Parenting Support in Kitchener-Waterloo
Finding Your Family's Rhythm
We help parents reduce worry, strengthen connection, and feel supported before baby arrives and through every stage after. In-person parenting support in Kitchener & Waterloo , with secure online therapy across Ontario.
It’s okay if parenthood is not what you expected
From the newborn months to the teen years, parenting can feel heavy. It’s tough on you, too. You want to be a better parent and learn what works, but just as you find your footing, they’re on to the next phase.
With newborns, you wonder if you’re doing it right. With kids, you’re figuring out tantrums and big feelings. With teens, you’re hoping the conversation lasts more than a few seconds.
You’re juggling advice from teachers, TikTok tips, and your own instincts. Some days you feel like you’re walking on eggshells; other days you just want you and your kid to feel like yourselves again.
At Colibri NeuroWellness, we help you find simple, practical steps to create steadier days through every stage of parenthood.
Parenting Support | Kitchener-Waterloo & Online
What is Parenting Support Therapy?
Parenting can be a lot at times.
Parent counselling in Kitchener-Waterloo helps you understand yourself more deeply, feel steadier in your role, and build routines and relationships that work.
From pregnancy and the postpartum months to school-age worries and teen years, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure. Work stress, relationship ups-and-downs, sleep deprivation, feeding challenges, tantrums, screen time, and big life changes can leave you wondering where to turn.
At Colibri NeuroWellness, we offer parent counselling, including prenatal and postpartum support. We can help with anxious thoughts, low mood, birth or NICU stress, bonding concerns, and the mental load of early parenthood. We also support everyday challenges with kids and teens, like emotion regulation, routines, school stress, friendships, and behaviour that feels “too much.”
Equipping you for the hardest, most rewarding job.
We tailor sessions to your personal needs. When helpful, we include co-parents and caregivers. We draw from CBT, EFT, play-based therapy, our Circle of Security Parenting Program (COSP), and practical scripts you can use at home, at school, and in the community. You will leave with clear steps to try between sessions.
- Trying to parent differently than how you were raised
- Feeling chronically overwhelmed, exhausted, or detached
- Stress from birth trauma or fertility journeys
- Disagreeing on discipline, boundaries, or parenting styles
- Coping with divorce, blending families, relocation, or grief
- Allowing age-appropriate independence
- Feeling unsupported or lacking a community of other parents
- Coping with anxiety, depression, or identity shifts after a new baby
- Maintaining personal identity or self-care outside of parenting
- Frustration, frequent yelling, or reactive discipline
- Managing persistent defiance, tantrums, or rule-breaking
- Navigating ADHD, Autism (ASD), or sensory needs
- Connecting with an infant, adopted, or foster child
- Communication breakdowns, especially with pre-teens and teens
- Chronic bedtime resistance or sleep disruptions
- School refusal, academic decline, or bullying
Parenting support can help your whole family breathe easier. If you want guidance tailored to your specific dynamics, we’ll help you navigate your options and choose the best path forward.
Parenting Support | Kitchener-Waterloo & Online
What Parenting Support Can Help With
Less Friction, More Connection
Prenatal Anxiety & Depression
Pregnancy can bring big emotions and nonstop “what ifs.” In therapy, we help you name fears, support your body and mind, and create routines that make each day more workable.
Postpartum Anxiety, Depression, or OCD
Sleepless nights, constant “what-ifs,” and scary or confusing thoughts can make the early months of parenthood feel incredibly overwhelming. Whether you are experiencing intrusive thoughts, constant checking, or find yourself avoiding certain situations, we are here to help you understand what is happening.
We offer gentle, practical tools to quiet worry, lower distress, and build safe, doable steps into your daily life so you can feel more like yourself again.
Trauma Related to Birth or Parenting
Birth complications, NICU stays, medical procedures, or stressful early caregiving can linger. During parenting support, we go at a safe pace to process what happened and settle the nervous system.
Supporting Neurodivergent Kids
Get specialized guidance to help you understand and support your child’s unique needs, whether they have ADHD, Autism, or sensory sensitivities.
Challenging Behaviours
Develop gentle, evidence-based, and proactive strategies to handle tantrums, defiance, and power struggles without feeling like you always have to yell or argue.
