ABSTRACT
Parent guidance is developmentally grounded, it can help parents understand normal developmental tasks and processes, guide them in their expectations, and help them understand their role from a developmental perspective. It requires a good parental coalition and so this approach may lead to marital counseling and/or an emphasis on presenting a "united front." This concept of a united front can be carried too far and should not suggest that parents need to agree about every decision, but instead that they are able to negotiate. It is not a problem
for the child to realize that his or her parents disagree, provided they arrive at a solution. However, it is a problem if he or she can manipulatively split parents because of their different viewpoints. Parent guidance requires a sensitivity to the parameters of the parents' personalities and of the family dynamics. Again, one may begin with specific advice, mediating a negotiated game plan in terms of limit setting and nurturance, and then move into a more ambitious couples or family therapy. The therapist may do well to use the approach of "gradual approximation" in order to accomplish the desired goals or end results. One cannot expect families entrenched in well ingrained dynamics, nor individuals with characterologic traits to make large and consistent changes in a short period of time. By helping the parents, and likewise the child, make some appropriate steps toward increased personal responsibility, the clinician helps to interrupt what is often a vicious cycle of interaction.
