Psychological Counselling for Mothers – Finding the Balance Between Work, Home & The Autistic Child

Working parents, especially mothers, often face a work-family conflict. To reduce the stress or overcome the conflicts, they need the support of other family members and psychological counseling. Balancing work roles at home and at the office is a very challenging task for mothers of children with autism.

Psychological counseling is a parent-based therapy that helps mothers to manage their work, their family and also find some quality time to communicate better with their children with special needs.

As autism is one of the world’s fastest-growing neuro-developmental disorders, it has impacted a big proportion of the population. The aim of autism counseling for mothers is to provide education services, support, and tools for mothers in the privacy of the counselor’s offices or at sessions with other parents. A psychological counselor are professionals who have vast experience working with people affected by autism. The counselor understands the need of the families/mothers of children with autism including their grief and anxiety.  

 How can mothers maintain a steady balance between work, home & their children?

 An autism diagnosis can result in mixed feelings. Mothers of children with autism are confused as to how to balance between providing the needed support to their children and maintaining a stable home environment.

Some mothers go straight to acceptance if the child is diagnosed with autism while some may experience stages of grief, denial, anger, and depression.  Psychological counseling helps distressed mothers to come to terms with an autism diagnosis.

Some of the ways in which counseling can help the mother of a child on the spectrum are:

1. Accepting the diagnosis: Autism diagnosis brings a wave of mixed reactions in parents. They may be faced with a myriad of feelings such as worry, anxiety, fear, and hope. With multiple visits to various specialists for therapeutic interventions, the mothers have to bear the stress of whether they have dealt with the circumstances appropriately. To ease their fretfulness, mothers of children with autism need therapeutic interventions such as psychological counseling to help them overcome the shock of the initial diagnosis.
2. Parenting skills: For parents, rearing a child on the spectrum is different and challenging. They have to consider his/her sensory issues, medical interventions, educational responsibilities, safety, and therapeutic decisions. Mothers have to tend to their self-regulation difficulties and accompanying health conditions. This can overwhelm them as they have to balance their time between work and their kids. Confused when faced with all responsibilities, mothers of children with autism need to visit a psychological counselor who is familiar with the various needs of autism spectrum families. They can help parents prioritize needs and reduce anxiety.
3. Maintaining a healthy relationship with spouse: As the stress is generally greater in parents of children with autism, there is a higher risk of marital discord rate too. Psychological counseling helps the couples to realize that a diagnosis of autism does not ruin a relationship, but their negative response to the disorder might. A counselor can help couples to navigate through difficulties while staying connected.
4. Stress management: The daily stress of autism parents is constant and has an adverse effect on their health. In order to stay healthy and efficiently balance between work and the needs of the children with autism, a psychological counselor shows how to manage stress effectively. A counselor offering a supportive ear, approving their efforts and encouraging self-care skills. They attend them regularly for years with helpful advice and helping mothers throughout their tough journey.

Mothers of children with autism need someone to talk to in problematic situations. A psychological counselor is the right person to discuss their needs, get all the support and useful suggestions to help them.