How does Parents Rising work?

There are three main parts to Parents Rising:

1. One-on-one emotional health coaching

Parents schedule two 1:1 emotional health coaching calls with our psychologist-led team. These calls will be opportunities to slow down, relax, and open awareness to the emotions parents are carrying. Parents will be guided to drop deeper into your own emotional system. 

2. Group emotional health coaching (Coaching Circles)

We meet for times live as a group through the MaxLove Connect app. These group sessions will be calming, connecting, and compassionate gatherings where we get share what's going on for us, practice new emotional health skills, and engage in a guided emotional fitness practice. 

3. The MaxLove Connect app

There is a dedicated workshop section for Parents Rising, where each week parents will be able to learn about key emotional health ideas and engage in a guided practices. The weekly Parents Rising curriculum has been designed by our team of clinical psychologists led by public health scientist and MaxLove Project cofounder, Justin Wilford, PhD.

We’re not alone and there’s a better way

Parents Rising lets parents know that their experience of emotional pain in the childhood cancer journey is not unusual, out of place, or unmanageable. Through the support of Parents Rising, we can begin the work of turning the impossible burdens parents have had to carry into beautiful gifts that help them become the parents, partners, and people they were meant to be.

Parents Rising

From diagnosis on, childhood cancer parents experience the impossible burden of protecting their child from the most terrible outcomes imaginable.

But yet we soldier on, slowing down only when we break down.

There's a better way. Through the power of emotional processing, deep inner work, and social support, parents can transform their break-downs into break-throughs. Parents Rising is our coach-guided, therapist-designed program to support childhood cancer parents with transformational emotional health & fitness practices, ideas, and tools. 

Simply being a childhood cancer parent can be emotionally traumatic. This might sound overly dramatic, but simply being a childhood cancer parent means that:

  1. One has been exposed to something very threatening: a life-threatening diagnosis for their child,

  2. no matter how much support a parent receives, nothing and no one can guarantee them protection from the threat that cancer poses to their child, and

  3. most childhood cancer parents have triggering memories related to diagnosis, scans, blood draws, and treatment.

The good news is that trauma can be healed. In this 4-week program for childhood cancer parents, we’re guided by a psychologist-led team to engage with emotional health ideas and practices that will help us rise out of trauma and into the parents and people we're meant to be. 

“Simply being a childhood cancer parent can be traumatic.”

At MaxLove Project, we believe that emotional health & emotional fitness are the key to healing from trauma, becoming more resilient to future trauma, and showing up for our children and loved ones with our best selves.

Emotional health refers to the ability to do four things:

  • Acknowledge and understand your and others' emotions (Emotional Intelligence);

  • Stay grounded and present in the midst of intense emotions (Emotional Groundedness);

  • Feel the full range of emotions (Emotional Resilience); and

  • Flexibly adjust to different emotional states in others (Emotional Connection).

Emotional fitness refers to all the tools, skills, and practices we use to achieve emotional health. In Parents Rising, we use emotional fitness practices like 1:1 emotional processing, breathwork, journaling, and meditation to help parents achieve greater emotional health.

What do parents get out of Parents Rising?

At the end of this 4-week program, parents can expect the following results:

  • Emotional fitness gives parents the knowledge, skills, and resources to get in touch and stay in touch with their true, authentic self. The more they practice emotional fitness, the more they’ll feel grounded in their own inner knowing, allowing them to parent through childhood cancer with greater ease, connect more deeply with their family, and step into all parts of their life with confidence.

  • Each step, guided practice, live coaching group, and journaling exercise will connect parents more deeply with their authentic self, giving them clarity on longstanding, frustrating problems in their life. They’ll discover that clarity isn't necessarily about getting answers or solving problems. Sometimes it's simply about seeing what's happening more clearly. 

  • Over the course of the 4-week program, we show parents how to become more accepting and open to all that is inside them. And as they move closer to radical self-acceptance, they will become more accepting and open to everyone in their life. Parents will find spontaneous moments of love and caring simply emerge.

  • As parents move through self-discovery, deep inner work, and transformational relationship practices, they’ll begin to feel more room inside. As more space opens up inside, they will begin to breathe, move, and rest with ease.

  • As parents build on each step of knowledge, practice, and support, they will discover that all of the energy and creativity they need in their life is already inside of them. It’s just covered and constricted by parts inside that are protective and defensive. Together, we’ll let these parts relax so that natural energy flows.

  • Parents will begin to naturally practice more self-honesty, which will open up deeper connections with others. And as honesty and connection start to permeate their parenting and partnership, they’ll find their life is bursting with meaning. 

  • Parents Rising will change things inside us. And as things change inside us, things will change around us. As we support parents in slowing down and getting curious inside themselves, they will find it easier to slow down and get curious with their kids and partner. Conflicts will be resolved more quickly, triggered feelings will fade more easily, and relational repair will be simpler.  

  • The ultimate result will be a sense that in every aspect of parents’ lives, they are feeling fundamentally well. Having traveled through Parents Rising with us and other parents, members will have the foundation to not only take on whatever life throws their way, but they'll be a rock of support to their family. 

“I had the opportunity to participate in both Parents Rising Programs and it could not have come at a better time.  My son had just relapsed for the second time and I was struggling.  Justin introduced Internal Family Systems and it allowed me to name and understand my emotions better at a time when I was having a hard time processing the trauma around my son’s diagnosis.  This also helped me to connect with my super kid and his sibling, as well. Just being able to know and accept that there are no bad parts and they serve a purpose helped so much.  Justin’s calm and assuring demeanor and acceptance, along with the support of Alicia and Svitlana, made it a safe place to talk, feel and work through all the emotions. I also really appreciated being able to connect and work with other parents feeling many of the same things I was.  The guided practices were beneficial and Justin even got me to dance and move to the music, albeit with the camera off! I’m extremely appreciative and grateful that MaxLove Project offers this program and supports childhood cancer families in this way.” 

— Cancer Mom Participant, 2023

Get Started

Contact Us for Session Info
info@maxloveproject.org