What Therapists Get Wrong About Parent Resistance (A Trauma-Informed Perspective)

Описание: If parent sessions are the ones you think about the most—the ones that feel heavy before they even start—you’re not imagining it.

In this video, I sit down with helping professionals to talk about something that comes up all the time in this work but doesn’t always get named: why parent sessions land differently—and what to do when they do.

Many therapists and clinicians tell me:

“I don’t know what to say to parents.”

“They feel resistant.”

“No matter what I explain, it doesn’t seem to land.”

And over time, that starts to feel personal.

But most of the time, what’s happening in those moments has very little to do with you.

In this conversation, I share a trauma-informed reframe that has changed how I approach parent sessions—and how I teach other professionals to do the same.

In this video, we talk about:
• Why parent defensiveness is often fear—not resistance
• How mislabeling parent behavior creates tension and burnout
• One quiet question that can shift the entire tone of a session
• Why safety matters more than explanation in parent conversations
• How therapist presence builds trust faster than information ever will

This video is for therapists, clinicians, school-based professionals, and helping professionals who want to:
✔ Feel more confident in parent sessions
✔ Stop carrying session tension home with them
✔ Lead trauma-informed conversations without triggering shame or shutdown
✔ Understand behavior through a nervous-system lens

👋🏾 I’m Megan M. Hamm, LPC—a trauma-informed therapist, speaker, and trainer. I help helping professionals confidently support parents, reduce power struggles, and reframe behavior as communication rather than defiance.

Comment below: What’s the part of parent sessions that feels hardest for you right now?

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