Parenting Skills
Are you arguing with your partner over disciplining the children? Is one parent too strict and the other too lenient? Do the kids show a lack of respect for your rules? Have you wondered why your children seem to behave well at school or in other’s homes, but not in their own? Are you yelling and screaming more, but with no effect on their behaviour? Try a few parenting sessions to learn how to apply the 3 “C’s”- Consistency, Consequences, and Compromise.

Step-families
Family issues become more complex when you live in a step-family. One of the biggest reasons for the failure of second marriages is disagreements over children. None of us want to become a statistic; all of us want a happy and peaceful family life. It takes patience and superior effort to be an effective step-parent. And, positive relationships with your step-children will happen by evolution, not revolution. Children in blended families are often faced with issues of divided loyalties, two sets of parents with step-siblings in each home, and perhaps, two to four different sets of rules and parenting styles. As a family therapist I can help you sort through these thorny issues either as a family or couple.

Female Adolescents
’Surviving’ the teen years as either a teen ourselves, or as the parent of a teen can be a joyous, as well as challenging, life experience. This is a period of tremendous growth, change, and turmoil as your teen tries to develop her identity and opinions and learns to make her own choices, sometimes with the result of straining against parental rules. As a family therapist, I work particularly well with female adolescents and their parents. If you are having difficulty with a male teen, I can recommend a male counsellor to help you.

Alcohol Abuse
The misuse of alcohol is a major cause of personal and familial dysfunction in our society and infects one in ten families in North America. Because consumption of alcohol is such a large part of our culture, it is often difficult to assess the difference between healthy social drinking and problem drinking. Usually, it is the people closest to the drinker (spouse, children, or parents) who will first become aware that there is a problem. There are strategies for dealing with your loved one's drinking and many resources in your community available to help - Alcoholics' Anonymous, Alanon (support for friends and family of the alcoholic), your family doctor, and a qualified family therapist. A drinking problem will become worse over time if left untreated. Even if your family member chooses not to deal with their drinking, you will need to keep yourself healthy and to understand the features of co-dependent behaviour in the alcoholic family.