Parenting

Parenting Counseling

Supporting Connection, Confidence, and Calm in Parenthood

Parenting is one of the most meaningful — and most challenging — roles we take on in life. It asks us to be patient, flexible, emotionally attuned, and endlessly adaptive. Yet, even with love and the best of intentions, parenting can bring moments of frustration, confusion, or self-doubt.

As a therapist, I offer Parenting Counseling in Santa Barbara that helps you build confidence, clarity, and connection — both with yourself and your child. Whether you’re navigating early childhood, adolescence, blended families, or co-parenting after separation, therapy provides a supportive space to reflect, learn, and grow in your parenting journey.

What Is Parenting Counseling?

Parenting Counseling is a form of therapy designed to help parents understand themselves, their children, and the dynamics that shape their relationship. It’s not about being a “perfect” parent — it’s about becoming a more aware, responsive, and regulated one.

This work often includes:

Understanding your child’s developmental needs and behaviors
Learning tools to manage conflict or big emotions
Healing your own stress or trauma that may impact parenting
Building secure attachment and communication
Strengthening co-parenting partnerships after divorce or separation

Each session offers a safe and compassionate environment to explore your experiences and discover strategies that fit your unique family.

A Humanistic and Person-Centered Approach to Parenting

My work is grounded in Humanistic, Person-Centered Therapy, which means I believe you are the expert on your own family. My role is to offer empathy, perspective, and guidance that help you trust your own wisdom as a parent.

Rather than imposing rigid rules or “one-size-fits-all” advice, our sessions focus on what feels authentic and sustainable for you. Together, we explore what’s working, what feels challenging, and what deeper needs might be beneath the surface — both yours and your child’s.

When parents feel seen and supported, they can show up with greater patience, understanding, and joy. Therapy becomes a space to reconnect with that inner sense of calm and capability.

Trauma-Informed Parenting Support

Many parents come to therapy because they want to do things differently from how they were raised. Others are navigating the impact of trauma, either their own or their child’s.

In trauma-informed parenting work, we slow things down and build safety first — within you and within the parent-child relationship.

A trauma-informed lens acknowledges how stress, fear, or past pain can influence your reactions and your child’s behavior. Through this understanding, we develop tools to:

Recognize triggers and regulate emotional responses
Co-regulate with your child during moments of distress
Repair connection after conflict or rupture
Build trust and consistency in daily interactions

This process is gentle and empowering. It helps you move from reacting out of stress to responding with awareness — the foundation of secure attachment.

Somatic Awareness in Parenting

Parenting happens not just in the mind, but in the body. The nervous system plays a key role in how we attune to, respond to, and regulate with our children.

Through Somatic Therapy principles, I help parents notice body-based cues — the tension before a conflict, the breath that shortens under stress, the instinct to withdraw when overwhelmed.

Learning to track these signals allows you to pause, regulate, and reconnect in real time.

This kind of awareness creates what psychologist Dan Siegel calls “mindsight” — the ability to notice what’s happening inside you and your child, and to respond with empathy rather than reactivity.

Evidence-Informed Parenting Tools

While therapy is relational and intuitive, I also draw from evidence-based and evidence-informed methods that have been shown to support healthy family functioning. These include:

Cognitive Behavioral strategies to reframe unhelpful thoughts or expectations
Mindfulness and self-compassion techniques for stress reduction
Emotion coaching tools to help children name and manage feelings
Attachment-based interventions like Circle of Security and PACT principles
Psychoeducation on child development and co-regulation

These approaches blend the heart of therapy with the structure of practical guidance — so you leave sessions not just feeling supported, but equipped.

Co-Parenting and Family Transitions

When parents separate or divorce, the emotional landscape can feel complex. Co-parenting counseling provides a neutral space to establish communication, boundaries, and shared values around your child’s wellbeing.

Rather than focusing on blame or control, our work centers on what’s best for your child — helping you both navigate conflict, decision-making, and emotional repair.

Therapy can also support you in managing your own feelings of loss, frustration, or fear during family transitions, so that you can show up more peacefully and consistently for your child.

For blended families, parenting therapy offers tools for integration, empathy, and trust-building — helping each family member feel seen and valued.

The Emotional Experience of Parenting

Parenting can bring up powerful emotions — joy, fear, guilt, grief, pride, exhaustion, and love. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed at times, to lose your temper, or to question if you’re doing enough.

Therapy is a place to release the pressure of perfection and return to connection — with yourself first, and then with your child.

You’ll learn to:

Understand your triggers and emotional patterns
Communicate with clarity and compassion
Repair when things go wrong
Build daily practices that support calm and presence

The goal isn’t flawless parenting — it’s authentic connection. Children thrive not because their parents are perfect, but because their parents are real, present, and willing to grow.

Who Can Benefit from Parenting Counseling

Parenting therapy may be a good fit if you:

Feel stressed, reactive, or emotionally depleted as a parent
Want to improve communication with your child or co-parent
Are navigating behavioral challenges or developmental changes
Have experienced trauma or loss affecting family dynamics
Want to parent more consciously and compassionately
Are integrating a blended or divorced family

Whether you’re a new parent, seasoned caregiver, or co-parenting in complex circumstances, therapy provides the reflection and tools you need to move forward with confidence.

My Commitment to You as a Parenting Therapist

Parenting is deeply personal — every family’s story is different.

My commitment is to provide a warm, nonjudgmental space where you can explore that story with honesty and curiosity. Together, we’ll work toward restoring balance, building insight, and strengthening the bond between you and your child.

You don’t have to do it alone. With support, parenting can become less about managing chaos and more about cultivating connection and joy.

Next Step

If you’re seeking Parenting Counseling in Santa Barbara, I would be honored to support you and your family.

