Parenting-Family. Conflicts between family members can be complex and emotionally charged. If recent life changes, parenting challenges, emotional disorders, or behavior problems are straining relationships within your family, professional treatment could be extremely beneficial. At Life Forward, I work with families from all walks of life, helping them to identify and address the difficult issues that are standing in the way of the strong, loving relationships they deserve.
Together we will work to help your family establish positive communication skills and stronger relationships. I aim to provide a safe and supportive environment where you can explore and address feelings of hurt or anger.
I am here to help you to develop an action plan that will move your family toward healing and re-connection.
Parent Coaching is geared towards helping parents develop skills and strategies to better work with their children while Family Therapy usually involves bring the whole family together and working in therapy to resolve conflicts and learn new ways of interacting. I often use a mixture of parent coaching meetings and family therapy sessions to achieve the results you desire.
As a parent coach and family therapist I will focus on helping you to build strong loving bonds with your children while encouraging them to grow into thoughtful, compassionate and responsible adults.
We’ll work together with you and your child to understand why your child is struggling, and work collaboratively with you to develop and implement a plan to grow new parenting skills, deepen your parent-child relationship, and create sustainable peace and calm in your home. I work with parents to determine if their child may have a ADHD or a Learning Disability and make recommendations about what types of classroom environments are most appropriate for your child’s specific needs.
I am a parent of three special needs children myself, and I know how challenging it can be to balance all the competing demands facing today’s parents. Let me help you restore peace and balance.
I want to help your child find better coping strategies, to provide empathy and positive regard and acceptance, but I also want to help your child be accountable and responsible for the choices they make despite any challenges in their life.
Play Therapy for Children and Pre-Teens
I also specializes in Play Therapy and Sand Tray Therapy for children and pre-teens struggling with a range of issues, including but not limited to anxiety, depression, behavioral issues, trauma, and grief. In the context of weekly therapy, I will work individually with your child to provide a therapeutic outlet for emotional expression and exploration, thereby allowing your child to improve his/her insight and awareness, build and strengthen coping tools, and enhance self-esteem; throughout this process,
Parents frequently notice an overall improvement in mood and decrease in frequency and intensity of behavioral symptoms.
Although, some children’s emotional or behavioral difficulties are most appropriately addressed via Individual Psychotherapy, certain difficulties are more successfully remediated through Parent Consultation. In other words, rather than meeting individually with your child (or in addition to doing so), I may recommend meeting weekly with one or both parents to examine what factors might be contributing to and/or perpetuating your child’s behavioral difficulties. Subsequently, we will discuss empirically-supported techniques aimed at modifying your child’s behavior.
We will work to decrease your child’s noncompliance and/or compositionality, reduce feelings of anxiety and/or depression, strengthen his/her adaptive behaviors and self-esteem, and enhance your parent-child relationship.
Cynthia Penwell, LCSW, Board Approved Clinical Supervisor 