Beth is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 25 years of experience working with children and families.  She earned her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University and her undergraduate degree in Human Service Studies from Cornell University.  Beth has spent most of her career supporting children and families as a school-based social worker.  She also has experience as an inpatient social worker in children’s hospitals.  Beth is trained in parenting coaching. Beth has taught Positive Parenting Classes as part of the City of Philadelphia Parenting Collaborative and offers parenting workshops. Another specialty of Beth’s is providing clinical supervision to MSW students, social workers, and counseling professionals. She is also a Trauma Certified Professional through Lakeside Global Institute, where she is also a trainer. Her work also involves providing professional development training to school staff. Beth is also fluent in Spanish.

Parenting Coaching

In your parenting are you…

• Struggling in navigating your child’s big feelings and behaviors? 

• Are you uncertain how to best support your child? 

• Feeling overwhelmed by parenting and like you have no time for yourself?
  

Parenting coaching can support you in…

• Navigating the challenges we all face in parenting

• Understand what is underneath your child’s behaviors and emotions

• Examining how temperaments shape our parenting

• Identifying parenting styles

• Developing strategies for supporting our children as they grow

• Working on emotional co-regulation

• Nurturing the nurturer (self-care)

• Focusing on growth over perfection in our parenting

Approach to Working with Parents

As a parent of teenagers, Beth has personal experience with the challenges of parenting through the ages and stages. 

Starting Where Parents Are: Beginning with an understanding of where parents currently stand and acknowledging them as the expert on their child. Creating a welcoming and inclusive space for diverse families. Active listening and hearing their story is key to understanding their unique perspectives and needs. Fostering trust and open communication in our work together. 

Understanding their Parenting: It can be helpful for parents to identify their parenting style, explore their triggers and the energy they bring to parenting. This may also include reflecting on how they were parented and how it influences their current approach.

Understanding the Child’s Perspective: Encourage parents to start from their child's experience, leading with understanding and patience. We delve into the child’s developmental milestones and emphasize that their child's experiences are distinct from their own.

Supporting Children with Anxiety and Emotional Dysregulation: One of my key areas of expertise is helping parents support their children through anxiety and emotional challenges. Offering strategies such as mindfulness exercises, regulating, reframing and grounding techniques.

Creating a Consistent Environment: The goal is to help parents create a consistent yet flexible environment, tailoring their parenting to each child's temperament. This involves setting clear structures and rules while being adaptable as needed. In families that are co-parenting, we can work on helping parents to connect and be on the same page. We work on establishing or refining agreed upon family rules and discussing their connection and communication as co-parents. 

Strength-Based Perspective: Bringing a strengths-based perspective to our work together, helping parents identify what is going well in their family. We will also develop positive reinforcement techniques to build a supportive family dynamic.

Together, we strive to create an environment where children can thrive, supported by parents who are working towards connection and understanding - an environment where all family members feel safe and respected. 

Supporting Parenting of Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) 

Beth has been trained in the SPACE treatment model.  SPACE is a parent-based treatment that was developed out of the Yale Child Study Center. This model of intervention involves teaching  parents/caregivers concrete skills in how to support their children in overcoming anxious emotions. Parents will receive coaching in how to modify their behavior to respond to their child struggling with anxiety more supportively and to reduce the accommodations they make for their child’s anxious feelings.  Read more about this model here -> https://www.spacetreatment.net/

Consultation

Parenting Workshops and Professional Development

Beth provides parenting workshops on topics such as:

• Parenting for Growth: Nurturing Our Children and Ourselves

• Supporting Your Children with Big Feelings

• Supporting Your Children with Big Worries and Anxious Feelings

With Beth’s career-long experience working in school settings, she also offers professional development to school staff on topics such as: 

• Partnering with Parents throughout the School Year

• Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom: Starting Where Your Students Are

• Supporting Students with Big Feelings and Big Worries

Clinical Supervision

Approach to Supervision

Beth has been supervising social workers for over 15 years.  She brings her 25+ years of experience as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in various settings to her supervision relationships.  Beth is available to provide group or individual supervision to social workers working towards their LCSW.  She strives to start where her supervisees are, to validate their experience in their work, and to support them as they further their clinical skills. Beth approaches supervision relationships with a growth mindset and strives to highlight her supervisees’ strengths along with areas for growth.  She also focuses on how to practice self-care to support social workers in developing a healthy work-life balance.