School-Related Stress
Support your child through academic pressure, school anxiety, learning challenges, or bullying. We help you collaborate effectively with teachers and school staff, while teaching your child practical coping skills to build resilience in the classroom.
Parenting Burnout & Stress
Find practical ways to lower your stress, recharge your battery, and move from just surviving the day to actually enjoying your family.
Attachment Issues
Bonding with your baby or child takes time and support. We help you build a close connection, set up gentle daily routines, and learn simple ways to calm and comfort each other when things get stressful.
Support for Adoptive or Foster Parents & Reunification
Navigating big life transitions, identity, and family challenges can feel overwhelming. We are here to offer gentle, respectful support for grief, healing, and the ups and downs of daily life.
If your child or teen needs their own space to talk, we can easily coordinate with our youth therapists to provide family-wide support that works together.
Improve communication
Learn how to talk so your kids will listen, and how to listen so they feel heard – especially during those challenging pre-teen and teen years.
Co-Parent With Confidence
Co-parenting stress and communication breakdowns can drain the entire family. We help you work through differences in parenting styles – whether with a partner or an ex-partner – by teaching calm conversation skills, repair steps, and shared plans.
Together, we will help you set consistent rules, reduce conflict, and build a unified approach so you can raise your kids on the same team.
Smoother Routines
Establish predictable, stress-free daily structures for bedtimes, screen time transitions, and household chores.
We help you design realistic routines that match your child’s developmental stage, reducing daily power struggles, lowering family anxiety, and bringing a sense of calm organization to your home.
Parenting Support | Kitchener-Waterloo & Online
Approaches We Use in Parenting Support to Help You Heal
We use evidence-based approaches that are personalized to you. Depending on your needs, your Colibri NeuroWellness therapist may integrate:
Attachment-Based Therapy
Strengthens the parent–child bond with attuned connection, co-regulation, and routines that help everyone feel safer and more understood.
Circle of Security Parenting (COSP)
A practical, research-informed roadmap for noticing your child’s needs, responding with sensitivity, and building secure attachment.
Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
Live coaching that helps you build warmth, reduce challenging behaviours, and practise calm, effective responses in real time.
Play-Based Therapy
Uses age-appropriate play and creative activities to explore feelings, solve problems, and support connection at home.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Concrete tools, including Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT), to shift unhelpful thoughts, reduce anxiety, and process difficult experiences at a pace that feels safe.
EMDR for Trauma
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy gently helps the brain reprocess distressing memories related to birth, parenting, or past experiences so triggers lessen and daily life feels steadier.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT helps build psychological flexibility, making room for tough feelings while choosing actions guided by your values as a parent.
Strength-Based Therapy
Centres what is already working, amplifies strengths, and turns small wins into sustainable routines.
Couples Therapy
Couples Therapy helps support co-parents to communicate clearly, repair after conflict, and create shared plans so your home feels more like a team.
Meet Our Team
Connect with a Parenting Support Therapist for In-Person Sessions or Online From the Comfort of Home.
Di-Anne Martin
MSW, RSW
Registered Social Worker
Dana Orton
MACP, RP
Registered Psychotherapist
Christina Kahlou
MSW, RSW
Registered Social Worker
Our psychologists and counsellors work together under one roof to support you from pregnancy and postpartum through the school years and teen years. We include partners and co-parents, collaborate with schools and health providers when helpful, and tailor care to your journey.
Parenting Support | Kitchener-Waterloo & Online
Parenting Support FAQs
What actually happens in a parenting support session?
Unlike traditional therapy where the focus is only on the individual, parenting sessions focus on your family’s dynamics. We will discuss the specific challenges you are facing, explore the “why” behind your child’s behaviour, and collaborate on practical, realistic strategies you can start using at home right away.
Do I bring my child to these sessions?
Typically, parenting support sessions are just for the parents or caregivers. This creates a safe, open space for you to speak freely about your struggles, frustrations, and goals without worrying about what your child hears. If we decide that family sessions or individual therapy for your child would be helpful, we will discuss that together.
It might be helpful for your therapist to gently observe you and your child together, finding simple ways to improve communication, calm stressful moments, and grow closer. Depending on what your family needs, your child might also join us for their own talk- or play-based sessions; sometimes with you, and sometimes on their own. This helps them practice new skills so they can feel successful at home, at school, and out in the world.
