P.E.T. - Parent Effectiveness Training - Online Parenting Skills Course by Dr. Thomas Gordon

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instructor

the gordon model

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P.E.T., or Parent Effectiveness Training, is an eight-week course that’s appropriate for anyone who wants to improve their relationship with the children in their lives, experience greater ease, and fewer power struggles.

Participants can join an in-person version of the course

hosted in Providence, Rhode Island, or join an online version of the course using Google Meet. The weekly three-hour sessions are active! and include a 15-minute break, plus refreshments for in-person classes.

Each session involves short presentations, demonstration of the skills, workbook exercises, coaching, group discussions, fun role-playing activities, and plenty of practice so you can apply these skills in real life as you learn from week to week.

Benefits

Parents can be real people who aren’t always accepting or consistent. They’ll gain skills that allow them to feel more confident in resolving problems and conflicts between their needs and the needs of the child.
Parents don’t have to put up a “united front.” The skills learned in P.E.T. to communicate and problem-solve with children are identical to the skills used in effective co-parenting, even in different living situations or when parents have different feelings or values.
P.E.T. offers a proven alternative to parenting styles that are either authoritarian (parent wins conflicts at the expense of the child) or permissive (child wins at the expense of the parent). Both parent and child get their needs met, and you will no longer have to rely on reward or punishment.

P.E.T. facilitates clear communication and problem-solving

with children of any age and ability, including infants and

toddlers. Parents-to-be, those who work with children,

grandparents, and nontraditional caregivers are welcome in

this course.

What I love about P.E.T. is that it is a philosophy of nonviolence grounded in tangible, well-defined skills that

will reshape all of your relationships. I took a P.E.T. course in 2013, right before I became a stepmom to two awesome

kids. When I learned these skills for the first time, it created a positive ripple effect in my personal and professional life.

P.E.T. helped me understand that being a person was stronger than playing a role, that my own needs and feelings mattered, that I didn’t have to pretend I was okay with something when I wasn’t, or pretend to be unaccepting of behaviors that actually didn’t bother me. It also gave me the courage to trust that my stepkids were capable of solving problems they encountered in their own lives.

These skills benefit me every day and I’m excited to be a Certified Instructor so I can share them with others, and keep practicing them myself!

The four skills you’ll learn and practice in P.E.T. are:

The Behavior Window

Used to identify problem ownership
Helps make quick decisions about which of the following
skills to apply in a given situation

Active Listening

Used when the child is the owner of a problem
Communicates acceptance and empathy to the child
Empowers children to solve their own problems

I-Messages

Used when you are the owner of a problem
Confronts the child in order to influence them to modify
behavior that is unacceptable to you and preventing you
from meeting your own needs
Used to express feelings and values, to show
appreciation, and to prevent conflicts when no problem
is present

Method III / No-Lose Conflict Resolution

Used when there is a conflict; when both you and the
child are the owners of a problem
Radically creative way to find lasting solutions
that meet your own needs and the needs of the child
Oddly fun once you get used to it

The course tuition is $375 per person (which includes the

$330 tuition plus a $45 materials fee). For online classes, I will physically mail the textbook and workbook to you in advance of the class start date. If you’d like to use the Kindle or Audible version of the textbook instead, please let me know. The sign-up buttons below will take you to a payment link hosted by Stripe.com, but I also accept cash or checks.

Thanks to the lovely people who donate to a fund I maintain to “pay it forward,” I’m able to offer tuition on a sliding scale. You can donate to the Sponsored Seat fund or apply for reduced tuition here.

If you feel on the fence about whether or not this class is for you, please RSVP for the first class session! You’re welcome to attend the first session for free, and then pay the tuition if you’d like to join the subsequent classes.

If you have any questions, or a class scheduling request, please contact me at @posteo.com, by phone at 828-782-0856, or via WhatsApp.