KIRU PSYCHOTHERAPY CLINIC
Parent Coaching & Support
You are the greatest resource your child has. Let's make sure you're supported.
Coaching for parents of anxious kids, defiant teens, and adult children who found their way back home. Practical tools, exact words, and a plan that changes what happens in your house. In person in Newmarket, ON, & online across Ontario.
Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic
"I said the wrong thing again."
You can feel it before you finish the sentence. The eye roll, the door, the silence that lasts through dinner. You’ve started dreading 7 AM and 8 PM because they’ve become the two battlegrounds in your day, and you’re tired of losing both.
You’ve read the books, tried the strict version of yourself and the understanding version, and neither one feels like you. Then you’re replaying the conversation, sick with guilt for thinking, even for a second, that you needed a break from your own kid.
We know:
You set the emotional tone at home.
Kids read the room long before they read anything else. Your patience, your fear, and your exhaustion are all in the air they breathe. That sounds like pressure. It’s power. It means you don’t need your child to be ready, willing, or in the room for things to change.
Parent coaching gives you the exact words for the hardest moments, and the confidence to use them.
You do the work. Your child feels the shift.
Message us to get started.
Parent Coaching & Support | Newmarket & Virtual Across Ontario
How Parent Coaching Can Help
Most clinics treat the child and send the parent to the waiting room. Here’s the problem with that. Kids aren’t always willing or ready to open up to a therapist, no matter how good the therapist is, and you can’t force readiness. Meanwhile, you’re the one in the house with them every single day, not for fifty minutes a week.
So we built parent coaching to solve that.
Instead of waiting for your child or teen to be ready, we equip you. You get the tools, the language, and the strategies to create change yourself, in the relationship you already have. And it often works better than working with the child directly, because every change you make in how you respond, communicate, and set expectations ripples through every interaction, all day, every day.
This is not a parenting class or a list of tips. We start with your family. Then we give you the exact words for the hardest moments, and if something doesn’t land, we adjust it the next week until it works for your kid.
The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our relationships. Parent coaching is where you rebuild the one that matters most.
Not ready to commit to therapy?
Try this audio course for parents with anxious children.
Fostering Confidence: A Self-Led Audio Course for Parents With Anxious Children 6-18
Things you might be saying:
“I love my child, but some days I can’t stand them, and then I feel sick about it.”
“Why does everything I say make things worse?”
“I don’t know who to be anymore. The strict one, the understanding one, nothing feels right.”
“I’ve read the books, and none of it works for my kid.”
“I’m exhausted, and the guilt of being exhausted by my own child makes it worse.”
We hear you. None of that makes you a bad parent. It makes you a parent who’s out of tools. That, we can fix.
Meet Our Team
Match With a Parent Coach in Newmarket, ON
Each and every registered psychotherapist on our team trains on our model in-house before they see a client, so everyone shares a common vision. Every one of them offers parent coaching, and every one of them will tell you the truth kindly, even when it’s about you. Choose the person you’d trust with the hard stuff.
Parent Coaching & Support | Newmarket & Virtual Across Ontario
What Parent Coaching Helps With
Child & Teen Anxiety
Defiance, Meltdowns, & Outbursts
The behaviour that looks like attitude and usually isn’t. We help you see what’s underneath and respond to that instead.
Anger & Irritability in Kids and Teens
The short fuse that turns small requests into full-scale battles. We give you a way through that doesn’t involve winning or surrendering.
Communication Breakdown
One-word answers, closed doors, and conversations that go sideways in seconds. We help you rebuild the muscle, one small conversation at a time.
Attachment Ruptures & Disconnection
The distance that’s grown so slowly you can’t remember when it started. We help you close it.
Adult Children at Home
Kids in their 20s, 30s, or 40s who never left, or came back, and a house that’s tense about it. We help you set expectations that hold, without blowing up the relationship.
Blended Families & Co-Parenting
Two sets of rules, two households, and a kid caught in the middle. We help you find the version that works for everyone in the picture.
School Avoidance & Refusal
The morning negotiation you lose every day. We help you change what you’re doing at the door, so the door stops being the problem.
