When a child acts out, shuts down, or becomes difficult to reach, it's natural to focus on the behavior itself — and to want it to stop. Maybe you have found that traditional behavioral interventions simply aren’t working anymore for you and your child. Parent coaching offers something different: space to slow down and consider what your child might be feeling, thinking, or needing underneath the behavior you're seeing.

Parent coaching is not therapy for your child — it is dedicated, one-on-one time for you. The process is reflective, and at times deeply personal, as we explore not only what your child may be experiencing but also what gets stirred up in you as a parent. The goal is to strengthen your capacity to understand your child's emotional world and to respond from a place of greater clarity and connection.

Parent Coaching

Wondering if this is the right fit for you and your child?

The simplest way to find out is a short conversation. You're welcome to schedule an initial 15 minute consultation — no intake paperwork to begin.

What Parent Coaching Looks Like

Parent coaching sessions are one-on-one meetings with Dr. Adkins, typically held on a regular cadence — weekly or biweekly depending on needs and goals. Sessions may focus on:

  • Making sense of patterns in your child's behavior and your responses to them

  • Building reflective capacity — the ability to pause and consider what your child might be communicating through their behavior

  • Understanding how your own attachment history and emotional responses shape your parenting

  • Navigating specific challenges such as emotional meltdowns, defiance, withdrawal, school difficulties, or transitions

  • Strengthening the parent-child relationship as the foundation for your child's emotional development

Parent coaching can be helpful whether your child is currently in their own therapy or not — and whether or not you are in individual therapy yourself.

Who This Is For

Parent coaching may be a good fit if you:

  • Feel stuck in cycles of reactivity with your child and want to understand why

  • Have a child whose behavior feels confusing, intense, or hard to reach

  • Want to support your child's emotional development but aren't sure what they need from you

  • Are looking for guidance that goes beyond behavioral strategies and addresses the relational and emotional dimensions of parenting

  • Have been referred by your child's therapist, your own therapist, or another clinician

Getting Started

Parent coaching is offered as a private-pay service. Sessions are available in person in Reston, Virginia and virtually throughout Texas.

If you'd like to explore whether parent coaching is a good fit, you're welcome to either email Dr. Adkins here, or schedule an initial consultation. It's a low-pressure conversation about what's going on with your child and what you're hoping to shift — no commitment to continue.