Just as Seinfeld was touted as a show "about nothing", my Parent Salon is a parenting program without a "program.” Parents can feel free to bring in any issue they have that week, and not be confined by a lecture, curriculum, or a topic. The mission of the Salon is to have authentic heart-to-heart conversations about the social and emotional issues that constrain parents  as they work to raise children that are joyful, healthy and successful.

 My Parent Salons are held in the living room of “host parents” who invite other parents and ask that those parents bring other parents as well. These Salons are divided into age groups, with Salons for the parents of elemetary, middle and high school age children, as well as separate salons for the transitional times when kids go to kindergarten and to college. This way all the parents in each Parent Salon have children who are roughly the same age and who are struggling with the same issues. Each Parent Salon meets for 6 weeks, and, importantly, at the end of the Salon the parents receive a “parent handbook”  created by the therapist based on their notes and observations of the issues discussed and expertise shared throughout the Salon.  The Handbook inclues a bibliography of books and articles that will provide the parents with additional knowledge and support after the Salon is over as well as a Parent Salon phone tree that will allow parents to support and encourage each other outside the Salon.  Parents always say that kids don’t come with a manual, but now parents will have one that is custom made for themselves and their children.