Community Education & Awareness

Client Sarah (name changed) came to The Parent Centre for counselling as she was worried about her teenage son, John (name changed), who was very rude to her. In the sessions they learnt to communicate better with each other. They came for 8 sessions with “Aunty Carmen” (The Parent Centre Counsellor). A few months later John, then 16 years old, came looking for Aunty Carmen. Fortunately, she had an open space and could see him. The reason he came is that he had been threatened by gangsters on his way to school that morning. He was tempted to stab them as he was already angry with his mother. But he stopped himself and decided to go and see Aunty Carmen instead. Carmen asked him if she could call his mother. He agreed and she came. They then had the chance to share what they were unhappy about in their relationship and agreed on changes they would each make, mostly to stop blaming and shaming each other.

“I wish to thank the Parent Centre for facilitating a seven week A mother who attended Positive Parenting Programme in Heideveld. It has been a journey of healing, restoring hope and funny as it may sound, allowed me to mend my marital relationship as I realised the challenges I faced with my spouse was merely misunderstandings and not being conscious of each other’s needs.

I have 4 children of which I always felt challenged by the 2nd eldest (23 year old) not at the time realising her uniqueness (i realised that it was my assumption that she was stubborn however when we did the different factors that affect children's behaviour I realised that I was too controlling and have since stepped back. The robot skill really helps as I now try and focus on how I feel when she interacts with me, I then breathe and try and listen and also realised the importance of acknowledging her feelings. This is work in progress as I am working on rebuilding her trust.