Sometimes wonder and worry about your child’s behaviour?
Ever worry about your relationship with your child?
Feel like you just don’t know what to do?
The Connect Parent Group takes a different approach than most other parent group formats.
Rather than focusing on behavioural management techniques, the Connect Parent Group focuses on enhancing the building blocks of attachment, enhancing the parents’ ability to reflect before acting, and their ability to regulate their feelings so they respond more constructively to conflict.
The Connect Parent Group program is a series of free 10 one-hour sessions delivered over 10 weeks.
Each session begins with the presentation of an attachment principle that helps parents understand attachment issues underlying challenging interactions with their adolescent.
Parents watch role-plays and try exercises that open new choices for responding to their adolescent’s difficult behaviour. Parents learn, for example, that conflict is part of attachment and is particularly acute during times of transition in the relationship, such as the transition through adolescence.
Parents also learn to “step back” in emotionally charged situations, recognize and modulate their own feelings, and consider the possible meanings behind their adolescent’s behaviour. Throughout the sessions parents are also encouraged to reflect upon their own experiences — when they were adolescents as well as their present circumstances. The groups are lead by trained and supervised mental health professionals who work hard to understand the challenges that parents and caregivers face.
Helping parents be (and feel) more competent in these areas helps them “re-frame” their adolescent’s behaviours and needs. This reframing allows parents to keep their emotions in check when dealing with difficult situations and mindfully use parenting strategies that clearly sets limits and expectations but does it in a way that maintains relationships.
Connect has promising outcomes, both short and long term.
Parents report feeling less stressed and more effective in parenting; they see fewer behaviour problems and better social functioning in their teen. Parents who have participated in the group have provided positive feedback and indicated they feel respected and supported in the group.
The start date for the next session is Oct. 4 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and following Tuesdays.
To register or for more info contact, Sheila Cohen Parent Teen Counselling Canadian Mental Health Association Cariboo Chilcotin 250-305-4487.
The Connect Program is a Community University Partnership between researchers at Simon Fraser University, the Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre and the BC Ministry for Children and Family Development.
