ANNOUNCING NEW MANUALISED PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAM
BASED ON BOWEN FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY
"BEING THE BEST RESOURCE FOR YOUR ANXIOUS
CHILD or ADOLESCENT"
The FSI clinical team at Neutral Bay and Five Dock, now offer 6 Individualised educational sessions for parents
who want to foster improved self-regulation for their anxious child or adolescent.
(Small group sessions also available for parents of less symptomatic children)
- If you are a professional working with symptomatic children/adolescents you may wish to refer parents to this service as a support to the assistance the child is receiving.
The program consists of six sessions (usually fortnightly) which have been designed to provide parents with the opportunity to research ways that they can be a strong and loving presence for their child and to optimize the way they support their child's efforts to manage emotional symptoms. Handouts are given at each session to support reflections and in between session observations.
- This program can be useful for one or both parents to attend.
Session 1: How focussing on yourself as the parent rather than on the child's difficulties, can make a difference; & Looking at patterns in your relationship with your child.
Session 2: Understanding resilience in relationships. How to support your child's resilience through building your own.
Session 3: Understanding the stress response in relationships. How parents can be a support for their child's brain development.
Session 4: Clarifying healthy parent- child relationship boundaries. Connection that promotes resilience.
Session 5: How a parent can stand on their principles - the "I" position as a response to challenging behaviour.
Session 6: Learning from previous generations & Summarising: How to maintain changes in supporting your child
The material has been developed by Jenny Brown MSW*( in collaboration with FSI colleagues) drawing from Bowen family systems theory and from her research interest in helping parent's to reduce their anxious focus on their child and build their clarity and confidence in their parenting role. It has been piloted with a small sample of parents over the past 6 months and FSI clinical team members have been trained in using the material alongside their expertise in family systems thinking. (*Jenny is Director of the Family Systems Institute & is currently conducting PhD research on parent's experience of their adolescent's mental health treatment.)
"Parents themselves are the best coaches for their children... the parents can take responsibility for some changes in how they interact in the family (and with their child). If they do that, with a trained, experienced coach, everyone in the family can be expected to do better." - Dr Roberta Gilbert MD
Feedback from parents sums up the themes of the program that aim to increase differentiation (relational resilience):
"I am working on returning to solid principles of parenting which I have lost along the way in the fog of distress."
"The things I have learned are things I know deep down to be the right way, but I needed to have it placed in front of me and to be guided back from floundering."
"I see I need to and want to work from a position of confident parenting rather than being so strongly reactive to others."
"I used to save up all my parenting questions for my child's psychiatrist. Now I'm seeing that I have plenty of good ideas to draw on to keep myself steady. That's how I can help my child to manage better."
"I used to measure my parenting based on how much my child is struggling. I'm learning to measure my parenting on how well I'm trying to hold my principles."
"These have been the most helpful parenting seminars I have attended (& I have now been to quite a few). For me I am feeling liberated to stop trying to change my child and to change what is in my control. I feel confident to try what is, for me especially, quite a different approach to parenting. Thank you" (Parent from group program)
See this link to a short video by Jenny Brown introducing the program. Let us know if you would like us to send you brochures to pass onto parents; or if you would like Jenny or one of the team to visit your organisation to provide more information about the ideas that inform this program.
FSI team members who will be providing this service along side general clinical work = Michelle Southgate- BA/ BSW, MCFT; Esther Long- Clin Psych; Joanne Wright- Reg Psych; Charlie Ellis- Reg Psych; Lily Mailer- Reg Psych; Jill Grundy- Grad Cert Gifted Ed (Group facilitator) Jenny Brown to over-see program. Click here to see profiles of our Clinicians.
Details and registration
