Parenting & Family Support
with Erik Giles, LCSW (he/him)
Therapy for parents who want calmer homes, more confidence, better alignment, and parenting grounded in real child-development principles rather than internet noise.
Parenting can feel like one long series of moments where you are not sure whether you are doing a good job or quietly messing everything up. A lot of parents come in feeling frustrated, guilty, angry, embarrassed, or confused about why their child is behaving the way they are. Other times the issue is not the child as much as the pressure parenting is putting on the adults: different parenting styles, more conflict as a couple, less patience, more shame, and the exhausting feeling that this should somehow be easier than it is.
I work with parents and families who want help making sense of what is happening at home and responding in a way that is healthier, steadier, and more grounded. This can include toddlers and young children, parenting in a blended family, co-parenting strain, neurodivergence or health challenges in a child, and the general emotional wear-and-tear of trying to raise resilient kids while staying emotionally healthy yourself.
This is not about me handing you a parenting ideology and telling you to copy it. It is about helping you understand what children actually need, what is being activated in you as a parent, and how to show up in a way that supports agency, resilience, distress tolerance, and a healthier family system overall.
Why Parenting Feels So Personal
Parenting hits so hard because it is not just about the child. It is about your identity. A lot of parents expect their kids to make them feel like good parents, and kids are not built for that. Kids test limits, get dysregulated, refuse things, misread us, and keep developing. That does not necessarily mean you are doing it wrong. It often means you are in the middle of one of the hardest jobs anyone does.
Therapy helps separate the feeling of being a bad parent from the actual question of whether your parenting is helping your child grow. Once we can slow that down, a lot of parents feel immediate relief and can start making better decisions much faster.
Your Child Is Not Supposed to Make You Feel Like a Good Parent
One of the deeper issues in parenting work is learning how not to make your child responsible for your self-worth. When we need our child to reassure us that we are good, calm, loving, effective, or in control, we tend to parent reactively. We overcorrect. We get too harsh. We get too permissive. We panic. We personalize normal child development.
Part of the work is getting clearer on what healthy parenting actually looks like. That includes thinking about authority, boundaries, emotional regulation, resilience, and the kind of support that helps children build strength rather than dependence or fear.
Parenting as a Couple or Family System
A lot of parenting strain is really family-system strain. Parents may be pulling in different directions, correcting each other, or carrying old baggage from how they themselves were raised. In blended families, it can get even more complicated. I have lived that side of family life too, and it helps me work with the very real complexity that can show up around loyalty, discipline, resentment, and role confusion.
I am not trying to force one uniform parenting style. In fact, kids can benefit from some variety in how adults show up. What matters is whether the overall system is coherent, emotionally healthy, and working in the child’s best interest.
This Is Not Therapy for Your Child by Proxy
If your child needs their own therapist, I will tell you that. This work is not about trying to do therapy for your child through you. It is about helping you show up better as the parent, partner, or caregiver in the system around that child.
That also means I may be quite direct. If the evidence does not support the approach you are taking, I will say so. I am not here just to validate you as a parent if what you are doing is not helping your child.
What I Help Parents Work On
- Parenting stress, guilt, anger, and self-doubt
- Toddlers and young children who feel hard to manage
- Mismatched parenting styles between partners
- Blended family dynamics and stepparent stress
- Discipline, boundaries, and emotional regulation at home
- Parenting neurodivergent or medically complex children
- Building resilience, agency, and distress tolerance in kids
- Separating your identity as a parent from your child's behavior in the moment
How This Work Connects
You may also be interested in:
✔ Couples & Relationship Therapy
✔ Men’s Issues
✔ Financial Challenge Issues
Looking for another therapist who works with parenting and family stress? You may also be a good fit with Rachel Santellano, LSW.
Frequently Asked Questions About Parenting & Family Support
Is this therapy for my child?
No. This work is focused on you as the parent, the couple, or the family system around the child. If your child needs their own therapist, I will tell you. But this page is about helping the adults show up better and make better parenting decisions.
Can you help if my partner and I parent very differently?
Yes. That is common. The goal is not to force both parents into identical styles. It is to help you build an approach that is complementary, emotionally healthy, and in your child’s best interest.
What if I already feel like I am failing as a parent?
A lot of parents feel that way. One of the first goals is to separate the feeling from the reality. Parenting is hard, and children are not designed to make you feel competent every day. Once we can slow that down, it becomes much easier to make useful changes.
Will you tell me directly if something I am doing is not helping my child?
Yes. Respectfully, but yes. I am not here just to reassure you if the approach is not working. My job is to help you build a healthier family system and support what is actually best for your child.