Mindful Connections Counseling provides parenting support in Austin, TX

“As children develop, their brains “mirror” their parent’s brain. In other words, the parent’s own growth and development, or lack of those, impact the child’s brain. As parents become more aware and emotionally healthy, their children reap the rewards and move toward health as well.” – Dr. Daniel J. Siegel

Our work with parents in therapy is just as important as the work we do with children. We work with parents throughout the play therapy process and offer parenting sessions to support your relationship with your child.

What’s Involved In Our Work With Parents?

Our services with parents are tailored to what works best with your family. Throughout the counseling relationship you can expect:

  • Ongoing parenting sessions when your child is in play therapy. We typically meet with parents every 4-6 weeks to review progress towards goals and incorporate parenting techniques and skills that can be helpful to incorporate at home.
  • A weekly check-in form to keep consistent communication among parents and the therapist.
  • Child-parent therapy sessions. We strongly believe that strengthening the parent and child relationship is the foundation of effective mental health services. For this reason, parents are often invited into the play therapy sessions to focus on strengthening the parent-child relationship. During this special playtime with your child, you can expect for the therapist to lead you in:
    • Learning ways to show attunement with your child
    • Exploring connecting rituals that you can also utilize at home
    • Exploring and coping through big emotions together
    • Practicing new ways to communicate
    • Having fun together through play!

In addition to meeting with caregivers regularly durning your child’s play therapy journey, we also offer parenting groups for parents that would like to explore and process their parenting journey in community. Please see below for some of our groups offered at MCC. Please reach out today to inquire about our next round of groups.

Positive Discipline

Positive Discipline is a parenting model developed by Dr. Jane Nelson. During parenting sessions, we will explore key parenting tools to help strengthen your relationship with your child while becoming confident in your parenting style and methods. For more information on Positive Discipline, please visit the Positive Discipline website here.

Child Parent Relationship Therapy

CPRT is a research based 10 week parenting program that emphasizes play in your relationship with your child. This program is for parents who would like to learn skills for understanding healthy ways to address behavioral, emotional, social, and attachment concerns. This is currently a virtual program that encompasses 10-12 weeks.
For more information on CPRT, please visit the University of North Texas Center for Play Therapy here.