[Upon becoming a parent] I was humiliated to see that the maturity and serenity I thought I had achieved was simply the result of having things my way all the time. ~Karen Maezen Miller, Momma Zen
Even if you thought you were ready for this – and especially if you knew you weren’t! – parenting can be an immensely challenging job. Nothing in our lives truly prepares us for this role. Consequently, we find ourselves confronting new dilemmas and vulnerabilities which we never anticipated.
My job as therapist is to soothe and normalize some of this struggle. I model compassion for you and for just how hard this is, so that you can have more compassion for yourself, your partner, and your children.
Along with normalizing the universal challenges of parenthood, we can also look together at what’s getting triggered that’s unique to you. What moods or behaviors in your children evoke the most reactivity from you? When you feel stressed, do you find yourself behaving in ways that your own parents did, despite your resolve to do otherwise? How did this happen? How do we now respond wholeheartedly to our children, when we ourselves sometimes feel lacking?
True contact and communication around these issues can nourish our own “inner child” and strengthen our parenting abilities.
However you came to this path of parenthood, however hard it is at times – there is also a wealth of hope, joy, and vitality – the reason we chose to do this in the first place. My goal is to help you clear out some clutter so you can reconnect with that side more often.