Loving Your Strong Willed Child: Your child seems to dislike and disregard rules. S/he has been this way from birth. You or others have referenced your child as such: Willful, spirited, bully, stubborn, argumentative, and even non-compliant. You struggle in knowing how to react, coach and discipline your kid as s/he does not seem to respond in the way you hope or predict. In fact, attempts to correct his/her undesired behaviors just leads to more intense power struggles and conflict. Your child may seemingly act out by yelling, with emotional explosions, and by hitting and physical aggression. S/he struggles in adhering to the boundaries and expectations–almost appearing to willfully violate them with purpose and little remorse. Your child is frequently labeled as “defiant” and people seem to think your child’s behavior is the result of your poor parenting. You are feeling judged, frustrated and stuck.

Managing Your Child’s Anxiety: Your child gets anxious, stressed and fearful. You feel torn between supporting and comforting your child and pushing him/her past their comfort zones. Both options create a lot of disruption and chaos at home. At times, you and your partner sometimes disagree on how to respond. This just causes more fights. You feel stress, wondering how your child will respond to things and what battles you might face in guiding him/her through today. You have no idea where the balance is and you swing between worrying that you are sometimes hurting her/him and also enabling too much. You wonder what why your child is so afraid and upset all of the time. Did you do something wrong? Is there something wrong with him/her? Your child is sick a lot, complains of headaches and tummy aches. S/he may erupt in yelling, aggression, withdrawal or explode in tears–all of this drawing a lot of negative attention and unhelpful feedback that only worsens the situation. You feel like your child needs help and you are unsure of how best to support him/her.

The Empathic Child: You have felt your baby has been different from day one. S/he seems to respond to things and life in a different manner than most. Highly emotional, highly perceptive, and sometimes seems too aware and seemingly older than his/her real age. Your child may bring up topics or speak of things that are confusing, sometimes scary, and you do not even know what to say in those moments. Your child seems to get overwhelmed a lot. S/he seems to know things that is impossible to explain. You struggle between wanting to support and encourage your child and simply protect him/her. You feel scared to talk about these things with family or friends as they give you looks or dismiss you as being too weird. You might have gifts of your own, or perhaps, this is completely new territory for you. You are seeking answers and understanding.

Real Talk: Parenting of Children With Special Needs: You are exhausted. Depleted.  All of your energy goes into just surviving your days.  Yes, there are positive moments, there is love, but there is also so much stress.  It seems like it is endless cycle of appointments, behaviors and recommended interventions, medical stressors and illness, special diets and routines, and sleepless nights.  Other parents do not get it.  They try to empathize and offer helpful words of advice, but it just makes you feel so alone.  Your experience is just not the same as others.  Your child’s needs are different and it requires different of you in ways other parents simply do not understand.

So much of your energy has gone into your child and managing home:  You may have feel like you have lost track of you.  There is simply no time in your day for you.  You feel like you have nothing left and yet each morning, you wake up and do it all over again.  You want to feel normal.  You are not sure what ‘normal’ means anymore.  You cannot imagine more days like this but it is hard to envision anything else.  This has been your reality for years.  You feel like you can’t leave home to run basic errands because the worry that something will happen if you are not there to help takes over.  You likely feel there are very few people who truly understand your child, his/her needs, and can manage to care for him/her on their own.  You need change but are not sure what that looks like or if it is even possible.

You want to understand your child and help him/her understand too. You want to feel like you can support your child, protect them from the things that are too heavy, and still prepare them for the harsh reality of life. You need help as you feel scared too. You feel alone and are not sure where you can seek help for such a thing. I understand. I can help you develop and learn strategies to more effectively respond to your child’s anxiety and stress. This will, in turn, help you to manage your own. I can also teach you, and your child, how to better regulate and navigate the big emotions so that they no longer manage your lives. Childhood is an excellent time to learn these coping tools–as kids are often eager to practice as they too want to feel better. There is hope. I have worked nearly 20 years with kids and families facing similar stressors and I can help you too.

I can help you to restore peace, balance and joy at home. I invite you to call or email me and get started today. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or WhatsApp 6122405164. You may also message me by clicking the link below.