Together, we can create more understanding, calm, and connection — helping you and your child thrive.

You are not alone in this. Support is here, and healing begins with awareness.

JAMIE FORTINSeptember 18, 2025

Parenting

Parenting Counseling

Supporting Connection, Confidence, and Calm in Parenthood

Parenting is one of the most meaningful — and most challenging — roles we take on in life. It asks us to be patient, flexible, emotionally attuned, and endlessly adaptive. Yet, even with love and the best of intentions, parenting can bring moments of frustration, confusion, or self-doubt.

What Is Parenting Counseling?

Parenting Counseling is a form of therapy designed to help parents understand themselves, their children, and the dynamics that shape their relationship. It’s not about being a “perfect” parent — it’s about becoming a more aware, responsive, and regulated one.

This work often includes:

Understanding your child’s developmental needs and behaviors

Learning tools to manage conflict or big emotions

Healing your own stress or trauma that may impact parenting

Building secure attachment and communication

Strengthening co-parenting partnerships after divorce or separation

Each session offers a safe and compassionate environment to explore your experiences and discover strategies that fit your unique family.

A Humanistic and Person-Centered Approach to Parenting

My work is grounded in Humanistic, Person-Centered Therapy, which means I believe you are the expert on your own family. My role is to offer empathy, perspective, and guidance that help you trust your own wisdom as a parent.

Rather than imposing rigid rules or “one-size-fits-all” advice, our sessions focus on what feels authentic and sustainable for you. Together, we explore what’s working, what feels challenging, and what deeper needs might be beneath the surface — both yours and your child’s.

When parents feel seen and supported, they can show up with greater patience, understanding, and joy. Therapy becomes a space to reconnect with that inner sense of calm and capability.

Trauma-Informed Parenting Support

Many parents come to therapy because they want to do things differently from how they were raised. Others are navigating the impact of trauma, either their own or their child’s.

In trauma-informed parenting work, we slow things down and build safety first — within you and within the parent-child relationship.

A trauma-informed lens acknowledges how stress, fear, or past pain can influence your reactions and your child’s behavior. Through this understanding, we develop tools to:

Recognize triggers and regulate emotional responses

Co-regulate with your child during moments of distress

Repair connection after conflict or rupture

Build trust and consistency in daily interactions

This process is gentle and empowering. It helps you move from reacting out of stress to responding with awareness — the foundation of secure attachment.

Somatic Awareness in Parenting

Parenting happens not just in the mind, but in the body. The nervous system plays a key role in how we attune to, respond to, and regulate with our children.

Through Somatic Therapy principles, I help parents notice body-based cues — the tension before a conflict, the breath that shortens under stress, the instinct to withdraw when overwhelmed.

Learning to track these signals allows you to pause, regulate, and reconnect in real time.

This kind of awareness creates what psychologist Dan Siegel calls “mindsight” — the ability to notice what’s happening inside you and your child, and to respond with empathy rather than reactivity.

Evidence-Informed Parenting Tools

While therapy is relational and intuitive, I also draw from evidence-based and evidence-informed methods that have been shown to support healthy family functioning. These include:

Cognitive Behavioral strategies to reframe unhelpful thoughts or expectations

Mindfulness and self-compassion techniques for stress reduction

Emotion coaching tools to help children name and manage feelings

Attachment-based interventions like Circle of Security and PACT principles

Psychoeducation on child development and co-regulation

These approaches blend the heart of therapy with the structure of practical guidance — so you leave sessions not just feeling supported, but equipped.

Co-Parenting and Family Transitions

When parents separate or divorce, the emotional landscape can feel complex. Co-parenting counseling provides a neutral space to establish communication, boundaries, and shared values around your child’s wellbeing.

Rather than focusing on blame or control, our work centers on what’s best for your child — helping you both navigate conflict, decision-making, and emotional repair.

Therapy can also support you in managing your own feelings of loss, frustration, or fear during family transitions, so that you can show up more peacefully and consistently for your child.

For blended families, parenting therapy offers tools for integration, empathy, and trust-building — helping each family member feel seen and valued.

The Emotional Experience of Parenting

Parenting can bring up powerful emotions — joy, fear, guilt, grief, pride, exhaustion, and love. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed at times, to lose your temper, or to question if you’re doing enough.

Therapy is a place to release the pressure of perfection and return to connection — with yourself first, and then with your child.

You’ll learn to:

Understand your triggers and emotional patterns

Communicate with clarity and compassion

Repair when things go wrong

Build daily practices that support calm and presence

The goal isn’t flawless parenting — it’s authentic connection. Children thrive not because their parents are perfect, but because their parents are real, present, and willing to grow.

Who Can Benefit from Parenting Counseling

Parenting therapy may be a good fit if you:

Feel stressed, reactive, or emotionally depleted as a parent

Want to improve communication with your child or co-parent

Are navigating behavioral challenges or developmental changes

Have experienced trauma or loss affecting family dynamics

Want to parent more consciously and compassionately

Are integrating a blended or divorced family

Whether you’re a new parent, seasoned caregiver, or co-parenting in complex circumstances, therapy provides the reflection and tools you need to move forward with confidence.

My Commitment to You as a Parenting Therapist

Parenting is deeply personal — every family’s story is different.

My commitment is to provide a warm, nonjudgmental space where you can explore that story with honesty and curiosity. Together, we’ll work toward restoring balance, building insight, and strengthening the bond between you and your child.

You don’t have to do it alone. With support, parenting can become less about managing chaos and more about cultivating connection and joy.

Next Step

If you’re seeking Parenting Counseling in Santa Barbara, I would be honored to support you and your family.

Together, we can create more understanding, calm, and connection — helping you and your child thrive.

You are not alone in this. Support is here, and healing begins with awareness.