Parent Coaching: How I Work

I work with parents from all over the world, so I primarily meet with clients over the phone...

If you happen to live in the Boulder/Denver, Colorado area, we can work together face-to-face if you prefer, either in your home, my office, or a mutually agreed upon location. Initially, in order to create momentum and for you to experience gains from the coaching process, it is important for you to commit to meeting weekly for the first four sessions.

After the initial consecutive four weeks, I will work with you on a schedule that works best for you. For example, if it is best for you to meet every week, we will meet every week. Alternately, if it is best for you to meet every other week, we will do that. The decision for frequency of meetings is ultimately up to you.

As a parent who is raising my own family, I understand that families often run on a tight schedule and don’t often fit into the 9-5 timeframe; therefore, I am flexible and work in a way that honors both my client’s time schedule and mine.

As your parenting coach, I become your supporter and champion to help you to reach your most important goals around having a harmonious family.

Together, we will tackle issues from a number of different directions.

First: We address your immediate behavioral concerns of your child or children.

Second: We formulate a parenting plan or a foundation to direct your parenting into the future.

Third: We bring balance and joy back into your life and your family’s lives. You will be able to clarify your hopes and dreams for you and your family and set them as obtainable goals.

Throughout the process you will be given information pertinent to your children’s emotional and cognitive development, learn to create a more supportive community in order to support your parenting, be able to be patient and compassionate with yourself, and create a closer relationship with your family.

You can be assured that you will be provided with a safe, compassionate, non-judgmental, and confidential environment to discuss your most closely held dreams, fears, and desires with Lorna Benton and Dynamic Parent Coaching, LLC.

Some parents only want or need

a couple of consultation sessions to

'tweak' their parenting.

Most of the parents with whom I work

meet their goals within 8 to 12 sessions.

 

Whatever your needs,

Dynamic Parent Coaching, LLC can help.

 

Because it is a short-term solution with long-term results, you will quickly learn that the more you engage and put into the process, the more you will gain and the more quickly you will successfully achieve your goals. Most people who engage in coaching with Dynamic Parent Coaching, LLC, are motivated and determined to make the most of their lives, their relationships, and their family- all in unique ways. You don’t have to be Superman or Wonderwoman to have an Extraordinary Family!

The goal is for you to start to interact with your children from a purposeful and planned response, so you can achieve the desired results instead of reacting out of frustration, exhaustion, or anger.

The reality of raising children is ever changing because as your children grow their needs and developmental stages continue to change. Your family will always be evolving. What might be helpful and appropriate for a three or four year old will not be helpful and appropriate for a pre-teen. I am available in the future and during the developmental life cycle of your family.

Benefit from my extensive experience and education…

By utilizing my services, you will benefit from my extensive experience and education in a one-stop resource. I have worked with children, adolescents, and families in a number of different settings over the past 20+ years. Additionally, I have the education, background, and training to coach parents through just about every situation.

As a licensed clinical therapist, I can also recognize when it is more appropriate to refer you or your child to therapy. If there is a parenting book out there, I am probably familiar with it. Because of my extensive experience, there is probably not a child behavior that I have not seen, so nothing shocks me. There are other parent coaches who know how to coach parents, but who do not have a clinical background. Alternately, there are therapists who know how to work with children and their parents but the place from which they are operating is different.

You are your child’s greatest resource!

Parents are their children’s greatest resource. There are so many influences on children these days: friends, TV, movies, music, computers, magazines, etc. that parents often feel exasperated when trying to compete with them. However, YOU as the parent are in fact the expert on your child and his or her greatest resource.

I have found, in my experience, that for the types of issues I can address with Parent Coaching, if I were to address them in my work as a child and adolescent clinician that which I may be able to do with a child in my therapy office in months, I can often coach parents to accomplish within a fraction of that time. The reason? You already have a strong trusting relationship with your child.

TO BE CLEAR, HOWEVER, IN INSTANCES WHERE THERE ARE SAFETY CONCERNS SUCH AS ABUSE, NEGLECT, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, EATING DISORDERS, CUTTING, OR THOUGHTS OF SUICIDE OR SELF-HARMING, IT IS MUCH MORE APPROPRIATE TO SEEK FACE TO FACE THERAPY FROM A QUALIFIED CLINICIAN THAN TO PURSUE PARENT COACHING. WHILE I AM A LICENSED CLINICIAN, I AM NOT PROVIDING THERAPY. I AM PROVIDING PARENT COACHING. IF THESE ISSUES ARISE DURING THE COURSE OF COACHING, A REFERRAL WILL BE MADE TO THERAPY AND THE COACHING WILL BE TERMINATED.

Coaching versus counseling

There is a difference between coaching and counseling. Parent Coaching is collaborative. I view the parents as being more valuable in the child’s life than I am as the coach or the consultant. As such I depend on information from parents, in order to best serve the children and family. I have a way of imparting information and of raising questions that cause parents to think or to plan which helps them and guides them in the direction that they themselves want to go.

Therapists, on the other hand, essentially take on a fiduciary role, a sense of responsibility over the treatment of the client. As the parent, you take on the responsibility for your child or children.

While it may seem that these two practices are similar, the practice of therapy can include components of coaching the client but the practice of coaching should never include providing therapy to the client.