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Go Parents Go!

Supportive Coaching for
Successful Parenting

By Kelly Burgess

There are times when this type of parent coaching is not appropriate because the problems go deeper than just family support. In those cases, counseling with a trained psychologist is what the family probably needs. Steven Richfield, Psy.D., a child psychologist, says that he would hope a parent coach would be able to recognize situations that are over his or her ability.

Richfield created Parent Coaching Cards years ago as a system for parents to help coach self-control and social skills in their children. He actually coined the term "parent coach," but not with the idea of coaching parents to deal with children he's never met. Rather, his idea was to help parents develop skills, similar to that of coaches, to facilitate their child rearing. He's not against this new model of parent coaches, where they focus solely on the parent, but he does worry that a parent coach may not realize when family counseling is more appropriate than parent coaching.

"I think that there are places parent coaching of this type is entirely appropriate, but there's a blurry line the coach needs to adhere to," Richfield says. "Anything along the line of a mild or transient developmental problem is fine for the type of coaching that is taking place over the phone, but if things become more severe or of lasting duration, then parent coaching isn't the answer."

Richfield does see parent coaching as a great way for a parent to vent, find validation for their efforts and just realize that they're not alone in their parenting journey.