Would you like:
- some help coping with your Family?
- to improve communication with in your family?
- less shouting in your home?
- less tension, anger or rebellion in your family?
- to see everyone in your family getting their needs met, including you?
- to understand your children or partner better, or them to understand you better?
If you are a parent and are saying “Yes!” to these types of questions then the Family Effectiveness Training course maybe for you!
I took my first parenting course when our oldest child was 2 and I realised that I did not have the parenting skills I needed to raise him. I found the support of a group of other parents who were also struggling with similar difficulties to be extremely useful, and the skills I learned on the course helped me to raise my children with less difficulty than I would have had without them. I had the opportunity to train as a FET (Family Effectiveness Training) trainer several years ago and I enjoy teaching this method of communication and problem solving to parents who are struggling or who want to improve their family life; the skills are not limited to a family setting, they work in all situations.
Thomas Gordon developed this programme in the 1960’s. He had been seeing more and more difficulties in families with each person believing that the problem lay with another family member. He had been a student of Carl Rogers and a follower of Rogers’s philosophy at university, later they became friends. Thomas Gordon’s basic philosophy is very similar to Rogers’s reflecting respect in a non-judgmental and non-blaming environment as core to good working relationships. If you would like to read more about how and why he developed his training courses, visit the Gordon Training website or to find out a bit more about Carl Rogers philosophy and how I work with it, visit my page ‘My Philosophy’.
The programme was originally called Parent Effectiveness Training, but has now been named Family Effectiveness Training, to reflect a more inclusive attitude, although it is normally parents who attend my classes.
To learn more about Thomas Gordon his theories and the training programmes, visit the Gordon Training website.
The classes cover listening skills, problem ownership, ways of communicating clearly, problem solving and learning ways to create rules which will be followed more willingly by all family members. There is also time for discussing individual situations as well as some role-playing. Families learn how to work better, more effectively; children and adults learn how to communicate better in the family as well as in the world. The family becomes a less stressful place and the members of it become more successful as a result.
The classes meet weekly for 3 hours and run for 7 weeks. They cost £125 which includes the workbook and light refreshments; I offer concessions for anyone unable to pay the full cost of the course.
Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to know the details of the next course I will be running.