Working as the leader of a small team working with an extremely upset 11 year old boy who had been terribly sexually abused, I worked with his school, his mother and with him individually.  It took many months to get him under control and in fact we had to use a secure facility at one point because his behaviour was just so out of control.  After 2 years, he was able to get back to his old school, re-build a relationship with is mother and siblings and start to lead a normal life.

Working with Couples

When working with couples one of the biggest issues is to get agreement on how to parent.  There is often an assumption that both parents agree on how to parent—this is usually not the case.  I spend time with couples getting them to identify what their individual core values as parents are and then looking at where the common ground is and how they can provide the parenting their child needs.

Workshop on Teenagers

During a workshop talking about “What Teenagers Need”, the audience was taken through a journey of what it is like in the life of a teenager.  They are at an incredibly chaotic stage in life, one minute they are a mature adult the next they are a three year old.  They have an adult body with all the power, cognitive ability and strength that provides, but little in the way of knowledge of how to operate it—they are literally on their ‘L’s driving a Formula 1 Race car!

Philip took the group through what their teenagers need, the often conflicting demands they make and how, as parents, to best manage it and survive the roller coaster ride.