This week the blog is slightly different. I’m not covering a particular topic, because I wanted to share my bigger vision of support for helping parents.
All of my work with parents is based on the principles of NVR. This is something I’m passionate about sharing because it helped my family so much. The approach felt very aligned with my own beliefs and values. Whilst it isn’t always easy to do, it is hugely powerful at supporting parents in connecting with their children and managing challenging behaviour.
Over time, as I struggled to know how best to help my son beyond using NVR, I realised that there wasn’t one place to go to get help or find out what was available. There are loads of fantastic resources available! However, learning about different ways to help us as a family often meant going to lots of different courses. There’s nothing wrong with that and they are usually very good, but sometimes I didn’t know if it was what we needed. Time was often an issue. From this, and conversations with other parents, I realised I wasn’t alone in finding it hard.
From this frustration I decided I wanted to create one event where you had the opportunity to hear from different experts, all in one place and all in one day. The other important thing was that you could choose which workshops you attended and that they covered a broad range of topics. This way you could get an introduction to different things. It can help not only in giving you ideas to try straight away but also help you decide if it is something you want to learn more about.
This led to the creation of the Connective Parenting Conference and the first two have been well received by parents. The Conference is designed for all parents and carers. The intention is of giving you an introduction to different topics to help and support you on your parenting journey. The conference will now be running 3 times a year, in Edinburgh, Leicester and Sussex.
After the first conference I took the idea online. Parents who couldn’t make it asked if they could access it in other ways. That led to the creation of the Connective Parenting Hub. Which is effectively the conference in online format, but with loads of other things added to it. It offers NVR training within it, along with training on a variety of other topics and coaching. As well as support for parents whenever they need it. I’m also passionate about helping parents to remove their own limiting beliefs and blocks. Particularly when it’s impacting on their parenting. It’s something I’ve worked on over the last year and have seen huge changes in myself, my son and our connection. This is now a key part of the work I do with parents and is part of the support available in the Hub.
Both the conferences and the Hub, help me in achieving my big vision! My vision of support is to provide that one stop shop for parents. One place where they can easily find the help and support they need, as soon as they need it. It won’t cover all needs or provide all the therapeutic input that might be needed and doesn’t try to. However, it does provide a supportive, non-judgmental environment for parents with lots of tools and training available. I want all parents to be able to access what they need. Not to have to struggle to find it in the first place and then struggle to get it. That shouldn’t be happening. It should be easy and affordable. Hopefully what I’m doing helps towards that.
Next weeks blog will be back on to talking about connective parenting. I hope you will excuse my divergence this week as I shared my vision.
You can find more information about the conferences at www.theconnectiveparentingconference.co.uk and the hub at www.sarahpfisher.com/connectiveparentinghub
