Before Katherine came to us, we were a family in chaos, broken. We have 3 children with our eldest, A, 11, becoming increasingly difficult and challenging. We felt overwhelmed and out of control. During the day and in school A was conscientious, sweet and well behaved. However, at home, especially in the evenings she would have huge emotional outbursts, lasting hours, with seemingly nothing any of us could do to calm her down. After the kids came home from school, we became slaves to them, providing endless snacks, watching various screens in separate rooms, dreading putting them to bed. We would tip toe around them, doing anything to prevent escalation of A. I would spend hours putting A to bed, sitting with her until she fell asleep, often sleeping in her bed, and as soon as I left the room she would wake. This would regularly lead to hours of emotional outburst, screaming and shouting, disrupting the whole house.
A suffered from cancer and lost her leg when she was 5, so I always attributed her behaviour and emotional outbursts to this. We sought counselling for years yet nothing seemed to help. When Katherine arrived, it was like a gift from heaven, she was immediately able to pinpoint the problems, explaining that A was a control hungry child and her behaviour was a symptom of this. The emotional demands she placed on me were a way of her gaining control, not due to anxiety or issues relating to her cancer . She explained our parenting was feeding A’s behaviour rather than helping prevent it. Whilst Amelie was our main concern, Katherine coaching benefited the whole family. By day 1 we started to see improvements. The first night was tough but Katherine supported us throughout the whole evening. She quietly advised and provided instruction, constantly reassuring us. By day 2 we could see a significant change, not only in A but in all our children. Katherine explained the importance of what she calls 50/50 Parenting and we instantly felt calmer and found we had more time as a family.