Screens, Substances, & Other Behavioural Concerns
The habits you’ve been arguing about for months. We help you have a different conversation, the kind that leads somewhere.
Constant Family Conflict
A house where everyone’s braced. We help you drop the temperature so the whole family can breathe.
Solutions for Your Family's Dynamic
We start by understanding what’s happening between you and your child, what’s not working, and what you want instead. We focus on providing specific, personalized solutions here.
Exact Words for the Hardest Moments
Not “set better boundaries.” What to say when the meltdown starts, what to do when the door slams, and how to open the conversation you’ve been avoiding. Practical, tested, and usable before the week is out.
From Rescuing to Coaching
Confidence is built by doing hard things. Every time we step in and smooth it over, we take one of those moments away, out of love. We help you shift from doing it for them to doing it alongside them.
Adjust, Don't Abandon
When a strategy doesn’t land, we don’t move on and hope. We look at why, change it, and try again next week. We keep refining until it fits your kid.
Do Your Own Work First
We help you understand your own triggers and patterns, the ones your child reads without you saying a word, so the calm you’re performing becomes the calm you feel.
Coaching for Parents in Newmarket & Virtual Across Ontario
How We Coach Parents
There’s no couch, there’s no lying down, and nobody’s going to tell you to just be more patient.
You are the greatest resource your child has.
Not the strategies. Not the worksheets. You.
Our Approach
How Our Parent Coaching & Support Works
Step 1: Understand
We take the time to learn your household, the patterns, the flashpoints, the history, and what you're hoping things could look like instead. No two families run the same way, so we tailor the work to yours.
Step 2: Equip
You leave every session with something concrete: a script for the hardest moment, a way to respond that doesn't escalate, a plan for the conversation you've been dreading.
Step 3: Refine
You try it. We talk about what happened. What worked stays, and what didn't gets adjusted, week by week, until the new way of doing things feels like yours.
The Cognitive Freedom Program
Program For Adults With Anxiety
“This is evidence-based, start to finish. If you want internal change, rather than just insight, you’ve come to the right place.”
People-pleasing. Over-Working. Avoidance. Procrastination. Emotional reactivity. Four ways we make life harder while trying to make it easier.
If this sounds like you:
The Cognitive Freedom Program is a 12-week adult therapy program, designed to change the cognitive and emotional patterns that drive those reactions in the first place.
Each week you watch one short lesson, then meet one-on-one with your therapist to put it to work on whatever is happening in your life right now. Once a month, you join a live group call with Dr. Shyamala Kiru, creator of the program.
Parent Support | Newmarket & Virtual Across Ontario
Parent Coaching & Support FAQs
Why would I do parent coaching instead of just getting my child into therapy?
Because you’re the one in the home with your child every single day, and we get fifty minutes a week. Waiting for a kid to be “ready” for therapy can take months. Parent coaching means you don’t have to wait. You get the tools to start creating change right now, in the relationship you already have. Lots of families do both, and parent coaching is often where the biggest shifts begin.
I've tried everything. Books, advice, even therapy for my child. Why would this work?
That’s exactly who parent coaching is built for. Books and generic advice are written for the average child. Your child is specific, and so is your family’s dynamic. We don’t hand you a one-size-fits-all strategy. We look at what’s happening in your home, try something, and if it doesn’t work, we alter it the following week. We keep going until we find what works for your family, not what’s supposed to work for families in general.
Does this mean I'm the problem, or that I'm doing something wrong?
No. Needing support means you’re paying attention. Every parent runs out of tools at some point, particularly when a child’s needs are more complex than what worked for other kids, or what worked for you growing up. Parent coaching is about giving you strategies that fit your specific child, so you can stop guessing and start feeling confident again. We’ll be honest with you about patterns we notice, and we’ll say it kindly, because that honesty is the whole point.
How is this different from parenting advice online or from family?
Advice from friends, family, or the internet is usually general. It worked for their kid, or it’s what worked a generation ago, and it isn’t built around your child. Parent coaching starts with your family’s dynamic, then gives you strategies built for your kid. And when something doesn’t work, which is normal, we adapt it with you instead of leaving you to figure that out alone at 11 PM.
