B.E.S.T PARENTS
B.E.S.T. Parents is a 5-session parenting program designed to provide parents with techniques and psychoeducation to support them to be the B.E.S.T. Parents they can be. The program is provided online and is pre-recorded to ensure caregivers can access the program at their convenience. Topics covered include:
- Parenting styles.
- Goals and values.
- Parental self-care.
- Emotional resilience.
- Managing conflict & emotional dysregulation
Since the launch of our popular evidence-based group program, B.E.S.T. Kids in 2018, we have been contacted by parents and community groups to provide additional parenting support.
Being a parent is not easy, regardless of our young person’s developmental stage or age; as we know, there is no easy manual to provide instructions! To ensure parents are provided with information most relevant to their family dynamic, our parenting program has two streams; B.E.S.T. Parents for Kids, or B.E.S.T. Parents for Teens.
B.E.S.T. Parents will provide you with additional tools to add to your parenting ‘toolbox’ and help you when you are faced with challenging situations or behaviours.
Christine Harding, the Principal Psychologist at Hargan Psychology and creator of B.E.S.T. Kids, has looked at the evidence, researched current parenting issues, and listened to the many parents, caregivers, and educators involved with Hargan Psychology.
With all of that valuable information, B.E.S.T. Parents has been developed. Enrolment in either of the B.E.S.T. Parents programs provides ongoing fortnightly Q&A opportunities with Christine Harding.
- Aligned parenting
- Parenting styles
- Identifying parenting values/goals
- Aligning parenting goals
- Impact of our own parenting
- Triggers
- Intergenerational trauma
- Parental MHI
- Emotion regulation
- Managing meltdowns
- Problem solving
- Anxiety
- Avoidance
- Emotional resilience
- Encouraging autonomy; charts, rewards, contracts
- Individual self-care
- Couple-care
What are we aiming to achieve with the program?
During the years of facilitating our B.E.S.T. kids group therapy program, Christine and the psychology team noted that at the ‘graduation’ (conclusion of the 6-sessions) of our B.E.S.T. Kids program, many parents and caregivers reported that, despite the worksheets and strategies shared, they still did not feel confident in their parenting role. Clients, parents, carers, and educators have consistently requested that our B.E.S.T. Parents program be available.
At the conclusion of the 5 session program, it is expected that parents/caregivers will feel more aligned with their spouses/partners and others when co-caring for their young people. The program is designed to aid parents to develop more insight into their own triggers, gain further awareness of the impact of their own up-bringing, obtain more strategies to assist in their parenting role, and further understand the importance of self-care and couple-care.
As a starting point of reflection, we often ask our parents the following:
Did you discuss whether to get married?
Did you discuss whether to have children?
Did you ever talk about how you would parent?
Did you ever talk about how you would parent?
This question is not a judgement; sometimes children are an unexpected blessing that you may not have exactly planned for! However, when parenting and communication styles are unaligned or inconsistent, parenting our young people can become an issue that leads to joint confusion, placing strain on the individual, the relationship, and even our young people.
Christine and her team have worked with many children and families and recognise that early intervention to potential issues is the key to our young people getting the best start in their future trajectory. To ensure parents/caregivers are adequately supported, Christine will provide live Q&A sessions each fortnight to address any parenting issues or answer/explore any further queries that may arise during or after completion of the program. Our B.E.S.T. Parents programs are recorded to ensure they can be accessed when convenient; worksheets are posted in a workbook at enrolment in the program.
We would be pleased to be a part of your parenting or caregiving journey in supporting your young people to Live their BEST Life.
Common B.E.S.T Parents FAQ's
The cost of the five session program is $550; this includes the five recorded sessions, a workbook with worksheets and slides, and access to two live Q/A sessions with Principal Psychologist Christine Harding.
