Parent counselling onlineSupport for you, so you can support them.

Parents contact us about many situations, for example:

• Behaviour that is hard to manage: tantrums, defiance, aggression, refusing to go to school or constant arguments over screens.
• A teenager who has withdrawn, seems low or anxious, or with whom every conversation turns into conflict.
• Big transitions, such as a new baby, starting school, moving country, a change of school or a family illness.
• Separation and divorce, and how to protect children through it.
• Co-parenting, when parents live apart or simply have very different styles.
• Parenting abroad, far from grandparents and old friends, often with children growing up between two languages and cultures.
• Your own exhaustion, guilt or anger, and the worry that you are getting it wrong.

You do not need a crisis to benefit. Some parents come for a few sessions simply to think through a decision or prepare for a change.

Our therapists work in an integrative, evidence-informed way, drawing on what is known about child and adolescent development, family relationships and behaviour change, including techniques from cognitive behavioural therapy where helpful. Sessions usually include:

• Understanding the behaviour. What your child might be communicating through it, what triggers it and what keeps it going.
• Looking at your own reactions. Why certain behaviours push your buttons, often for reasons connected to your own history or stress level.
• Clear, consistent boundaries that both parents can agree on and actually keep.
• Communication with children and teenagers that keeps the connection open even when you have to say no.
• Co-parenting agreements after separation, so that children are not caught in the middle.
• Looking after yourself, because a parent running on empty has less patience for everyone.

The therapist does not judge your parenting or hand you a rigid programme. Together you work out what fits your child, your family and your values, try it at home, and adjust.

Separation is hard for adults and children alike, and it is often the conflict between parents, rather than the separation itself, that weighs most heavily on children. Parent counselling can help separated parents agree on routines and rules across two homes, communicate about the children without reopening old arguments, and explain changes to children in an age-appropriate way. Parents can attend together or separately, depending on what is workable.

Online sessions make it easier for busy parents to attend, for example after the children are in bed, and they allow two parents in different places to join the same session. Research on videoconference-delivered therapy that included parents found outcomes comparable to in-person treatment⁴. All you need is a quiet space where children cannot overhear and a stable connection.

In the first session your therapist will ask about your family, your child's development and current situation, what worries you and what you have already tried. You will also talk about what you would like to be different. By the end you should have a first understanding of what is going on and a plan for the next steps. Many parents leave with one or two concrete things to try at home.