behaviors may help a child escape a demand, get something they want, or receive attention. From the child's perspective, these strategies can feel like they're working.
Parents, on the other hand, are often highly motivated to change these patterns and have the cognitive skills to understand what is maintaining them, anticipate difficult situations, and consistently practice new responses. Rather than relying on a child to remember and apply skills learned during a therapy session, parent coaching allows us to make changes within the child's everyday environment.
Parent coaching can also be easier to fit into family life. Sessions are typically 45–50 minutes, weekly or every other week, and available virtually. Parents can often join from home or work, and can attend together or separately, without adding another commute or appointment to their child's schedule.
For the right child and presenting concern, working through parents can help families begin making meaningful changes quickly while reducing the investment of time and money required for treatment.
