I am a licenced psychologist and systemic psychotherapist. I work at the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, where I coordinate the programs in family- and system-oriented psychotherapy. I also work at Gothenburg Institute for Solution Focused practice. We offer therapy, training and supervision.  I will talk about what kind of parental support parents want, with a particular focus on how support for parents of teenagers can be designed and marketed. The lecture is relevant to everyone who meet young people or parents in, for example. school, social services, primary care or private practice. In May 2019, I defended my thesis; “Reaching out with universal parental support”, at the Department of Psychology, Gothenburg university.  The purpose of my dissertation was to investigate the interest of parents in parenting support, how support for parents of teenagers could be developed, and how to reach out to all parents with support. We found that 82% of parents of teenagers think that parenting support is most important during the child’s teenage years, and that they were equally keen to receive parenting support as parents of younger children. They were particularly interested in counseling, and they were interested in getting information about teenage development and opportunities to meet other parents to discuss with them. But we also found that there is a challenge in reaching out with information on existing parental support, and in developing support for parents of teens adapted to their needs. Therefore, I conducted focus group interviews with parents of teenagers to investigate what they would like to discuss with other parents, and what practical conditions would facilitate participation in groups. This is what I would like to expand on in my lecture. 

Download Karen Thorslunds doctoral thesis 
“Reaching out with universal parental support”<7u>