Hypnotherapy Information Exchange

Extramarital pregnancy, divorce, and aban­donment of one parent are some reasons why there are single parents. What most people don’t know is, these occur­rences are life-​​changing as they can be traumatic for the single parent and the child, making them often mis­un­derstood. That makes the study of a single parent’s psy­chology and mental health important.

Studies have reported that there are more child and adolescent problems for households with single parents rather than those with the “normal” set-​​up. While most single parents may disagree, it is under­standable why the stat­istics say so.

For one, a single parent has limited time in his hands. Managing a household with another person is dif­ficult in itself. What more if you have to do it alone. That’s why it is important for a single parent to make a daily or weekly schedule of his activities. That way, he can find time to do all the things that need to be done, including some time off for leisure and relaxation.

Also, a parent may have fin­ancial problems, as he is the only one earning for the family. He must learn to save his money by learning to set aside a portion of it as it comes. Also, he must learn to make a few sure investments.

Of course, if one becomes a single parent because of a divorce or death of the spouse, there are more problems that he needs to face. It is normal for him to feel sad or depressed, so allow him to have some time to grieve. Friends can help in the moving on process. This is also dev­astating for the child, so the parent must learn to show his support to the child instead of focusing on his grief alone. Parent and child can help each other to shorten grieving time.

Lastly, the single parent may feel alone and rejected. So he must learn to nurture himself. Eat and sleep well. Exercise on a regular basis, or engage in a sport that you like. Join a church group or asso­ciation in your community.

To minimize incidence of child problems like school dropouts, early pregnancy and juvenile behavior, a single parent must learn to com­mu­nicate well with his child. Spend more quality time with him. Engage in an activity that you both can enjoy. Reg­ularly monitor his progress in school.

What resources are available for the single parent? He may join a group or organ­ization of single parents like him. In this venue, members can share and discuss their common problems and exper­iences such as coping with divorce and raising kids. Edu­ca­tional activities like lectures by pro­fes­sionals and training seminars as well as other recre­ational activities are organized to help the single parent cope with his situation.

There are also websites which support single parents. Many parent resources can be found in the internet like chat rooms, forums, news­letters, articles and other forms of lit­erature that they can share.

Knowing single parent psy­chology and mental health will make us understand single parents and their children better. Being a single parent is a chal­lenging job. With limited time and finances, he has to cope with the challenge of raising a child as well. But with tol­erance and under­standing from people around him, the job will not be as dif­ficult as it is already.

This article was ori­ginally pub­lished on www.HypnotherapyClinic.info by Con­sultant Clinical Hyp­no­therapist & Pys­cho­therapist Noel Bradford –

As a pro­fes­sional therapist Noel help people with everything that you would expect including giving up smoking, con­trolling their weight, dealing with fears and phobias. However his services go far beyond this and encompass things that affect everyone at some time in their life, such as depression, anxiety, panic attacks, stress, and low self esteem.

He  also has detailed spe­cialist training in several areas including but not limitted to Irrittable Bowel Syndrome and Pyscho­sexual matters that affect men such as Errectile Dys­function and Pre­mature Ejac­u­lation as well as those affecting women such as Hyper Desire Disorder, Vaginisums, and Dys­pareunia.

Ori­ginally posted 2010-​​01-​​25 10:32:13.