When Traditional Child Therapy is Not Enough: A Better Way Forward for Parents and Families
- Eduardo Bunge
- Sep 5
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 15
From Overwhelmed to Empowered: How Parent-Led Interventions Can Change Everything in Youth Behavioral Health
At 2 AM last Tuesday in northern California, Maria read a text from her 8-year-old son's teacher. Another behavioral incident. Another call from the principal scheduled for tomorrow. As she stared at her phone in the dark, one thought consumed her: "I feel completely helpless."
Maria isn't alone. Across California, over 1 million children have diagnosed behavioral conditions. Their parents are managing daily crises, meltdowns during homework, defiance at bedtime, aggression with siblings—with virtually no professional support between weekly therapy appointments.
That's exactly why we created Parente.
The Problem We Couldn't Ignore
As a parent, clinician, professor, and trainer of thousands of therapists, someone who's dedicated my career to improving mental health access and outcomes, I’ve witnessed this crisis firsthand every day. Families spend months on waitlists, finally get into therapy, and then struggle to make meaningful progress because the traditional system wasn't designed for how families actually live.
The broken system speaks for itself:
In California alone:
12% of children, over 1 million kids, have diagnosed behavioral conditions
The average wait time to see a child psychiatrist is 43 days
Only 52% of children with diagnosed conditions actually receive treatment
Traditional therapy focuses on treating the child for 1 hour per week while parents need to handle behavioral challenges for 167 hours alone
Most youth therapists focus their work on the child, although the evidence shows that working with parents is more effective
Expecting lasting change from 1 hour of weekly child therapy while parents struggle alone for 167 hours isn’t just ineffective, it is fundamentally backwards.
Parents were calling us in crisis at 10 PM when their child was having a meltdown. They were texting desperately during homework battles. They were feeling like failures when their child acted out at school the day after a "successful" therapy session.
The gap between when families need help and when help is available isn't just inconvenient, it can be devastating.
The Parente Difference: focusing on parents
Drawing on decades of research, countless conversations with struggling parents and therapists, and deep dives into the most effective behavioral interventions, it is clear that the most successful approaches weren't about treating children in isolation. They were about empowering parents with the tools, confidence, and ongoing support to create lasting change in their daily lives and the lives of their children.
Our approach is built on a simple but powerful truth:
Other approaches address the child only. We empower the parents to treat the child.
A New Therapy Model
While our comprehensive approach also provides therapy, we know that 50 minutes a week is not enough. We built Pat, your therapist assistant, a sophisticated support system that provides step-by-step guidance during behavioral episodes, treatment reminders to maintain consistency, and evidence-based strategies tailored to each family's unique situation.
Available 24/7 with multilingual services, Pat ensures that the therapeutic support doesn't end when the session ends. Pat supports the parents and the therapist, so that therapy moves forward every day, creating progress that can last a lifetime.
Real Accessibility
We also know that even the best approach wouldn't matter if families couldn't access it. While our competitors charge $195-350 per session, we offer comprehensive monthly plans starting at just $200. We provide multilingual services to serve California's diverse communities, and soon we will accept Medi-Cal billing to ensure that quality behavioral health support doesn't depend on insurance status or the language spoken at home.
Why This Matters Now
The timing isn't coincidental. Most therapists continue to focus primarily on child-centered approaches. While they're making important contributions to pediatric mental health, they're missing the crucial piece: empowering the parents who are managing these behavioral challenges 24/7.
Our families need solutions that work in real-time, in real homes, with real daily challenges.
The research is overwhelming: Parent Management Training and similar parent-led interventions show 70-80% improvement rates in child behavioral problems. Studies consistently prove that when parents are equipped with evidence-based tools and ongoing support, children improve faster and maintain progress longer than child-centered approaches.
We're not just doing parent-led interventions, we're expanding these interventions with a comprehensive approach that combines a therapist plus AI-powered support every day of the week. This makes parent empowerment accessible, consistent, and effective.
What This Means for Families
Let me take you back to Maria from our opening story. Imagine her having immediate access to a therapist, someone she can turn to right when she needs guidance. Imagine also having a therapist AI assistant (Pat) who is there every day of the week, reinforcing strategies and supporting her between sessions. Together, the therapist and Pat work hand-in-hand to provide Maria with the best care, ensuring she feels guided and supported not just during appointments, but throughout her daily life.
That's not just a dream—that's what Parente makes possible every single day.
This is about more than managing behavioral episodes. It's about transforming family dynamics. It's about giving parents back their confidence. It's about helping children develop the skills they need not just to behave better, but to thrive.
When parents are empowered with evidence-based strategies and continuous support, the ripple effects are extraordinary:
Daily progress instead of weekly check-ins
Parental confidence instead of helplessness
Sustainable change instead of temporary improvements
Family healing instead of individual symptom management
Looking Forward
We built more than a therapy platform, we're creating a movement. A future where no parent faces behavioral challenges alone. Proof that parent empowerment combined with innovative technology can transform how families access and benefit from behavioral health support.
Our partnerships with healthcare providers, schools, and community organizations aren't just business relationships, they're collaborations with everyone who shares our vision of empowered families and thriving children.
We're committed to rigorous outcome measurement and research, not just to prove our effectiveness, but to continuously improve and refine our approach based on real family experiences and results.
The Future Starts with You
If you're a parent managing daily behavioral challenges, you don't have to do this alone anymore. The sleepless nights wondering if you're doing enough, the embarrassment during public meltdowns, the fear that you're somehow failing your child, all of that changes when you have the right tools, the right support, and the right guidance available whenever you need it.
If you're a healthcare provider frustrated by system limitations and long waitlists, let's work together to offer families something better.
If you're an educator watching parents struggle to support what you're trying to accomplish in school, we want to partner with you to create consistent strategies that work across all the settings where children live and learn.
Ready to Experience the Parente Difference?
For Parents
For Healthcare and Education Partners
Learn about partnership opportunities at: parentehealth.com/partners
For Everyone
Join the parent empowerment movement.
Follow our journey and share your own stories at:
Eduardo Bunge is co-founder of Parente. Parente’s mission is to empower every parent with the tools, support, and confidence to help their child thrive, making therapy move forward every day and progress that can last a lifetime. Connect with Eduardo or reach out directly at eduardo@parentehealth.com