The Parent Hope Project and The Parent Confidence Project
Research-based parent awareness programs for use in services that support families.
- User friendly manualised programs
- Training and learning support for professionals
While this program focusses on parents making changes to themselves, be assured that this is not at all about blaming parents. Parents are not to blame for their young person’s difficulties since many complex factors contribute to symptom development… However, parents can play an important part towards children’s growth in responsible independence by adjusting how they interact with their young person. In this way parents find that they can let go of guilt and recover their hopefulness.
Dr Jenny Brown
from the introduction to the Parent Hope Project
Feedback from Parents
“I just think this course has been brilliant. It made me feel like I was important to the health of my children. That I was doing something myself, rather than sending them to appointments and me waiting for things to happen.”
“Thank you. This has been transformative for me personally. I never thought a parenting course could actually change how I feel about myself.”
“This course wasn’t about focussing on what I’m doing wrong but more on what I CAN do. What I’m in control of and working out how to do that better. I found this liberating as until now, there had been a constant sense of failure for me in how things have been working out for my teenagers.”
About the training programs
A research-based program for those who work with children, parents and families
There are 2 manualised programs for helping parents to make a positive project out of themselves and reduce their anxious focus on their children/young people. Based on Dr Jenny Brown’s research with parents and on the ground-breaking research of Murray Bowen MD – developer of Bowen family systems theory.
“…the favourable results with parents who could make a project out of themselves was a turning point in both the theory and practice of family psychotherapy.”
Dr Murray Bowen [from his original NIMH research – FTCP, 1978. P96]
“The child functions in reaction to the parents instead of being responsible for him/herself. If parents shift their focus off the child and become more responsible for their own actions, the child will automatically (perhaps after testing whether the parents really mean it) assume more responsibility for him/herself.”
Dr M Kerr & Dr M Bowen [ Family Evaluation. 1988 p. 202]
Key elements of both programs:
- Reduces parent’s focus on changing their child and redirects them to changing themselves in relation to their children.
- Different to a psycho-education course: this program facilitates parent self-discovery through reflecting on interactional sequences and thinking about stories of other parents applying key ideas. Hence it is more of a therapeutic intervention than an information seminar.
For professionals in child and family mental health. A manualised intervention program for parents of symptomatic children and young people.
Professionals who train and are credentialed to use the Parent Hope Project can also utilise the Parent Confidence Program.
Find out more
For those who lend a hand to parents in the challenging task of raising children. A preventative manualised individual and group program for concerned parents.
You don’t need to be a trained mental health clinician to utilise this program. It is for any helpers who work to support families (i.e. educators, counsellors, pastoral carers workers)
Find out moreFeedback from Parents
“These sessions have fundamentally changed the way we approach parts of parenting, and we didn’t expect that!”
“Now, when challenges arise with my kids, I draw on new ways to manage; and it really, really changed the patterns of behaviour for everyone involved. It has made a massive difference to our family dynamics.”
