It's not you, it's those horrible children...

Parent Counseling

This is counseling for you, about your relationship with your kid. Your child doesn't have to be in the room. Sometimes they shouldn't be. The work is helping you understand what's happening between you and reach them in a way that's actually landing.

If your family needs everyone in the room together, that's family therapy, and it's a different thing. This is for the parent who's carrying the worry alone and needs somewhere to take it.

When it's about you and your kid

Your kid is struggling, or shut down, or furious in a way you can't get underneath. You've tried the things. You've read the stuff. You've stayed calm and you've lost it and neither worked. And somewhere in there you started wondering if you're the problem, or if you've already broken something you can't fix.

You haven't. Kids in pain don't come with a manual, and the moves that worked when they were seven stop working at fourteen, and nobody hands you the update. What we do here is help you understand what's actually going on underneath your kid's behavior, and change how you show up in a way that changes the whole dynamic, even when your kid never sets foot in the office.

That's the part people don't expect: you can shift a relationship your kid isn't actively working on, because you're half of it. A parent who changes how they meet their kid changes what's possible between them.

We work on the specific stuff. The conversations that go sideways every time. The kid who won't talk to you. The one you're scared of losing. The rage you feel and hate that you feel. The guilt. The comparison to how you were parented, the parts you swore you'd never repeat and catch yourself repeating anyway.

When you're a brand-new parent

Becoming a parent can be the loneliest thing that's ever happened to you while you're technically never alone. The love and the drowning can show up in the same hour. You can be grateful and wrecked at the same time and feel like something's wrong with you for it.

Nothing's wrong with you. This is one of the biggest identity shifts a person goes through, and almost nobody gets real support for it.

One honest thing, though: there's a difference between the normal hard of new parenthood and postpartum depression or anxiety, and it's genuinely hard to tell from the inside. If you're not sleeping even when the baby is, if the intrusive thoughts scare you, if the flatness won't lift or you can't feel much of anything, that's worth taking seriously, and it's treatable. We can help you tell the difference, and if it's more than adjustment, we'll say so and help you get the right care instead of white-knuckling it.

How we work

Your consultation is with the person who'll be your therapist, not an intake coordinator. The first session is a conversation, not a two-hour intake battery. We're not going to hand you a parenting worksheet and call it treatment.

In our Greeley office, or by telehealth across Colorado, including Loveland and the surrounding area.

Frequently asked

Does my kid need to come?
No. This is work with you. If it turns out the whole family should be in the room, that's family therapy and we'll talk about moving that direction, but plenty of parents do this work entirely on their own.

Is this just going to be someone telling me what I'm doing wrong?
No. You've probably got enough of that voice in your own head already. This is figuring out what's actually happening and what you can do differently, not building a case against you.

What's the difference between this and family therapy?
Parent counseling works with you, about your relationship with your kid. Family therapy works with the whole family together as the client. Some people do one, some do both, we'll help you figure out which fits.

How long does it take?
Depends on what you're carrying. Some parents get real traction in a few sessions, some come longer. We check in on progress and won't keep you past the point of usefulness.

Do you take my insurance?
Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare and Optum, and every Colorado Medicaid plan, with a sliding scale for private pay. Check your actual per-session cost in about thirty seconds, no phone call.