Parenting support and child psychology in Brookvale, Northern Beaches

Parenting a child or teenager through emotional, behavioural, or developmental challenges can feel overwhelming, particularly when the advice you’re given doesn’t fit the child in front of you. Parenting support offers a reflective, practical, and non-judgemental space to understand your child’s needs and work out what to do differently.
Sessions are provided by Jessica Radovan, a Clinical Psychologist with 20 years of experience supporting children, adolescents, and neurodivergent young people. Available in person in Brookvale on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, or via telehealth Australia-wide.
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PROVIDED BY

Jessica Radovan, Clinical Psychologist and AHPRA Board-Approved Supervisor

Who it’s for

Parents and carers of children, adolescents, and neurodivergent young people

Who attends

Usually parents and carers only, so you can speak openly

Where

In person at 324/20 Dale Street, Brookvale NSW, or telehealth Australia-wide

The basics

What is parenting support?

Parenting support is one-on-one work between you and a clinical psychologist, focused on your child. Your child usually doesn’t attend, which means you can speak openly about what’s really happening at home.
Rather than working directly on your child’s difficulties, the work builds your understanding of what’s driving their behaviour, and gives you responses that fit their developmental stage, temperament, and neurotype.
Some families come for three or four sessions with a specific question. Others return as their child moves through new stages, or after an autism, ADHD, or AuDHD assessment reframes what support they need.
Parenting support therapy with Jessica Radovan in Sydney's Norther Beaches
Where to start

Reasons for seeking parenting support

Every family is different, but these are the situations that most often prompt parents and carers on the Northern Beaches to get in touch.
  • Your child is anxious, panicky, or low and the previous approaches that used to work aren’t as effective anymore.
  • Big emotions are spilling over, meltdowns, shutdowns, or anger that seems out of proportion to what triggered it.
  • Your child has been diagnosed as Autistic, ADHD, or AuDHD, and you want to parent in a way that genuinely fits how they’re wired.
  • School has become a daily struggle, whether that’s drop-off, friendships, homework, or refusal to go at all.
  • Something significant has changed for your family, a separation, a move, a loss, or a new diagnosis, and everyone is finding their feet.
  • You’ve read the books and tried the advice, and the strategies just don’t seem to fit your child.
Parenting support therapy and child psychology in Brookvale, Northern Beaches
What sessions offer

How parenting support can help

Sessions focus on collaboration and tailored guidance, helping you build actionable approaches that suit your family’s values.

Understand your child’s behaviours in context

Gain clarity on what drives your child’s emotional or behavioural responses by exploring their unique context, developmental stage, and neurotype.

Develop practical strategies

Learn supportive, evidence-based tools to handle daily challenges, routines, and distress effectively.

Strengthen family relationships

Build stronger communication and connection while reducing stress and conflict at home.

The process

How sessions work

Sessions focus on taking the time to really understand interactions and situations properly and are tailored to what is happening for your family right now. Sessions explore what is going on, work out what’s driving it, and build a response. We then come back and refine it as needed once you’ve had a chance to try out the strategies in real life.
Where it would help, parenting support runs alongside individual therapy for your child, or follows an assessment, so the strategies you’re working on at home match the ones being built in the therapy room.
Parenting support therapy and child psychology in Brookvale, Northern Beaches by Jessica Radovan
1

A first conversation

A session to hear the full picture, to hear more about your child and family, what you’ve already tried, and want you most want help to shift.

2

Making sense of it together

Working out what’s actually driving the behaviour, drawing on developmental, emotional, and neurodevelopmental understanding.

3

Building the response

Specific, practical strategies for the situations you’re finding hardest, chosen to suit your child and realistic for your household.

4

Reviewing and adjusting

Coming back to see what worked and what didn’t, and refining from there. Nothing is prescribed and left to sink or swim.

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Evidence base

The programs behind the sessions

Parenting support draws on certification in two well-established, evidence-based parenting programs. Neither is delivered as a rigid curriculum, they inform the work and are tailored to suit your family circumstances.

Tuning in to Kids

An emotion-coaching program built on the finding that children manage their feelings better when the adults around them can recognise, name, and sit with those feelings first, rather than moving straight to fixing or correcting.

In practice it means learning to read the emotion underneath the behaviour, respond to it before addressing the behaviour itself, and staying steady when your child isn’t. It’s particularly useful for children who are quick to overwhelm, and for parents who feel they’re constantly firefighting.

Triple P, the Positive Parenting Program

One of the most extensively researched parenting programs available, focused on practical strategies for everyday behaviour, routines, expectations, consequences, and building cooperation without escalation.

Where Tuning in to Kids works on the emotional layer, Triple P is more structural: what happens at bedtime, how a morning is sequenced, how to follow through consistently. The two work well together, and sessions draw on whichever fits the situation in front of us.

Common questions

Parenting support FAQs

Parenting support is one-on-one work between you and a clinical psychologist, focused on your child. Your child usually doesn’t attend, so you can speak openly. Rather than working directly on your child’s difficulties, it builds your understanding of what’s driving their behaviour and equips you with responses that suit them. Where useful, it runs alongside individual therapy for your child.

Usually not. Parenting support is generally provided to parents and carers directly, which means you can speak freely. Where it would help, sessions can include your child or be combined with individual therapy for them.

It varies. Some families come for three or four sessions focused on a specific challenge, while others return periodically through new developmental stages. This is worked out together rather than fixed in advance.

Yes. Sessions are available in person at the Brookvale practice on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, and via telehealth anywhere in Australia, which many parents find easier to fit around work and school hours.

Yes. Post-diagnostic parenting support is a common reason families reach out, understanding your child’s neurotype, adjusting expectations and routines, and finding affirming ways to support them at home and school.

Sessions draw on certification in Tuning in to Kids, an emotion-coaching program developed at the University of Melbourne, and Triple P (short for the Positive Parenting Program), one of the most extensively researched parenting programs available. Neither is delivered as a fixed curriculum, they inform the work rather than dictate it.

Sessions are provided by Jessica Radovan, a Clinical Psychologist with 20 years of experience across private practice, hospitals, schools, and non-government organisations in Australia and the UK, with particular depth in neurodivergence and child development.
OTHER services
Therapy

Individual therapy for children, teens, and adults, plus post-diagnostic support.

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Assessments

Autism, ADHD, AuDHD, and psychoeducational assessments for ages 3 and up.

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Clinical supervision

For registrars, registered psychologists, and clinical psychologists.

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