You had NO IDEA that parenting would be this hard.  

You were so happy when you found out you having a child!  You couldn’t wait to be a parent.  You imagined things would be wonderful.  You envisioned happy times, a kid who loved school, had a zest for life, and was always spending time with friends.  You would enjoy special family time - wonderful vacations, lively family game nights, family dinners with fun conversations.  

The life you are living is not the life you imagined.  

You knew that there would be some tough times here and there, but nothing like the barrage of issues that you deal with on a daily basis.  You’re trying to manage work, to be a loving partner, to take care of your aging parents, and to parent a child who seems to cause stress and conflict all the time. You’re being pulled in every direction and you know that you cannot continue to have this much stress in your life.

Your child experiences one challenge after another.

You get calls from the school on a regular basis about behavior issues or work refusal in the classroom.  You wonder why it is so hard for your child to follow basic school rules and complete assignments. Trying to get homework done takes hours and often leaves everyone, including you, in tears.   You stress out about the frequent peer conflicts and the fact that no one has invited your child to a birthday party, a play date or a sleepover.  Even the neighborhood kids have stopped coming to the house or are “too busy” to play outside.  You know it’s got to be lonely, but you also know that it’s not healthy to spend so much time alone, playing video games or watching TV.  

It seems you're always arguing about something.

There are struggles with bedtime, disagreements about doing basic chores around the house, screaming matches when you try to set limits around technology, conflicts when you say it’s time to do homework.  You’re tired of the fights and the power struggles.  You’ve tried giving consequences.  You’ve tried setting up reward systems.  You’ve tried being the “nice guy” and you’ve tried being a strict disciplinarian.  Sometimes these approaches work for a day or two, but nothing has worked consistently.  You are at your wits end and you know you and your family cannot go on like this.

You are a deeply committed and loving parent, which is why this is so hard.

We know how painful this situation is for everyone in the family.  Our team of therapists are skilled at working with parents who are struggling to parent a child with social, emotional or behavioral challenges.

We can help.

We help stressed out parents gain a different perspective on their child’s challenges and discover better ways to manage their own feelings of frustration. We utilize a compassionate and collaborative approach to develop plans to improve communication and gain insight about factors that are contributing to the conflict at home and school.  We teach parents how to respond to difficult situations and how to let go of their feelings of guilt, inadequacy and shame.   

If you want to move from feeling stressed, overwhelmed, depressed and exhausted to feeling confident in your parenting skills and happier in your relationship with your child, call now for a free 15-minute consultation.  We serve clients from all over the Farmington Valley region (including Avon, Simsbury, West Hartford, Farmington, Canton, Granby, and Burlington) in our Avon, CT office. We also provide secure online counseling for individuals who live in CT and MA.