Launchpad Parenting:
Helping Families Support Independence

The Program

Increasing numbers of young adults are experiencing difficulty making the transition from dependent adolescence to independent adulthood. I have a course designed to help these young adults, but often it’s the parents who attend therapy. What do we do then?

In fact, working with parents as the primary clients can often be extremely helpful. “Failure to Launch” (to use the popular but somewhat demeaning term) involves one party receiving more care and support than their circumstances actually require, and another party providing this care. It is a dance between all members of the family - and if one person in a dance changes their steps, the dance as a whole can change.

Parents are often more motivated for change than their offspring, and more concerned about what the future will bring if things carry on the way they have been going. But they often inadvertently provide more support for dependence than independence, and wonder if there is an alternative to simply cutting off support altogether. There is, and we can help them do so in a way that benefits both them and the struggling young adult.

This program is available in various formats, ranging from a 90-minute overview of a subset of key concepts and interventions, to a full-day workshop with a greatly expanded set of ideas, tools, and resources.

Contents

The program’s contents vary based on sponsor requests and the length of the program, but typically include:

  • An overview of the “failure to launch phenomenon”

  • Discussion of the conflicting motives of young adult and parent

  • Identification of common overparenting motifs

  • Strategies to reduce nagging and negativity in the home

  • Reducing family over-accommodation

  • Tools for examining current family roles within the household

  • Tools and recommendations, tracking, and changing financial support and roles

  • The phenomenon of inadvertent undermining of independence

  • Strategies to shift support from dependence to development

  • Attachment issues in failure to launch

  • Parental ambivalence regarding parental retirement

  • Support for parental grieving

  • Intrinsic versus adaptive motivation

  • Support for skill development - shopping, career, driving, financial self-management

  • Coping with complications associated with comorbid diagnoses

  • Handling “I never ASKED to be born!”

  • Strategies for coping with violence, threats, and rage

  • Helping parents define and commence a post-parenting life

The Materials

Workshop participants receive:

  • Complete presentation slide handouts

  • A set of pdf information handouts for parents

  • Worksheets on financial subsidies, familial roles, goals for change, and more

Who should attend?

This program is intended for members of registered healthcare professionals with prior experience in providing psychotherapy, and for students in these fields. It is suited to those already working with this population, and to those anticipating doing so in future.

  • Psychologists

  • Psychiatrists

  • Clinical counselors

  • Social workers

  • Occupational therapists

  • Psychiatric nurses

  • and other trained psychotherapists.