The Montfort Group

Taming Academic Anxiety

While it is natural for parents to go into protection mode when your child is feeling anxious, sometimes your efforts to solve their problems or avoid triggers of anxiety and engineer worry-free environments may exacerbate the problem.

How To Support Your Teen Through High School

Teen Counseling

Do you worry about how your teenager is doing at school? Chances are they won’t tell you, in which case, you’ll be in the frustrating position of wanting to support them but being unable to. It’s a common problem for parents as their teenage children become more independent and remote, but fortunately, there are ways around it. Follow the simple tactics below to lift those barriers and re-kindle the bond between you. Once you’ve got your son or daughter chatting, you’ll be halfway to finding out how things are at school and supporting them as need be, which will follow on naturally.

Parenting Teenagers 101: How to Get Them to Talk

Remember that developmentally, teens fall victim to concrete thinking. I chalk it up to being part of the human experience; the inability to see past the facts, physical world, or this moment right here and now. And it’s not their fault. Their brain isn’t fully developed yet.

Parenting Style

Parenting Education

Psychologist Diana Baumrind noticed that preschoolers displayed different behaviors due to parenting style. She set out to describe the dynamics that influence parenting styles and found that particular parenting characteristics produced children with improved self-esteem and confidence.

Parenting Education: Make A Plan

Parent education

Research shows that most parents can benefit from some guidance when raising their children. It has also shown that parenting education can strengthen a child’s ability to succeed and supports parents with tangible and practical ways to raise their children.

Parenting: Children’s Chores

children's chores

When working with pre-teen and adolescent clients, one of the first questions I ask during the intake session is, “Does your child have chores at home?” Some clients seem perplexed, thinking “what does this have to do with school performance, peer struggles, and behavior issues?”

Imposter Syndrome: The Parenting Edition

Family therapy parenting

As an individual therapist, I can say with full honesty that I am not the perfect parent. But guess what? I don’t expect you to be either. My work comes from a place of constant learning rather than pure expertise.

Coming Up For Air

coming up for air

When I’m stressed and 100% in my head and thinking about all of the things that need to be done and aren’t being done (or aren’t being done to my exacting standards), taking a breath grounds me in my body. Feeling the air flow in and out of my lungs helps me to slow down a second and (maybe) even put some things in perspective.