At Parenting Mental Health, we understand how hard it is to parent a child with a mental health condition and we want to help you to make sense of this time and give you the tools and support to get you and your family through it. We can currently support you in 3 ways:
When you’re parenting a child with poor mental health, it feels like you’re all alone. As if no one has ever been through this. As if it’s all on your shoulders to work out how to behave, communicate and cope with all the challenges poor mental health brings.
When you’ve been through the experience of parenting a child through poor mental health, it changes you. And the experience and lessons and empathy and understanding are hard won. We believe that one of the best supports to help you understand how to deal with your child’s mental health is to connect with someone who has been through it or is going through it.
Our Facebook community is a special place – judgment-free, full of insight, connection and understanding. Join our daily Gratitude practice, share your highs and lows with others who get it and get you, and learn from others who have been there, survived and thrived.
We also run Peer Mentorship in the community where you can be paired with someone with Lived Experience. Or join one of our Listening Circles, led by a qualified counsellor. Contact us if you’d like to apply for a place.
The rules change when. your child is suffering with their mental health. What was acceptable and accepted before doesn’t compute. And as parents, we need to learn new approaches to support our child as they battle mental illness, and to support ourselves and our family as life as we knew it feels outdated and out of reach.
At Parenting Mental Health, we believe that us parents can effect massive change by understanding the experience of our child and modifying and adapting our behaviour, assumptions and expectations.
It’s not easy, and it challenges us as people as well as parents, so we offer a range of Programs to support you including our 6 week Partnering course, run by Suzanne Alderson who developed the approach and used it to support her daughter to recovery, to self esteem programs for parents and young people in partnership with Dove, to short trainings on self care, confidence, acceptance, active listening and building trust. Visit our Courses Page for more information.
You can also buy Suzanne’s book here, which details her experiences and how to Partner, not Parent your child through poor mental health.
Parenting poor mental health is isolating. Friends and family might not understand why you can’t do the things you could before. And you may feel that those around you have no concept of the new worries and fears that keep you awake at night. It’s easy to lose touch with those around you, but this is not the time to be alone.
We offer connection through our online community as well as through a range of events, self care days, and in person and moderated online meet-ups. With COVID restrictions, we’ve gone back to our roots and are 100% online, but we look forward to bringing you together in person around the world soon.
If you’d like more information on how we can connect you with others through our community, drop us a line – or check out our Events page. And don’t forget you can follow us on Instagram or Facebook – and our friendly community of parents who understand is waiting to welcome you!
Would you like to know more about how we can help you?
Get in touch - we'd love to support you through this!