Before we talk about what is counselling and psychotherapy for parents, it would be appropriate to say a few words about the family system in general. The family can be described as an interdependent and dynamic system where each member has different kinds of obligations and of course many roles. For example, a woman who has a child takes on the role of the mother (a new role that comes with a lot of responsibilities), at the same time, she maintains many other roles, i.e., she continues to be someone’s child and possibly someone else’s partner. Responding to and fulfilling (within a reasonable framework) the existing ‘duties’ while facing new ones, can be described as demanding, but can become particularly exhausting when the environment is not supportive in the way the new mother needs it to be.

Becoming a parent for the first time or even having more children, apart from being a beautiful experience, can usually be stressful as no one can be a perfect parent, and of course, there is no training for parenthood. Also, a parent’s life can be very complex, as she can face many challenges during the child’s development. For example, unwillingness to go to school, explaining the concept of death, relating to the child as it grows older and faces challenges such as exams. All these might lead a parent to seek help in order to explore how to handle the challenges that arise.

Of course, the therapeutic relationship will not act as instruction of what is ‘correct’ by a ‘specialist’ to a parent, as that does not take into consideration the uniqueness of each situation. On the contrary, the therapist’s role is that of a fellow traveller who without criticism allows the client to explore and examine the available choices in order to decide on the most appropriate course of action.