Most of the parents we work with are not in crisis. They're competent, thoughtful, and already trying — and they've arrived at a point where the gap between what they're doing and what's working has become too large to ignore. Parenting therapy is built for that gap. It's less about teaching a technique and more about helping you see your child clearly, understand what your responses are pulling for, and make small, durable changes inside an active relationship.
What parenting therapy addresses
Behavior that isn't responding to the usual approaches: tantrums that escalate, defiance that intensifies under pressure, withdrawal that's hard to reach, sibling conflict that won't settle. Behavior is communication, and what looks like misbehavior often makes sense once you can see what's underneath it. Therapy helps you read the underlying signal so your response can address what's actually happening, not just the surface.
Developmental and emotional concerns: anxiety in a child, depression in a teenager, a young adult who isn't launching, a child whose neurodivergence is reshaping family life. The clinical question isn't only what's happening in the child — it's how the family is organizing around it, and what the parents need to be able to support their child without losing themselves in the process.
Family stress and life transitions: a move, a job change, a new baby, an illness, a loss. Children usually feel family stress before they have language for it, and it shows up in behavior or mood before it shows up in conversation. Parenting therapy helps you anticipate, name, and respond to what the kids are absorbing — including parts of family life that adults sometimes underestimate.
Caregiver burnout and the parent's own state: no one parents well from depletion, and most parents underestimate how much they're carrying until something cracks. The parent's own emotional regulation, sleep, sense of meaning, and support system are all part of the clinical picture — not because the problem is the parent, but because parenting is relational, and the parent's state is part of the relationship.
When parenting therapy isn't the right format
If a child is in acute crisis — active suicidality, self-harm requiring monitoring, severe behavioral disturbance, or active substance use — direct treatment for the child usually has to come first or run alongside the parenting work. Parenting therapy alone is not the right level of care for those situations, and we'll be direct about that in an initial consultation.
If the parents are in a high-conflict separation or divorce, the right format is usually co-parenting therapy, not parenting therapy. The clinical task is different when the adults aren't aligned and the working relationship between them is itself part of what's affecting the child.
If a parent's own untreated mental health condition is driving most of what's happening at home, individual therapy for that parent often needs to be part of the picture — sometimes in parallel, sometimes first. Individual therapy and parenting therapy can run together when that's the right structure.
Format and who's in the room
Most parenting therapy is one parent, or both parents, working with the clinician — without the child in the room. The parents describe what's happening at home, the clinician helps make sense of it, and small experiments are tried between sessions. Children are sometimes invited in for a specific purpose — an assessment session, a structured family conversation, a moment where a child's direct voice is needed — but the work is usually done parent-side.
Sessions are fifty minutes and held over video. We work with families across Florida, Texas, Illinois, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. Parenting therapy is often time-limited — a focused block of eight to twelve sessions tied to specific goals — though longer work makes sense when the situation is more complex or when ongoing support through a developmental period is what the family needs.
Leanna Dopp, LCSW, leads most of our parenting work. Her practice spans teens, adults, couples, and family units, drawing on ACT, EFT, CBT, DBT, and mindfulness-based approaches — with a particular focus on anxiety, motivation, and parent-child dynamics. Our other clinicians, including Shawn Weymouth, LMFT, also work with parents, particularly in family-systems contexts where decades of specialty experience apply.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is parenting therapy the same as parenting classes?
No. Parenting classes typically teach a specific curriculum or technique to a group. Parenting therapy is one-on-one (or with both parents together) clinical work focused on your specific child, your specific family, and the specific patterns that are showing up. Curriculum has its place, but most parents have already read the books — what they need is help applying ideas inside the actual relationship they have with their actual child.
Does my child need to come to sessions?
Often not. Parenting therapy is usually just the parent or parents working with the clinician. The point is to help the parents understand what's happening and what to try at home — most of the change happens between sessions. There are situations where bringing the child in is useful, and your clinician will recommend it if so.
What if my partner and I disagree about how to parent?
Disagreement between parents is one of the most common reasons couples come to parenting therapy. Different parenting approaches usually reflect different values, different histories, and different ideas about what children need. Therapy helps the partners understand where the differences come from and find a working approach the kids can rely on, even when the parents don't fully agree.
Will you tell me whether I'm doing something wrong?
Direct feedback is part of the work — there's no point in being polite about something that's not working. But the framing matters. Most parents are doing what makes sense given what they were taught, what they're carrying, and what their child is presenting. The work isn't about blame; it's about helping you see what's happening clearly enough to do something different.
Talk through whether this fits
To talk through whether parenting therapy fits your situation, request a free consultation. You can also read more about family therapy or explore our page on attachment therapy.