Therapists stress positive parenting

Training and life experience basis of course

By YVETTE SAARINEN

Of the News-Register

Life Strategies of McMinnville can help parents of children who are angry, defiant, hostile or aggressive, or have been acting out by lying, stealing or hoarding.

Marriage and family therapist Sandra Lucas, who holds a master's degree from George Fox University, started the business last year. Her office is located at 410 N.E. Third St. in downtown McMinnville.

She works with Bethany Griffin of Sheridan, who is certified as an instructor through Beyond Consequences. They believe positive parenting techniques are the key to success.

Lucas has worked for Head Start and Lutheran Community Services. She also has life experience as a parent and foster parent.

She said challenges she experienced with a foster daughter ended up revolutionizing her approach to children displaying severe behavior problems.

She said traditional techniques like the time-out don't work with such children. What they need are time-ins designed to show them how much they are valued.

Griffin is a mother of three, including an adoptive boy diagnosed early in life with reactive attachment disorder.

She was told that the prognosis for children like him was grim at best. She was told she would have to exercise strict control and demand strict obedience to achieve peace at home.

However, she ultimately achieved success by offering unconditional love, support and understanding.

Encouraged by her discovery, she became a certified instructor and began teaching positive reinforcement techniques through local support groups and online courses offered through the Consciously Parenting Project.

Both women's problem children made positive breakthroughs and turned their lives around.

That led Griffin to say, "There is a way to move through the fear in order to bring the light of love into the darkness of our children's world.

"We have to stop feeding more fear into our families through the traditional approaches. We have to be willing to trust that our children are still creatures of love, despite their past experiences of fear."

Life Strategies will be offering four-week foundation courses based on the book, "Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control." Parents need to take a foundation course in order to continue with more in-depth work.

Foundation courses run $15 a week. They will be offered from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays in April, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Fridays in May and 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays in June.

For more information, call 503-435-4840 or visit www.life-vida.com.