Thursday, January 20, 2011

Why This Blog?

I wasn't always a Marriage and Family Therapist. I have worked in many different occupations. For instance I was a Janitor for a small town store, a store clerk for 7-11, a door to door salesman, a telemarketer (only for a week), a construction worker (again only for a week), and a Technical Support Representative for three different companies. What was most common among all of those occupations was training. In all of the workplaces I was hired there was a period of training for each. Even when I had experience in Technical Support, or Janitorial services I was always mandated to training whenever I switched employers. Most of the time the training was similar, but some of the time it was more specialized. At one job I was required to attend MONTHLY trainings, just to make sure I was "Up to Date." The most training for a job I have ever recieved was for my career as a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT). As a matter of fact, after almost four years I'm still in training. I have no complaints about my training as an MFT, I have really enjoyed the experience and education I have received. However, there is one occupation for which I have received the least training in. That is of a Father/Parent to my children.

Throughout both of my wife's pregnancies we attended classes on the birthing process, what it takes to register in the hospital, and a tiny bit on the differences between bottle feeding and nursing. We were told nothing about how to properly nurture, play with, care for, or otherwise raise our children. We had to seek that information out. And even seeking out information on parenting we were bombarded by conflicting and confusing advice on raising children. Being a father myself and knowing the frustrations and struggles of parenting I wanted to help parents find accurate and consistent information on child development and child rearing. Being an MFT I wanted to provide easy access to the vast amount of training I have, to those who may be not need therapy, but still want to know good and up to date information on parenting. I'm sure you have experienced some similar struggles either as a new parent or as a parenting veteran, with inconsistent and conflicting information.

This blog will contain contributions from a variety of therapists who work with parents and children. Feel free to view our profiles for additional information about our experience and individual practices. We hope that this blog will help answer some of your questions and be a great help to you in your time of need. Please feel free to ask questions and we will try to answer them to the best of our ability. Thank you for your interest in this blog and please check back often for updates. 

2 comments:

  1. This is such a great idea! Thank you for doing this and sharing your knowledge. I need all the help I can get.

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  2. Thank you Keeley. I really hope this will help a lot of families and parents. One of the reasons I asked for the collaboration of my fellow therapists is so that this will maintain momentum and not just die out. I (we) will try to be creative and short in our articles so they are easy to digest and fun to read. Thanks again.

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