Conscious Parenting
Building The Bond

Helping Children Deal With Their Feelings

Exploration of what happens to children when their feelings are constantly denied.  Learn how to meet your child where they are and instead of fixing or dismissing their reality, use specific skills to help your child cope and persevere. Help them recognize and deal with their negative feelings of disappointment, envy, frustration, resentment, and anger.  Once we acknowledge their reality, we can then coach them through it.

Engaging Cooperation

How children react to the usual methods to get them to cooperate: threats, warnings, orders, lecturing, etc.  Ways to invite cooperation that will leave parents and children feeling good about themselves and each other.  Ways to foster intrinsic motivation so that they are cooperating because they want to. 

Alternatives to Punishment

Is it necessary to rely on punishment as a means of discipline?  How to move away from the threats and bribes. Some alternatives to punishment that enable parents to express their strong disapproval as well as encourage children to assume responsibility for their behavior. 

Encouraging Autonomy

Ways to help children become separate, responsible people who can one day function on their own.  Skills that help children to develop their own inner resources.

Praise

An Exploration of the kids of praise that build a positive and realistic self-image and the kinds that do not.  Ways to help our children become aware of their strengths so that they can put them into action.

Freeing Children from Playing Roles 

A look at how children are sometimes cast into roles (bully, whiner, dawdler, mischief-maker, etc.) and how we can free them from playing out these roles.  Skills that you can use to help children see themselves in a different and more positive light.

Siblings Without Rivalry Workshop

based on the NY Times Best Selling Book by Adel Faber and Elaine Mazlish

A 5 week Workshop where you'll learn how to respond helpfully when children fight and argue.  You'll be able to promote an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competition.  With your guidance, your children will develop skills that will help them in all aspects of communication throughout their lives.

         What the Sessions cover

• Helping Siblings Deal With Their Feelings About Each Other.  What happens to your children when their hostile feelings to each other are denied or simply aren't addressed?  We'll cover four specific methods for helping children express their negative feelings to each other without causing harm. 

• Keeping Children Separate and Unequal.  How Siblings react when compared to each other- favorably or unfavorably.  Effective alternatives to comparisons.  Ways to treat your children uniquely and fair without focusing on treating them "equally".

• Siblings in Roles.  Why children are often cast by others and by each other into different roles.  A look at how powerfully these roles affect their relationship with each other.  skills that free each child to become his or her whole self. 

• When Kids Fight.  What to do when the fighting breaks out.  An exploration of the commonly used strategies that can often backfire.   Introducing new skills to reduce the rage and motivate children to work on their own solutions.

• Problem Solving.  A method for helping children deal with big or re-occurring problems they can't work out on their own.  A simple approach for parents and kids that moves them toward resolving their own conflicts.