Summit Counselling Services — Specialty
Parenting SupportParenting is hard. You don't have to figure it out alone.
It's a high-stress, 24/7 job with no manual, no breaks, and new questions at every turn. Whether you're brand new to parenting or have been doing it for decades — every child is different, every stage brings something new, and asking for support is one of the strongest things you can do.
About Parenting Support
We get it. We're parents too.
Parenting is a high-stress, 24/7 job that can lead to several concerns that negatively impact mental health. With each developmental transition, there are new questions, new hurdles, and new worries. And none of us arrive at parenthood with a manual.
At Summit, we are a safe haven for parents seeking mental health support and guidance on their parenting journey. We understand that being a parent can be challenging — and that challenge looks different for every family. Whether you're navigating the early fog of a new baby, the emotional intensity of adolescence, the complexity of blended families, or the long road of parenting a child with additional needs, our therapists bring genuine care and real clinical skill to your situation.
Our experienced psychologists come from diverse backgrounds — social work, child development, family systems, and parenting support — and are dedicated to supporting you in your quest for emotional well-being and effective parenting. Several of our therapists also have specialized training in the Circle of Security approach, which focuses on the parent-child attachment relationship and building a secure base for your child's emotional development. Learn more about Circle of Security here.
"No parent should have to face this alone. And the fact that you're looking for support means you're already doing something right."
Common areas of parental stress we work with
- Communication and conflict at home
- Co-parenting and parallel parenting after separation
- Managing different parenting styles between partners
- Behavioural concerns and emotional regulation in children
- Attachment and the parent-child relationship
- Blended families and step-parenting dynamics
- Feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and parenting shame
- Your own adverse childhood experiences interfering with how you want to parent
- Maintaining a connected relationship with your partner while parenting
- Birth trauma and adjustment to new parenthood
- Parenting children with special needs or complex diagnoses
- Grief — around lost freedoms, developmental diagnoses, relationship changes
- Divorce, separation, and collaborative parenting through conflict
- Empty nesting and identity shifts as children grow up and leave home
What We Offer
Parenting support in four formats
The right support depends on what you're navigating and how your family is structured. Here's how we can help.
Individual Parent Counselling
Parenting can be deeply rewarding — but also incredibly challenging, especially when you're carrying the mental and emotional load on your own. Individual parent counselling offers a supportive, one-on-one space to explore your unique parenting journey, navigate stress, and build confidence in your role. Whether you're dealing with behavioural concerns, emotional overwhelm, or the complexities of solo parenting or co-parenting, this counselling focuses on you — your needs, your values, and your goals as a parent. Together, we'll work to develop practical strategies, emotional resilience, and a renewed sense of clarity in your parenting.
Couples Parenting Counselling
Parenting as a couple brings its own set of joys and challenges. Couples parenting counselling provides a supportive space to strengthen your partnership as you raise children together. Whether you're navigating differences in parenting styles, managing stress, or striving for better communication and teamwork, this process helps you align your values and work collaboratively. The goal is to enhance connection — not only with your child, but also with each other — so you can parent with greater unity, empathy, and confidence. See also our couples therapy page.
Co-Parent Counselling
Co-parenting after separation or divorce can be complex and emotionally charged. Co-parenting counselling offers a neutral, structured space to improve communication, reduce conflict, and keep the focus on what matters most — your child's well-being. Whether you're newly navigating separate households or looking to resolve ongoing tensions, this process supports both parents in developing a more cooperative, respectful approach. It's about creating a stable, supportive environment for your child, even if you're no longer parenting under the same roof. Learn about the difference between co-parenting and parallel parenting →
Child Therapy
Child therapy gives kids a safe, supportive space to express their feelings, build coping skills, and work through challenges like anxiety, sadness, big emotions, school stress, family changes, or behavioural concerns. At Summit, our child therapy services are warm, engaging, and age-appropriate — helping children feel understood while giving parents practical tools to support their child's growth and mental wellness. For families who need additional support, child therapy and parent counselling often work best together.
Our Approach
Therapy built around your family
At Summit, we believe that parenting therapy should reflect the family in front of us — not a generic parenting programme. Our therapists take the time to understand your unique situation, your child's needs, your history, and what you're actually hoping for from support.
We recognize that every family brings its own strengths, pressures, and configuration. Some of our therapists have backgrounds in social work, others in child development, and some in parenting support groups. What they share is a genuine respect for the complexity of the parenting role — and a commitment to helping you find your footing within it.
Whether you're looking to manage the day-to-day stress, navigate a specific challenge, or work through something deeper that's affecting how you parent — we're here.
Why Focus on Parenting Stress?
Because parenting stress is real stress.
Parenting stress is a natural part of raising children — but it can sometimes become overwhelming, and it has real consequences for mental health, for relationships, and for the children we're trying to care for. Research is clear that parental mental health is one of the most significant predictors of child wellbeing. When you take care of yourself, you are taking care of your family.
Therapy can help you manage the stress before it becomes a crisis. Learn practical techniques for reducing parenting-related stress. Strengthen the parent-child bond and create a more positive family environment. Develop effective parenting strategies that promote your child's growth — and your own.
We also recognize that some of the hardest parenting experiences are the ones that don't get talked about — birth trauma affecting both the birthing and non-birthing partner, the grief that comes with a child's diagnosis, the exhaustion of parenting a child with complex needs, and the particular isolation of feeling like you're failing at something everyone else seems to find natural. None of that is unusual. And all of it deserves support.
Therapeutic Approaches
How our therapists work with parents
Our parenting therapists draw on a range of evidence-based approaches — tailored to what each family needs.
Attachment Therapy
Many parenting challenges are rooted in our own attachment history — the way we were parented shapes the way we parent. Attachment-based work helps you understand those patterns, break cycles that aren't serving your family, and build a more secure relationship with your child.
Gottman Method
The Gottman approach is research-based and practical — particularly well-suited for couples who are navigating parenting conflict, communication breakdown, or the erosion of connection that so often accompanies the demands of raising children.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps identify the thought patterns driving parenting stress, guilt, and anxiety — the catastrophizing, the self-blame, the impossibly high standards — and builds practical strategies for responding more effectively in the moments that matter most.
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT helps parents access and process the deeper emotional experience of parenting — the fear, the grief, the love, the exhaustion. Particularly valuable for parents whose own emotional history is showing up in their relationship with their child.
EMDR
For parents whose own childhood experiences, birth trauma, or traumatic events are affecting their parenting, EMDR offers efficient, evidence-based processing of those experiences — so they have less power over your present-day responses.
Solution Focused Therapy
For parents who want to focus on practical change rather than extensive history — building specific skills, developing clear strategies, and making measurable progress. Often used alongside other approaches or for parents who need efficient, targeted support.
Book a Session
Find us in Edmonton, St. Albert & Windermere
Parenting support therapy is available in person at all three Summit locations, with evening and weekend appointments and virtual sessions across Alberta.
Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ (Oliver)
Grandin Plaza, 2nd Floor
Edmonton, AB
Common Questions
Parenting therapy — your questions answered
Our Therapists
Therapists who specialize in parenting support
The clinicians below have specific training and experience supporting parents. Start with a free 15-minute consultation — no commitment, just a conversation about what you're navigating and what kind of support fits.
Related Support
Other areas we work with
Rediscover joy in parenting.
Parenting should be fulfilling — even when it's hard. Your first consultation is free. Let's figure out together what support looks like for your family.
We acknowledge that our practice is located in Treaty 6 territory, on the traditional lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Métis, and Nakota Sioux Peoples, including our Brewery District office in Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ (Oliver). We recognize that healing and reconciliation is a responsibility shared by all.