Using a comprehensive approach which includes various psychotherapy techniques, evidence-based tools and strategies, warmth, and a sense of humour, I help with the following parenting-specific challenges:

• school-related problems

• positive discipline

• tantrums and behavioural problems

• challenging teenage behavior

• establishing and maintaining parental authority

• aggression

• defiance

• ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and other forms of neurodiversity

• sibling fighting and rivalry

• sexual identity issues

• self-harm

• sleep issues

• food issues, including feeding challenges

• managing household technology

• working effectively and productively with schools and teachers

• advocating for your child, and teaching your child to advocate for himself

Parenting can be the hardest job in the world.  The balance between taking care of children, partners, professional lives, and ourselves can be overwhelming.  Many parents are shocked and unprepared for the stresses that arise in the process of creating a family.  To complicate matters, modern culture places tremendous emphasis on being the perfect parent, able to effortlessly juggle competing demands.

For these reasons, many parents struggle.  Becoming a parent can elicit old, unresolved emotional struggles - and create new ones - leading to or exacerbating anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.  This is true with parenting “easy” children, as well as more intense personalities. 

I approach my work with parents both with a professional lens honed by over 28 years of practice, as well as my personal struggles and experience successfully raising three children (ages 20, 19, and 17), two of whom are neurodiverse.