What is parenting consultation, and how is it different from therapy?

Parenting consultation coaches the parent, not the child. Instead of putting your child in treatment, we work on what you do at home — the routines, responses, and language that shape behavior. It is practical and time-limited: you leave with strategies you can use that evening. It is not psychotherapy, and it is not a diagnosis.

Alexis Hinchey Davis is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW #113150, Massachusetts) with a Master of Social Work from Boston College. For over 15 years she guided pediatricians on children's emotional and behavioral challenges through the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project at Tufts Medical Center, where she was trained in the Incredible Years and Triple P programs that anchor her consulting practice.

What approaches do you use?

Two evidence-based parenting curricula with decades of research behind them: the Incredible Years and Triple P (Positive Parenting Program). Rather than handing you a manual, sessions adapt what works in those programs to your children, your household, and your constraints.

How much does it cost, and is there a free option?

The first step is a free 15-minute consultation with no cost and no obligation — tell me what's going on, and I'll tell you how I can help. Ongoing coaching is a paid service; rates are discussed on that first call.

Do you work with families outside Massachusetts?

Parenting consultation is coaching rather than clinical treatment, so it is available more broadly than licensed therapy, and sessions are held by video. Clinical services requiring a Massachusetts license are limited to Massachusetts. If you are unsure which you need, ask on the free call.

My child is having tantrums and nothing works. Can this help?

That is the most common reason parents call. Repeated tantrums, refusal, or defiance usually have a pattern underneath them — a trigger, a routine, or a response loop that is quietly reinforcing the behavior. Consultation identifies that pattern and replaces it with a specific plan you can run consistently, which is what actually changes behavior.

What ages do you work with?

Families with young children through adolescence. The Incredible Years and Triple P frameworks both scale across ages; the strategies change with the developmental stage, but the underlying method — clear expectations, consistent responses, connection first — does not.

How do I get started?

Book the free 15-minute call. Tell me what's going on, and I'll tell you how I can help. The strategies come in the sessions, built for your family.

A straight answer

I keep yelling at my kids. How do I stop?

Alexis Davis, LICSW. Parenting consultation, Medford MA and Greater Boston.

You promised yourself this morning would be different. Then the milk spilled, someone lost a shoe, and you heard your own voice fill the house. Now the guilt sits with you all day. Yelling doesn't make you a bad parent. It usually means you're running on empty, and that's one of the most fixable things parents bring me.

Why the yell comes out

Most yelling happens at the same few times: the rush out the door, the hour before dinner, the third trip back to bed. Add too little sleep and no break, and your patience runs out early. That isn't a character flaw. It's an empty tank.

Know your flashpoints, and come back after

Your body warns you before the yell: the tight jaw, the louder voice, the short fuse. When you know your warning signs and your flashpoints, you can have a plan for those moments. And when you do yell, coming back to your child after matters. In our sessions, we work out together what that looks like in your house.

Refuel the parent

A parent who never gets a break can't stay calm and consistent for long. Time with other adults, time on your own, and something you enjoy aren't luxuries; they're part of how you parent. I have two young boys. Some days I nail it. Other days I absolutely don't.

Why I do it this way

None of this is my opinion. Each step comes from programs with decades of research behind them. Here is the research, in plain words, with the study under each one.

Why I start with your stress
In a survey of 258 parents in Singapore's 2020 COVID lockdown, the parents under more parenting stress reported harsher parenting, yelling included, and felt less close to their children.
Source: Chung, Lanier and Wong, Journal of Family Violence, 2022
Why it's worth the work
In 976 families, parents' harsh verbal discipline at age 13 predicted more acting out and low mood a year later, and acting out predicted more harsh words, so the two feed each other.
Source: Wang and Kenny, Child Development, 2014
Stress can come down
Across 15 studies of programs for exhausted parents, the randomized trials cut burnout by a moderate to large amount for up to three months, and stress management was one of the pieces the programs shared.
Source: Urbanowicz and colleagues, Journal of Affective Disorders, 2026

When to talk to your own doctor

Talk to your doctor if the stress or low mood doesn't lift, or if you aren't sleeping. If you ever feel you might lose control or hurt your child, get help right away. Those are a doctor's questions. This page is parenting consultation, not therapy and not a diagnosis.

15 minutes, free.

Tell me what's going on, and I'll tell you how I can help.

Book the free call