Counselling Support For Parent Burnout. In-person in Toronto and Online in Ontario

Heal Yourself.
Step Into Your Power.
Lead Your Family.

What is Parent Burnout?

The biggest gift we can give our kids is working through our own unhealed wounds in order to show up for ourselves, our kids and our families in the best version of ourselves.

Are you feeling overwhelmed in your role as a parent or life in general? Like you are trying to do it all, but it is all too much? You are great at holding it together much of the time, but inside you wonder why you aren’t experiencing more joy in parenting, why you are ‘losing it’ or feeling detached more often then you would like. You have lots of the tools and strategies, you know what kind of parent you want to be or feel like you ‘should be’ but still feel like you are struggling. So. Much.

Parenting can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges. If you are struggling, know that you’re not alone. As a parent myself, I understand the joys and challenges that come with raising children…the ways that parenting can bring up or amplify our own unhealed ‘stuff’…the ways that it can feel like we have lost control but don’t know how to find our way back…

I get it and I can help. Together, we can create a roadmap to get you back on track to the ‘you’ that you want to be, both inside and outside of parenting.

I work with parents in various stages of parenthood:

Parenting Young Kids

In the ‘thick of it’, trying to navigate the overwhelm, figure out how to align our behaviour with our parenting values; trying to find some kind of balance in what feels like an inherently unbalanceable life, discovering unhealed wounds that are showing up that we maybe knew were there but now are playing out in new ways in our relationship with our kids or partner.

Parents of Tweens/Teens

Sometimes the process of individuation can being stuff up for us as parents. Sometimes as our kids start to gain more independence, it causes us to turn inwards and wonder if we have lost precious pieces of ourselves and have no idea how to get them back or if those parts of us are even still there. Maybe after years of sacrificing for our kids we are wondering if we gave too much and how to move forward and start prioritizing ourselves a bit more. We find ourselves in family dynamics that we never thought we would be in, that we know are not benefitting us or our kids in the long-run, but that just feel so stuck.

Parents of Young Adults

Whether your young person is about to leave home, just left home, or struggling with ‘launching’, this phase of parenting can bring up all kinds of stuff for us as parents. This phase is not only a developmental phase for our kids, but also for us. Who am I now? How is my identity shifting? How do I want it to shift? What is getting in the way of moving forward through this phase of parenting?

How does therapy for parent burnout work?

Together we create a roadmap for change. And then we begin the hard but worth it work of helping you find your way.

My Approach to Parent Work is both Holistic and Focused

My work with parents/caregivers includes a 3-pronged approach:

1. Understand why things are stuck or hard.

  • We will explore factors like parent and child temperament, family history, relational dynamics, trigger points, behavioural patterns, etc. to understand the factors contributing to the difficulties. This helps us all get on the same page about how to move forward.

“Problems are dynamic and multi-layered and require solutions that are also dynamic, creative and multi-layered.”

2. Understand and heal your own triggers/past wounds.

  • Understand what is getting activated in you as the parent/caregiver.Together, we will work on healing what is at the core that is keeping you stuck. This healing has an amazing impact on the overall health of the family.

“As a parent, you are doing the best you can. But sometimes our own histories can highjack us out of alignment with our caregiving values/approach.”

3. Implement the roadmap for change.

  • Now that you have done some of your own healing and are feeling stronger, more regulated, and experiencing more joy, clarity, and confidence with your parenting, we can identify and implement the specific tools and strategies to continue to shift patterns in your home towards harmony and deeper connection.

“Tools and strategies are so much more effective when we feel calm and confident!”

“If you don’t like the road you are walking, pave another one.”

- Dolly Parton

Therapy for Parent Burnout can help:

  • Feel like the badass parent you hoped you could be: When we heal our own emotional wounds, we step into the best version of ourselves, and we feel connected to our awesomeness as a parent!

  • Stay Calm (ish) in the storm: Develop healthy ways to manage conflicts and navigate through challenging situations with your children.

  • Greater family harmony: Cultivate a more peaceful and supportive family environment where everyone feels heard, respected, and valued.

  • Increased confidence and self-assurance: Cut out all the noise about what parenting approach is best and tune into your own internal wisdom and confidence. Gain a deeper understanding of your parenting style and feel more empowered in your role as a parent.

  • Lasting positive change: Experience a renewed sense of joy and fulfillment in your parenting journey as you overcome obstacles and embrace the joys of parenthood.

Counselling for Parent Burnout FAQ:

  • Fill out the form in the 'get in touch' section of my website. We will set up a time to connect and see if we are a good fit in working together!

    1. I often start where other therapists leave off. Meaning that we start by gaining clarity about where and why you are stuck and do a deep exploration of what work we need to do to shift things for you.

    2. I go deep with folks to get at root causes of their difficulties to achieve lasting change.

    3. I work in a more condensed format, so that you can get relief sooner. 90-minute sessions allows us to get into flow together and access the energy and focus that is often required for deep transformational change.

  • This depends on how much you want to work on.

    I am someone who likes to help folks achieve relief and growth as efficiently as possible, all while fostering a trusting relationship and going at a pace you are comfortable with.

    With some folks we do one short-term focused piece of healing and they move on with their lives, while other folks want to work on a few different areas of their lives.

  • Absolutely! Anxiety and people-pleasing often have some roots in deeply held core beliefs that EMDR can work well to shift. Sometimes anxiety and people-pleasing can be responses to traumatic, overwhelming or patterns of experiences that we have gone through earlier in life that get stuck in our nervous system. EMDR allows us to identify these experiences, heal them, and shift our nervous system and subsequent behaviours.

  • If you are someone who is constantly stuck in overthinking, someone who is constantly worried about what others think, who experiences chronic feelings of guilt, who second guesses yourself, or who experiences symptoms like panic attacks, knots in your chest/stomach or chronic tension, then you are likely a good candidate!

Become the Badass Parent (and person) you want to be!

Put your life in balance

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Put your life in balance —