Can I attend parenting therapy if my partner or ex-partner won't come?
Yes. While it is wonderful when both parents participate, it only takes one parent changing their approach to positively shift the dynamic of the entire household. You can absolutely attend on your own to get the support and tools you need.
We start with your circle of control and together we’ll support your confidence, clarify your parenting values, and build practical strategies for everyday stressors like communication, routines, boundaries, and self-care. If a partner wants to join later, we can fold in couples or co-parenting work to align on next steps.
How is parenting therapy different from just reading parenting books?
While books offer great general advice, they don’t know your specific child, your unique family history, or your daily stressors. Parenting therapy offers personalized guidance tailored to your family’s unique dynamics, temperament, and lifestyle. It also provides a supportive space to help you manage your own emotional reactions, which books cannot do.
We have tried everything and nothing works. Can therapy really help?
Yes. When parents feel they have “tried everything,” it usually means they are stuck in a cycle of reactive discipline. We help you step back, look at the underlying needs driving your child’s behavior, and shift from trying to control the behavior to building connection. Small, targeted changes in how you respond can make a massive difference.
I’m pregnant and already feeling anxious. Can I start therapy now?
Absolutely. Prenatal therapy is a wonderful way to prepare for the massive transition into parenthood. We can help you process fears about childbirth, manage pregnancy-related anxiety, discuss how you want to parent, and set up a solid postpartum support plan with your partner before the baby arrives.
How do I know if I have "baby blues" or postpartum depression/anxiety?
The “baby blues” (mood swings, crying spells, and worry) are very common and typically fade within two weeks of giving birth. If your feelings of sadness, intense worry, intrusive thoughts, or feeling completely overwhelmed last longer than two weeks, or make it difficult to care for yourself or your baby, it may be postpartum depression or anxiety. Support therapy can help you find your footing again.
I’m struggling to bond with my baby. Does this mean I’m a bad parent?
Not at all. Bonding is a process, and for many parents, it does not happen instantly. Factors like a difficult birth, sleep deprivation, hormonal shifts, or postpartum depression can make bonding feel incredibly hard. Therapy provides a judgment-free space to help you gently build that connection while supporting your own healing.
Does your practice support foster parents, adoptive parents, or legal guardians?
Yes. We understand the unique layers in foster care, adoption, and reunification, such as grief, identity, transitions, and complex systems. We offer trauma-informed, attachment-focused parenting support to build strong, supportive relationships with your children, no matter your family’s background or how you became a parent.
Have more questions? See All FAQs
Parenting Support | Kitchener-Waterloo & Online
Life After Parenting Support
Starting therapy for Parenting Support is a brave step.
With steady, practical help, small shifts add up, including calmer bedtimes, fewer blowups, smoother mornings, and more moments you truly enjoy together.
- Relief from parenting anxiety and constant second-guessing
- A clearer sense of self outside of being a parent
- A longer fuse and calmer responses to challenging behaviours.
- Less parental guilt and a shift toward self-compassion
- More energy and a transition out of daily survival mode
- A united front with your co-parent and feeling on the same page
- Greater confidence in setting boundaries without second-guessing
- Smoother daily routines with less friction during transitions
- Shorter, milder meltdowns that resolve much faster
- Better communication with children expressing feelings instead of acting out
- A calmer household that feels steady, relaxed, and connected
- Faster repair after conflict to quickly rebuild trust and connection
"We can't prevent our children from struggles, but we can assure them they won't have to struggle alone."
Colibri NeuroWellness
How To Get Started
Taking the first step is an important decision, and we are committed to ensuring you feel heard, respected, and supported from your very first interaction with us. To help you find the right fit, we offer several convenient ways to connect with our team.
However you choose to reach out, we look forward to connecting with you and supporting your mental health goals.
226-212-4842
info@colibrineurowellness.com
826 King Street North, Unit 17
Waterloo, Ontario, N2J 4G8
We provide in-person therapy to those living in Waterloo and surrounding communities – including Kitchener, Cambridge, Elmira, and St. Jacobs – as well as secure virtual therapy for clients located across in Ontario.
Our assessment services are tailored to clinical needs, with psychological assessments utilizing a combination of in-person and virtual components, while nurse practitioner assessments are conducted entirely virtually for your convenience.