Does my child need to attend?
No. Some of the most powerful work we’ve done has been with parents whose kids never set foot in the office. When you change how you respond, communicate, and set expectations, your child feels it, whether they’re six or sixteen or thirty. If your child does want to come in later, great! We’ll build that in.
What ages does parent coaching cover?
Parents of kids from about age 5, all the way through the teen years, and beyond. More and more, we’re working with parents of adult children in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who are still living at home or have moved back, and the tension that comes with it. The principles hold at every age. Only the scripts change.
Do both parents need to come in?
It helps when you’re both in the room, particularly if you’re getting different results with the same kid. It’s not required. One parent changing their approach shifts the whole system, and plenty of second parents join once they see something’s different. If you’re co-parenting across two households, we’ll work with whoever’s ready. If the tension between you is part of the picture, our couples therapy page is worth a look.
Is this family therapy?
It’s related, but it’s not the same thing. Family therapy usually brings everyone into the room to work on the system together. Parent coaching works with you, the parent, on the patterns you can change without needing anyone else’s buy-in.
Our clinic was founded by a therapist, Dr. Shyamala Kiru, with a doctorate in couple and family therapy, so if you’re searching for family therapy in Newmarket and you’re not sure which fits, book a free consult and we’ll sort it out together.
How long until I see a difference at home?
Every family is different, but many parents notice small shifts within the first few sessions: a calmer response in a moment that used to escalate, a conversation that doesn’t turn into a fight.
Bigger changes in the overall relationship tend to build over eight to twelve sessions, as the new strategies become second nature and your child or teen starts responding to the consistency. You don’t have to wait months to feel like something’s finally working.
What is the Fostering Confidence course, and is it a replacement for parent coaching?
Fostering Confidence is Dr. Shyamala Kiru’s nine-module video course, built on the same framework we use in coaching. It’s $47, comes with a workbook, and it’s a great place to start, though it doesn’t replace coaching. Plenty of parents take the course first, then book a free consult when they want help applying it to their specific kid. If you finish it and everything’s calmer at home, we’ll be thrilled, and you’ll never need to meet us.
Have more questions? Ask us, even the awkward ones!
Parent Support | Newmarket & Virtual Across Ontario
What Changes
After
Parent Coaching & Support
Over time, the parents we work with often tell us:
- They know what to say in the moment, instead of freezing or making it worse.
- Mornings and bedtimes stop being battlegrounds and go back to being ordinary.
- The walking on eggshells stops, and the house feels calm again.
- They stop feeling guilty for needing a break from their own kid.
- They catch themselves enjoying their child again, rather than just surviving the day.
- Jealousy toward other parents fades, because they finally have tools that work for their family.
- Their relationship with their child feels close again, and not just quieter.
- Parenting starts to feel like their greatest joy again, and the burden lifts.
Start Here
Fostering Confidence:
A Parenting Course
- Stepping in
- Smoothing it over
- Rescuing
- Reassuring
Four things we do out of love that keep our kids from growing confident.
If you’ve done all four this week:
Fostering Confidence is a nine-module parenting course starting at $47 from Dr. Shyamala Kiru, built on the same framework we use in parent coaching. Short video lessons, one task a week, and five strategies you can start right away:
1.
Start talking
2.
Focus on what you can control
3.
Share responsibility
4.
Know yourself
5.
Ask your kids.
The workbook has the same worksheets she’s used with families for years.
The work is messy, and it is beautiful. Let’s begin.
Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic
How To Get Started
Managing this alone is a full-time job. Let’s get you some support.
As Seen On
FREE GUIDE FOR PARENTS
You've tried everything, and your child is still anxious.
When your child is struggling with anxiety, it can be hard to know when to step in, when to step back, and what will actually help. This FREE GUIDE will help you better understand what’s driving their anxiety from as young as 6 up to 18, and what you can do to start building their confidence.
Visit Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic for Parent Coaching in Newmarket, ON