Single Parent Support Group

Welcome!  I want to share with you some ideas I have about how to make this group a meaningful experience for each of you.  I am a great believer in the idea that it is better to team up than to try to go it alone.  Our culture is fractured and single moms, who deserve and need LOTS of support, often end up isolated and lonely.  The experience of sharing your story, your struggles, and your strengths with others who can relate can energize you as you continue on your journey.  That is my hope for you.

Some questions we might share about at our first meeting:

• How long have you been single parenting?

• What is hardest for you about single parenting?

• What is easiest?  Have there been any unexpected but pleasant surprises?

• Did you have to move because of separating from your partner?

• Does your child spend time each week with his or her father?  How is that going?

• What strengths in yourself have you discovered that you didn’t know you had?

Some topics we might explore over the course of several sessions:

• Parenting: your style, strengths, growth areas.

• Developing a successful co-parenting relationship with your child’s father.

• Nurturing yourself.

• Grief and loss.

• Exploring discourses about parenting.

• Moving on after divorce.

• Balancing everyone’s needs.

I separated from my first husband in August of 1987 when my children were 9, 6, and 3.  Having married young and having been a stay-at-home mom I lacked both job skills and confidence.  I went back to school, started cleaning a church to support myself, single parented, and over the next eleven years completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and my Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy.  I recently remarried, gained a stepdaughter, and we have now successfully launched three of our four children. Feel free to call with any questions you might have.

Catherine Haynes, M.S., LMFT, 206-854-7333 catherine@catherinehaynes.com ~ www.catherinehaynes.com