Why Parents Should Have Counseling If Their Kids Are

It’s hard to navigate the complexities of parenting a struggling child. The task can feel daunting, scary, and overwhelming at times. It is normal for parents to question themselves and the best steps to take. And although caring for their own health and well-being may feel like a luxury during a crisis, parents maintain a responsibility to respond at their best when their child feels at their worst. Counseling can be helpful and even essential for parents at this critical time.  

You need to create the conditions for healthy growth

Parents bear the responsibility of doing what is necessary to create the conditions for healthy growth. When a child is struggling and in need of counseling, the conditions of their daily life need to change for them to improve. Parents can work with a counselor to explore the current conditions and their impact on the child and family. Additionally, they can also figure out ways of making change. A counselor can help you address your own possible emotional struggles which may be affecting your parenting. Additionally, it can help you unravel potential trauma that you weren’t aware of. This can help you understand how it affects your parenting, and as a result, your child. 

“The more stressed parents are, the more developmental problems you will find in kids.” – Dr. Gabor Mate

Dr Mate stated that the key to raising an emotionally healthy child is a nurturing home. Nowadays, parents are constantly stressed with work and are spending less time with their children. Therefore, it is harder to raise an emotionally healthy child. The impact of stress can shape a child’s personality and brain development. This can go on to affect their mental and physical wellbeing into adulthood.

Therefore, when a parent takes out their stress on a child, they may be setting them up for more developmental problems. Parents need an outlet to talk through their own stresses and challenges so that it is not taken out on their child who is already struggling. This is why it’s so important that parents should have counseling if their kids are. Studies from Yale university reveal that because of the unique role that a parent plays, they are in the best position to reduce the underlying anxieties that play into childhood mental health problems and can do so by engaging in counseling.

If you are interested in counseling to address any emotional struggles you may have, visit our webpage on counseling. We also offer parent consultations for parents who want to learn methods and strategies to make their parenting more effective.