Parent Effectiveness Training
Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.) is a specifically designe course for parents and other people working with kids. In the course, we learn and foster communication skills that really work, and has a proven track record in improving participants’ communication in both families and in all other relationships (also at work).
The course aims to help parents to increase the level of well-being and to have more fun, peace and love in the relationships within the family.
Safe environment for trial and error
Communication skills are one of the hardest skill I know. I was lucky, as part of my supervision / work guidance studies I had a safe environment to start practicing the skills. An environment where I felt safe to try these new skills.
As when it comes to learning, I belive myself, that old is not always ‘bad’. That old is not something we need to discard for the new. More than that, in this course, we practice the communication skills we already have. We’re not only building something new, rather we are building on our existing skills. We appreciate the old, we cherish the old, and we build on top of the old.
The benefits families can get from this course (based on my own experience - taking the course together with my wife), that I see my most important task to make the space safe. Safe for us all to join the process as ourselves, to be valued as us indivisuals and to be safe to try these new skills.
What will you learn
How to talk to your kids so that they will listen to you
How to listen to your kids so they feel genuinely understood
Your children will feel free to discuss their problems and concerns with you
Find ways to solve conflicts resulting in fewer angry outbursts
Contens of the course
The course consists of 8 themes, which all are worked with for about two hours. Typically a course happens once a week spannign 2 hours, for a total of 8 weeks.
In the course, we concentrate on practicing communication skills. For this to be as efficient as possible, there is a short introduction to all topics, after which the topic at hand is discussed and, more importantly, the skills are being praciced
Learning in itself is a process and as a process, it is slow. It requires practice, practice and practice. This course provides a time and space for deliberate practice, which accompanid with real practices at home, can have life-changing results. In the beginning of each session, we pause for a moment to discuss how the previous topics have been applied at work, and whether there are some questions that have arisen
Themes in the cours are
- sending messages
- receiving messages
- using I-messages problem solving
- active listening (and communication roadblocks)
- resolving conflicts of needs
- resolving conflicts of values
- helping kids to solve problems they own