Family Consultant Program

Unique Resource
Allen Creek Preschool’s Family Consultants are a unique resource for parents, teachers and children. Our family consultants are mental health professionals from our community—psychoanalysts, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists—who are dedicated to sharing their insights and understanding with us and to learning with us more about children, families, and early childhood education each day. We offer this amazing resource to our community of families, which is reflective of our county’s general population, because we feel that EVERY baby and child’s early years are fundamental to later development and should be supported appropriately by the broadest and deepest knowledge available. Allen Creek families get life-long benefit from the thoughtful attention to individual development and holistic growth that comes from the collaboration of family consultants, parents, and teachers.

Supporting Parenting
Allen Creek Family Consultants use their psychoanalytic background and their professional experience to respond to parents’ questions about their children. In doing so, Family Consultants draw upon parental strengths and empower parents to know their feelings about their child(ren) and themselves. With this understanding, parents can make intentional, purposive choices about their parenting. Allen Creek Family Consultants don’t tell parents the “right way” to do things; rather they work in parent groups to create a space for parents to discover their own values and goals in raising their children. Sharing with other parents and drawing on the expertise of Family Consultants, Allen Creek parents develop confidence in their parenting. They learn skills of relating to teachers and advocating for their children that are applicable throughout their children’s school years.

How Allen Creek’s Family Consultant program works
The Allen Creek Family Consultants volunteer their time to our school. Each of our classes is assigned two family consultants. Every week, the family consultants visit their class at a regular time to observe the children; they meet with their classroom teaching team; and they meet in a whole school staff meeting. Twice monthly, family consultants meet in the evenings with the group of parents from their class. These various meetings are opportunities for family consultants to share their knowledge, observations, and ideas with our staff and parents. Equally valuable, parents and staff are resources to family consultants, as their experience with Allen Creek expands their understanding of child development.

Impressive Credentials
Allen Creek was founded by a group of child psychoanalysts, many of whom are or have been family consultants, committed to creating a school community that combines best early education practices with modern psychoanalytic knowledge about child development, so that parents and teachers can inform their interactions with children with deep insight and understanding. Many of our Family Consultants are senior professionals on the faculties of or affiliated with all the major universities and training programs in our region. They are nationally and internationally known as experts in child and family development, prevention, and early intervention in developmental difficulties. Other Family Consultants are newer to the field of child and family development, and have sought out Allen Creek because of their deep devotion to learning more about how children and their parents grow. They are usually paired with senior Family Consultants in working with parents and teachers. The dedication to our families of this wonderful and knowledgeable group of people is unparalleled.