‘USE YOUR WORDS TO HELP CHILDREN DEVELOP SELF-WORTH’

The Parent Practice MELISSA HOOD AND ELAINE HALLIGAN

Melissa (left) set up The Parent Practice in 2004. A mother of three, she has degrees in law and history and was a solicitor before retraining as a parenting facilitator when her own dyslexic son got into trouble at school. (She qualified in systemic family therapy at Birkbeck, University of London, and is the author of Real Parenting, for Real Kids, published by Practical Inspirational Publishing.)

Elaine was formerly an accountant: she has a daughter and a son, Sam, who was excluded from three schools by the age of seven, diagnosed with everything from autism to dyslexia. ‘His sense of self-worth was shattered and he believed he was a bad person.’ Melissa trained Elaine in behaviour management skills (it worked – Sam ended up as head boy at school and is now a well-adjusted young man) and Elaine then qualified in effective-parenting education and neuro-linguistic programming. She joined The Parent Practice in 2009. THEIR MISSION To help parents unlock their children’s potential and bring out the best in them. Their positive parenting techniques work with all ages, from toddlers to teens. Elaine has an interest in special educational needs. Having both parented at the coalface with their own challenging children, they are calm and unshockable. HOW IT WORKS Elaine says: ‘We all know children don’t arrive with an instruction manual, yet many parents feel they should instinctively know everything about how to raise a calm, happy and thriving family. We help parents understand their child’s unique temperament so they can connect better and have happier children and a more peaceful and rewarding family life.’ They do this through practical strategies such as ‘emotion coaching’ (helping children recognise what they are feeling so that they can control it) and self-esteem-raising ‘descriptive praise’. CORE ADVICE ‘Focus on the positive and use the power of your words to help children develop a strong sense of self-worth. This will help them to behave well, value others, try new things and weather life’s knocks.’ TYPICAL CLIENT Middle-class, South-London types, including Mark Owen from Take That and his wife Emma, who have three children. They said: ‘Thanks to The Parent Practice we have come out of testing times feeling really proud of what we have achieved as parents and how lucky we are to be on this journey with our brood.’ MOST COMMON PROBLEM Parents believing they need to punish misbehaviour. Instead, The Parent Practice advises using ‘meaningful consequences’ – eg, seeing deliberately spilled juice as a chance to learn about clearing up, keeping children’s self-esteem intact. Melissa says: ‘Our goal is self-discipline.’ SUCCESS STORY A father who had been struggling to empathise with one of his daughters attended a workplace training course, and said afterwards: ‘I feel empowered, enlightened and genuinely optimistic about things.’ COST From £60 for a workshop to £500 for their ten-week flagship positive parenting course. A private 90-minute session costs £195. CONTACT theparentpractice.com, 020 8673 3444