Sarah Welton

When your child isn’t doing well, it hurts you.

Children can have big feelings and challenging behaviour. This can be a major life stressor. Behaviours get in the way of family time being playful and fun, and can make it miserable. Relationship dynamics can become unpleasant and feel exhausting, seeming to repeat again and again.

It is not easy to know how to respond.

Through the counselling process, we work together to build new skills, untangle the areas that are stuck, and deepen relationships. We aim for confident and connected children-parent relationships.

Some of the common topics that families see me for include:

• Anxiety, worries, and fears that are impacting the child’s functioning and/or family
• Complexities related to Autism (ASD)
• Coping through loss and grieving
• Navigating friendships and peer challenges
• The impact of learning differences and developmental exceptionalities
• Parenting challenges through the various ages and stages
• Career planning and exploration, and educational system navigation

Through counselling, families are able to find peace. In my work with children and their parents, I focus on helping clients to get the results they are looking for. For some parents that is helping their child feel more calm and resilient. For others, it may be processing the emotions around a loss or finding their way through friendship challenges. I believe that there is nothing that cannot be healed and I endeavour to create the safety for this to happen.

I see families at the heart of child development and our future. As a parent, in your work of caring for and raising your child, you touch tomorrow. Having training and certification as both, a Counsellor, as well as a licensed BC Teacher, I focus my practice on children from a holistic point of view. Because families are so critical to a child’s wellbeing and development, I work with children directly but most often will coach parents to support the goal during the week.

Throughout the year, I also offers PEERS® social skills groups for youth and young adults to learn the skills related to making and keeping friendships.

I also offer phone and video counselling to families who live outside of the lower mainland.