250 Cushman Street, Suite 2G
Fairbanks, AK 99701
You know your parents did the best they could, but you still see ways your upbringing plays out in unhelpful ways in your relationships. You want to give your baby the best start in life, and break the patterns that you’ve seen passed down through generations. You’ve read the parenting books and gotten advice from your friends and your pediatrician. But you still see your infant’s troubles with feeding, or your toddler’s tantrums, or your preschooler’s anxiety, and you wonder what else you could be doing. You wonder how the dynamics of your relationship with your baby’s other parent is affecting your relationship with your baby, or how your struggle with post-partum depression affects your ability to bond with your infant.
You’ve heard that early relationships are the foundation for healthy relationships throughout your child’s life. You’ve read that secure attachment predicts self-esteem and academic success. You know the relationship you model with your partner is the example your child will look to in their partnerships. And you aren’t sure that what you are modeling is what you want for your child.
Babies don’t come with an instruction manual. But they do have an amazing ability to communicate what they need. Through family therapy early in your child’s life, you can learn to understand what your child is communicating about their needs and how to respond. You can create a secure attachment with your baby, so that they have the confidence to go out into the world, knowing their parent is there when they need you. You can have space to explore the relationship models you have, what you are teaching your baby, and how your baby is reacting to the blueprint for relationships that you offer. You can improve your own relationships, and at the same time set your baby up for happy, healthy relationships throughout their life.
Relationship-based therapy for you and your baby or young child offers you the opportunity to understand how your child is using you to help them to feel safe and connected, to learn to regulate their emotions, and to explore and learn. You can have support to recognize how your baby communicates with you about what they need, and identify strategies to support your child to meet their needs in a healthy way. You can understand where your child’s challenging behaviors might be coming from, and explore ways to shift that. You can also explore how your own history shows up in your parenting, so that you can choose what gifts from your childhood you want to share with your baby, and what you might want to differently from how you were raised.
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Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) is a relationship-based therapeutic intervention for expecting parents or parents and other caregivers with their infants and young children (prenatal to age six). In CPP, the therapist helps the caregiver to help their child. You will explore what you bring to parenting from your own history, and also your dreams of what you want for your child. Through play sessions with your baby or young child, you will practice interpreting their communication and finding responses that meet their needs and yours. You can learn more about CPP. Bessie is a rostered clinician practicing CPP.
Circle of Security Parenting groups provide you with an opportunity to learn about the research on attachment in infancy and early childhood and how you can apply that research to get the benefits of secure attachment for your child. In the group setting you have the opportunity to compare notes with other parents and support one another on the path to parenting healthy kids. You can learn more about Circle of Security Parenting.
