Here’s an interesting question we are occasionally asked:
How can a psychologist understand the difficulties of parenting children, and how to help them overcome emotional challenges, if they don’t have any children of their own?
The answer is simple:
Effective counselling does not depend on the counsellor’s direct personal experience with a particular issue.
So what does it depend on?
Effective counselling is all about positive rapport with the client, training, skills and experience in helping other people who have faced similar challenges.
Let’s put this another way…
Would you ask your doctor if they have personally experienced the same illness or injury you are suffering before trusting their advice?
Of course not. You would simply want to be confident they have sufficient expertise in treating people with the same problem.
Each of our psychologists has postgraduate training in Educational and Developmental Psychology, along with extensive experience working with parents and children.
They are all highly skilled at practical, solution-focused counselling using evidence-based approaches.
And each of them is very friendly, engaging and empathetic.
Although understanding the challenges faced by parents and children is important, your psychologist does not require children of their own to effectively help you and your child overcome those challenges.
Plus every child is different, in personality, emotion and experience. There is no ‘one size fits all’ treatment.
So even if your psychologist does happen to be a parent it is unlikely they would have personally experienced the same issues as you have with your child.
What matters is that they are able to apply practical, solution-focused and evidence-based approaches that have proven helpful for many other people who have faced similar challenges.
And all of our child psychologists are highly experienced in helping children, teenagers and parents with challenges relating to anxiety, learning, behaviour, motivation and educational performance.