Ada Karlstrand

As a therapist and a parent of a special-need child, I am dedicated to helping other special-needs parents find and nurture their own self regulating abilities. The demands of parenting are often exponentially multiplied when one has a child with special needs. Unfortunately, the support available to a special needs parent seems to be inversely related to the level of demand: the more challenges your child experiences, the less support there is for you as a parent. Special needs parents often have hectic lifestyles; filled with extra therapeutic appointments of all sorts, regular meetings with a variety of school personnel as well as running interference with concerned or angry friends and family. Many, many parents of special needs kids report feeling isolated and burned out. If your child is behaviorally challenged, you as the parent may experience the brunt of their strong feelings and actions. Over time, this may lead to changes: parents may experience hypervigilance, become more irritable, struggle with memory, become easy to startle, prone to yelling or alternatively just feel shut down. These are all legitimate reactions to overwhelming circumstances and are important messages that our nervous systems need attention and safety. I consider it a privilege to be able to help parents access what works for their unique nervous system to return to calm, feel connected and provide themselves a sense of security. As we learn to work with our own nervous systems, we become far, far, more available to be present with our children.