Little Insights — Coaching for Parents

For the parents who have already been there.

Coaching for parents of children with anxiety, depression, ADHD, or schizophrenia — from someone who has sat in that waiting room, cried in that car, and found a way through.

Schedule a free conversation
If you are reading this, you probably already know the silence of a hospital corridor at three in the morning.

You know the way time fractures around a diagnosis. The way your friends mean well but cannot quite reach you. The way the clinical world, however good, can leave you feeling alone with the questions that have no answers.

This work is for that. Not to replace the doctors and the therapists and the medications — those matter, sometimes urgently — but to walk beside you in the territory they cannot quite see. The territory of being the parent. The one who lies awake. The one who rearranges everything. The one who is still, somewhere, that child's mother or father, even when the relationship has changed shape entirely.

There is a way through. It is not the way you imagined. But there is a way.

About

I have been the parent in that waiting room.

When my son was fifteen, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. What followed were years of hospitalizations, medications, school meetings, sleepless nights, and the slow work of rebuilding a relationship with the child I thought I had known.

I learned what every parent in this situation eventually learns: that the medical system, however necessary, cannot hold the whole of what you are going through. That well-meaning friends and family run out of language. That you can be surrounded by people and still feel utterly alone.

I also learned — slowly, and with help — that there is another kind of work to be done. Not the work of fixing your child, but the work of finding your own footing inside a story that keeps changing. Of asking better questions. Of grieving what you have to grieve and accepting what you can accept. Of staying connected to the person your child is becoming, even when that person is hard to recognize.

That work is what I do now, with parents who are walking the road I walked. I bring to it more than thirty years as a professional listener — a career as an audio producer and editor where my job, day after day, was to hear what someone was actually trying to say. And I bring formal training as a certified life coach, with a specialization in family systems and mental health.

But what I bring most of all is the simple fact of having been there. You will not need to explain to me what an involuntary hold is. You will not need to translate the language of the system. You will not need to manage my reactions to what you are about to tell me.

— Martha Little
Background
Certified Life Coach  ·  30+ years as audio producer and editor
Lived experience as a parent of a child with serious mental illness
Based in New York  ·  Working virtually with parents nationwide
The Approach

A practice rooted in listening, not fixing.

i.

Deep listening, first

Before anything else, I want to hear your story — the whole of it, in your own words, at your own pace. Most parents in this situation have not been listened to in this way before. Many have been listened to clinically, or briefly, or while someone is also holding a clipboard. This is different. We start by laying everything out.

ii.

Naming the tension

Together, we identify where the pressure is actually living — in the relationship with your child, in your marriage, in your work, in your own body. Often the pain you have been carrying is not where you thought it was. Naming it accurately is the first quiet act of relief.

iii.

Steady, incremental change

From there, we work — at a pace that respects how exhausted you already are — on small reframings, new questions to bring into your conversations, and concrete approaches that move toward more harmony at home. This work complements your child's clinical care; it does not replace it.

Investment

Sessions, formats, and what it costs.

One-on-one

Individual Coaching

$150 / 50-minute session

Private sessions held over Zoom. We meet weekly or every other week, depending on what serves you. Most parents work with me for an initial three-month engagement, with the option to continue.

  • Free 30-minute introductory conversation before we begin
  • Email support between sessions
  • Sliding scale considered for parents whose circumstances require it
In community

Group Coaching

Coming soon · join the waitlist

Small group sessions for parents who want the support of community alongside the structure of coaching. Limited to six parents per cohort. Lower per-session cost than individual work, with the added value of shared experience and witness.

  • Six-week structured cohorts
  • Curated for fit — parents in similar circumstances
  • Add your name to the list and I will be in touch when the next group forms
A note on access — I keep a small number of sliding-scale spots available at any time for parents whose financial situation makes the standard rate unworkable. If that is you, please say so when you reach out. I would rather have a conversation than have you not reach out at all.
In Their Words

From parents I've worked with.

Martha was the first person who let me say all of it without flinching. I did not realize how badly I needed that until I had it.
— Parent of a teenager with severe anxiety
She asked me a question in our second session that I am still thinking about a year later. I am a different parent than I was, in small but real ways.
— Mother of ADHD twins
Where to begin

A free thirty-minute conversation.

Before we work together, we talk. No fee, no pressure, no expectation. If we are a fit, we will both know. If we are not, I will help you find someone who is.

Start the conversation

An important note on coaching and clinical care

Coaching is not therapy, and it is not a substitute for psychiatric care, medication management, or treatment of any kind. If your child is in active crisis, or if you are, please reach out to the resources below or to a licensed clinician immediately.

The work I do alongside parents is meant to complement professional clinical care — never to replace it. I will be glad to coordinate, when appropriate and with your consent, with the providers your child is already seeing.

If you or your child are in crisis:
Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7)
Text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line)
NAMI Helpline: 1-800-950-6264 (Mon–Fri, 10 AM–10 PM ET)
Reach Out

Tell me a little about where you are.

Send me a note using the form, and I will respond within two business days. There is no obligation in reaching out. Many parents simply want to know whether this kind of support exists. It does — and you have already found one version of it.

Whatever you write here is held with care. I will not add you to a mailing list. I will not pass your information along. The only thing that happens after you click send is that I read it.

Or write directly
hello@littleinsights.co
Usual working hours
Monday — Thursday, or by appointment
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