The Benefits of Therapy for Parents of Children With Disabilities

For parents of children with disabilities, it can be difficult to find time for self-care. Often, parents are overworked, stressed, and spread thin as they balance work, life, and raising a child. However, that makes it even more crucial to take time to care for yourself. It’s important for parents to take time to unwind, relax, and care for your mind, so that you can continue to provide excellent care for your child. Here at Inland Respite, we aim to lend a helping hand through our respite care services, providing parents with much needed time to care for themselves. Often, folks choose to take advantage of their respite time to attend therapy, which can be a wonderful way for overworked parents to reset and recalibrate.

At Inland Respite, we certainly recommend considering therapy for parents who feel stressed or overwhelmed, since it offers a myriad of benefits. If you’re thinking about starting therapy, we invite you to take a look at all of the benefits you may enjoy. As always, you can count on us to lend you a helping hand, so you can take time for yourself while we help to take care of your child. Now, here are some brief highlights of the benefits of therapy for parents of children with disabilities.

Recognizing and Overcoming Stress

Often, we don’t take a real “look in the mirror” to recognize how stressed out we may be. Parents often get used to enduring stress, since it can become a consistent part of parenting. It’s important to take a breath and realize that things don’t have to be like that — there are solutions that can help mitigate or eliminate stressors in your life. A therapist will help you to recognize signs of stress (such as sleeplessness or weight changes), and help to pinpoint the sources of stress in your life. From there, you’ll be able to step back, recognize stress as it happens, and create a plan for avoiding or coping with the stressors of your life.

Fresh Insight on Life

Parenting can turn the day-to-day into a seemingly unending pattern. It’s easy to succumb to the monotony and feel discouraged about life. However, there are so many things to be grateful for, and so many things to wonder at in our lives. Therapy helps parents to take a fresh look at their lives, discovering or rediscovering the passions and pleasures that may appear to drift away in parenting. Simple changes, new behavior, and a bit of mindfulness can go a long way to bring fresh insight into life, even for busy parents. A therapist can help you to uncover things that bring you joy, and they can help you to create a plan to generate these joys as you navigate through the day-to-day.

Empower Yourself

Parents can be self-critical, and they may find themselves in a slump. With low energy and low self-esteem, every day may be a challenge. Therapy aims to enlighten parents, revealing the successes they achieve every day. With a shift in mindset and a bit of planning, parents can feel reinvigorated and they may gain more control over their lives. Even reorganizing your schedule or asking for a helping hand (like respite care for your child!), can work wonders to provide you with free time so that you can pursue your own passions. In these ways, therapy may help parents to feel more empowered and in control of their lives and destinies.

Better Communication With Family, Friends, and Your Child

Do you argue with your spouse? Are you connecting with your child? It’s easy to slide into a pattern of poor communication with family, friends, or your child. Therapy helps us to reframe our relationships with others, recognizing how we interact and communicate in our own unique ways. Therapy can be especially beneficial for children with disabilities, since these children often gain more from certain styles of communication. No two children and no two people are alike, therapy helps us to recognize our differences, unlocking the best, most fruitful forms of communication between us.

Practicing Healthy Habits

Sleeplessness, malaise, poor diet, lack of exercise, and even drug use can all become bad habits for parents who are overworked and overstressed. Fortunately, we can develop new, healthy habits as we kick our old vices and unhealthy go-to actions. In therapy, parents may be guided to identify their habits, good and bad. And they may be guided to reinforce healthy habits while overcoming those not-so-healthy ones. Therapeutic practices like cognitive behavioral therapy may be especially helpful for parents seeking to improve their health.

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Self-Care Starts With Help

Here at Inland Respite, it’s our goal to help parents and guardians of children with disabilities through respite care. We want you to take time for yourself so that you can remain happy and healthy, and ultimately provide better care for your child. You can call on us to provide you with much deserved respite, so that you can take time to enjoy yourself (and perhaps try out therapy, if you so desire). If you’re curious about respite care, we’d be happy to answer any inquiries you may have. Simply reach out to us to learn more or to get started. Inland Respite has professional caretakers working throughout much of Southern California — we’re here to help!