Understanding the relationship between clinicians and parents is crucial in providing effective mental health services for children. In this post, we'll explore the importance of these relationships, strategies for enhancing parent engagement, and practical steps you can take to foster a collaborative and supportive environment. 

The Importance of Building Strong Clinician-Parent Relationships

A clinician-parent relationship is a collaborative and supportive partnership aimed at encouraging the child's progress. This relationship is essential because parents play a significant role in bringing their children to therapy, communicating their needs, and supporting their children at home. Dr. Kandice Benallie, an expert in early childhood psychology, emphasizes that “parents are really the expert in their children; they’re around their child more than anybody else is.” 

Factors Influencing Parent Engagement 

Several factors can influence parent engagement, including clinician factors, parent factors, and child factors. Understanding these can help create strategies to improve engagement. 

Clinician Factors 

Clinicians must provide structure, support, and evidence-based recommendations while also building trust and rapport with parents. Dr. Benallie notes, “being warm and empathetic, accepting and honest with parents are characteristics that encourage engagement and communication.” 

Parent Factors 

Parents’ age, personality, socioeconomic status, and mental health can all impact their engagement. For example, older parents might be less engaged, and parents experiencing their mental health challenges may find it harder to participate actively in their child's therapy. 

Child Factors 

As children grow older, parents may believe they need to be less involved, which can decrease engagement. However, continued parent involvement is crucial for the generalization of skills and strategies learned in therapy. 

Strategies for Increasing Parent Engagement 

To improve parent engagement, clinicians can implement several strategies, including setting clear expectations, addressing practical barriers, and building therapeutic alliances. 

Setting Clear Expectations 

From the beginning, clearly communicate what parent engagement looks like in your service. This includes how often parents will be involved in sessions and what their role will be. Dr. Benallie suggests, “setting expectations from the very beginning helps support trust.” 

Addressing Practical Barriers 

Practical barriers like scheduling conflicts and transportation issues can hinder parent engagement. Address these barriers early on to ensure parents can consistently participate in their child's therapy. 

Building Therapeutic Alliances 

Building a strong therapeutic alliance with parents involves prioritizing the relationship before disseminating strategies or recommendations. Dr. Benallie explains, “building rapport and trust with parents will help to encourage engagement and motivation in a positive way.” 

Steps for Clinicians to Improve Parent Engagement

Here are some actionable steps clinicians can take to improve parent engagement: 

• Provide Clear Rationales: Explain the reasons behind your recommendations and how they apply to the family’s specific situation. 
• Acknowledge Resistance: Address any negative feelings or resistance from parents and validate their concerns. 
• Collaborative Goal Setting: Work with parents and children to set achievable goals that everyone can work towards together. 
• Encourage Involvement: Engage parents in therapeutic activities, such as role-playing or games, to help them feel more involved in the process. 
• Provide Emotional Support: Offer limited counseling to parents to help them address their own needs and how these might impact the family system. 

Effective clinician-parent relationships are key to improving child mental health outcomes. By understanding the factors that influence engagement and implementing strategies to address these, clinicians can foster a more collaborative and supportive environment. As Dr. Benallie points out, “when parents feel empowered, they’re often more engaged, and when they’re more engaged, they feel more empowered.” 

Learn more about building the clinician-parent relationship

If you are a mental health provider interested in learning more about building the clinician-parent relationship, you can take our home-study course for CE credit.

Alternatively, you can watch this course for free without CEs on our YouTube channel: