Parent Consultation in Santa Monica & Los Angeles
Parenting is one of the most important and most challenging things any person does and even the most dedicated parents sometimes face situations they are not sure how to handle. Parent consultation with Dr. Sally Hackman, PhD, MFT, provides expert professional guidance to help you understand your child’s behavior, navigate difficult parenting challenges, and become a more effective, confident parent.
Parent consultation is available as a standalone service you do not need to have your child in therapy with Dr. Hackman to seek a consultation. Whether you are concerned about a specific behavior, navigating a difficult transition, or simply wanting expert guidance on child development, a consultation can provide clarity and a concrete path forward.
Dr. Hackman also offers helpful guidance during the first 5 years of your child’s life around the normal developmental issues like sleep, eating, tantrums, listening and so on.
When It Works Better Than Child Therapy
Your Child Is Too Young
Under about five, direct therapy is limited. Young children do not have the language, and much of what troubles them is happening in the relationship around them rather than inside them. Working with parents is usually faster and more effective at this age.
Your Child Refuses to Go
A teenager who will not attend is not the end of the road. Parents can change a great deal on their own often enough that the child eventually becomes willing. Many families start here precisely because their child said no.
The Difficulty Sits in the Routine
Bedtime. Homework. Screens. Leaving the house. Mealtimes. These are usually about the pattern between parent and child rather than about something inside the child, and the pattern is what gets worked on.
You Are Not Sure Anything Is Wrong Yet
Sometimes a parent just needs a professional opinion. Is this normal for the age? Should I be worried? Do I need to do something? One session can answer that, and knowing it is ordinary is a legitimate outcome.
Your Child Is Already in Therapy Elsewhere
Dr. Hackman also works with parents whose child is seeing another therapist, or is waiting for an assessment. The two do not conflict, and parents in a long assessment process often have nowhere else to take their own questions.
What Parent Consultation Is
It is a session for you, about your child, without your child there. You describe what is happening. Dr. Hackman asks questions, most of them about the specifics what exactly happened, what you said, what happened next. From that you work out together what is driving the behaviour and what to try differently. It is practical. You leave with something to do, not a theory. Some parents come once or twice to think through one problem. Others come regularly for months alongside their child’s own therapy. Both are normal.
What Parents Actually Bring
The range is wide, and no question is too small. A child who will not sleep alone. Tantrums that seem too big for the age. A teenager who has stopped talking. Constant sibling conflict. Screens. Anxiety about school. What to say about a separation, an illness, or a death. How to handle a diagnosis. Whether to push or back off. Many parents also bring something about themselves that they are shouting more than they want to, or reacting in ways they recognise from their own childhood. That is useful material, and it is a common reason parents find these sessions worth the time.
What a Session Looks Like
Sessions are fifty minutes, in Santa Monica or via Zoom. Either parent can come alone, or both together. The first session covers the history and what is happening now. After that, sessions usually start with what happened since last time what you tried, what worked, what did not. There is no obligation to continue. Some parents come once. Others settle into something regular, often monthly rather than weekly. If at some point it becomes clear your child should be seen directly, Dr. Hackman will say so.
This Is Not About Blaming Parents
Worth saying plainly, because it is the reason many parents hesitate. The premise of this work is not that you have caused the problem. It is that you are the person with the most contact, the most influence, and the most opportunities to do something different which makes you the most useful person to work with. Most parents arrive having already tried a great deal. The point is not to correct you. It is to work out why what you are doing is not landing with this particular child, at this particular age.
Key Points
Guiding You Toward Emotional Wellness.
Empowering Resilience
Build the parenting confidence and skills to navigate your child's challenges with guidance grounded in deep child development expertise and 35+ years of clinical experience.
Healing Space
A confidential, non-judgmental space to speak honestly about the challenges you are facing as a parent without fear of being criticized or second-guessed.
Transformative Support
Dr. Hackman's background includes running Breakthrough Parenting classes, working at multiple community mental health centers, and decades of parent consultation alongside child therapy giving her unusually deep expertise in the parent-child relationship.
Arranging a First Conversation
Call to talk through what is happening. If you are unsure whether this or therapy for your child is the right starting point, that is exactly the kind of question the first conversation is for.
Dr. Hackman has been a licensed marriage and family therapist since 1992 and holds a PhD in Clinical Child Psychology. She works with parents from Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and West Los Angeles.
Call (747) 243-4897
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Years of Child Therapy Experience
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Serving Santa Monica Continuously
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Confidential — Always
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First Session Free If You Don't Return
FAQs
Common Questions
Yes, and many parents do, particularly with teenagers. There is nothing improper about seeking advice on parenting your own child. If your child later starts therapy themselves, Dr. Hackman would usually be transparent with them that she has been meeting you.
No. One parent alone is fine and often how it starts. Where both can attend it usually helps, particularly when you are handling things differently from each other. If that difference is the main issue, the parenting differences page may be the better fit.
Sometimes one. A specific question about a specific behaviour can often be answered in a single session. Longer-standing patterns take more, though parent consultation generally runs shorter than a child's own therapy.
No. Family therapy involves everyone in the room together. Parent consultation is just you, working on what you do. They can complement each other, but they are different.
Where there is a clear answer, yes. Dr. Hackman is direct about what tends to work and what tends to backfire. But most parenting questions depend on the particular child, so much of the work is figuring out what fits yours rather than applying a rule.