Counselling and Therapy for Parents
Anxious, overwhelmed or struggling with your child?
ONLINE · Mount Colah · Hornsby · Northern Sydney
You're carrying so much.
Managing the household. Holding your child's big emotions. Staying patient through the meltdowns. And quietly struggling underneath it all.
Maybe anxiety is a constant low hum you've learned to push down until you can't. Maybe you're feeling flat. You're going through the motions, snapping at your kids, then lying awake wondering how to make it right.
I'm Susanne, a PACFA-registered counsellor, psychotherapist and mother of four. I work with parents who've hit their limit.
A big part of my work is simply about you: your stress, your anxiety, the patterns you've carried for years, and the parts of parenting that stir up more than you expected. You deserve support that isn't just about becoming a better parent, but about feeling like yourself again.
From that steadier place, we explore what your child is communicating through their behaviour, working on the why behind the struggle, yours and theirs.
When you feel regulated and supported, the whole family shifts. You finally get out of survival mode and start feeling connected again.
Find out more about who I work with.
Do any of these sound familiar?
You are capable and organized, but you are exhausted in a way that sleep doesn't fix. This isn't a sign of weakness; it’s what happens when you give without being replenished. You deserve to feel recharged too.
I’m exhausted and overwhelmed.
Anxiety is always there, running in the background.
Whether it's worrying about what could go wrong or constantly reading your child’s face for signs of trouble, that "high alert" state is draining. We work on what’s driving that anxiety, not just how to manage the symptoms.
My child’s big emotions are overwhelming us both.
Big emotions and big behaviours are ruling your day-to-day life. What’s often missing isn't more discipline, but a real understanding of what is happening inside your child’s nervous system in those moments.
Separation, illness, or a new diagnosis can leave you feeling untethered. You need a place to share what you’re carrying while you continue to support your children.
Our family is going through major changes.
I’m becoming a parent I don't want to be.
You see your own history repeating in your reactions and you don't know how to break the cycle. Naming this is the hardest part. From here, it can actually change.
Everyone else seems to be finding this easier than me.
It’s so discouraging to feel like you’re the only one struggling. You’re not alone, and it helps to normalise and share what you’re experiencing.
My approach is person-centred: your pace, your priorities. We focus on what's actually happening in your experience, not just what you think you should be doing differently.
Using evidence-based approaches including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Internal Family Systems (IFS), we work with your thinking, your emotions and the parts of you that show up under pressure.
Underpinning all of this is the safety of the therapeutic relationship, where you can show up just as you are. Woven through everything is self-compassion, and finding your way back to what matters most, even when life isn't the way you'd like it to be.
You don't have to have it figured out to begin.
Want to learn more about the difference between a counsellor and psychologist?
My Approach
What a session looks like
Sessions are 50 minutes, online or in Mount Colah. Each session holds two sides of the work: what's happening for you, and what's happening at home with your child. The balance shifts week to week depending on what you're carrying.
Some sessions are mostly about you, working through anxiety, processing something from your week, untangling a pattern that keeps surfacing. Others focus more on your child: decoding a behaviour, building a new response, making sense of something that happened. Often it's both at once, because the two are rarely separate.
You leave each session with a clearer sense of yourself and a concrete step forward.
You can read more about fees, referrals and what to expect before booking.
You don’t have to carry the weight of parenting alone.