The arrival of a new life in the family is something very exciting and at the same time very demanding. No one is born a “ready parent” and the different stages of a child’s development bring various joys and challenges. Topics that often concern parents are setting boundaries, the sexuality of their child, announcing divorce to children, managing a relationship with an ex-spouse, child addictions, child regression, family mourning, and much more. Parental counseling is done either individually or in groups. Individually means that either one parent or both parents attend the counseling sessions, in which a specific topic concerning their child is being worked through.

Parent counseling in groups consists of groups of up to ten parents and has a specific, predetermined number of meetings (from 8 to 12 meetings). Groups have proven to be effective in parent counseling because of the common issues raised by the group members. These common themes help to tie the group together and reinforce a group member’s sense that he or she is not the only one facing specific parenting difficulties. The different topics that are discussed in parent counselling arise from the requests of the group’s members.