Finding Balance in Parenting

Balanced Parenting is a parenting approach and movement toward greater balance in parenting. It aims to deconstruct anxious, child-focused messages from today’s culture, helping parents to feel calmer about their children and able to encourage their self-reliance. This creates a balanced relationship in which parents and children respect one another and feel more connected to one another. This also helps children to be happy and healthy and helps parents to overcome burnout and parent guilt.

About Me

I am a mother of 3 and licensed marriage and family therapist. I started Balanced Parenting because I personally struggled with societal expectations to be always involved with my kids, and this led to codependency, burnout, and anxiety. I found peace when I discovered Bowen Family Systems theory, a family therapy theory that offers a balanced view of parenting. Now I’m seeking to share this perspective through Balanced Parenting. I believe this approach can help parents to find relief from guilt, burnout, and worry, promote more genuinely connected relationships with their children, and support their children’s self-reliance, resilience, and happiness.

Elizabeth Miller, LMFT

Professional Experience

Publications

Miller, E. A. (2023). The Attachment Versus Differentiation Debate: Bringing the Conversation to Parent–Child Relationships. Family Process, 62, 483–498. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12802

Miller, E. A., & Elder, C. R. (2024). Balanced parenting: Proposing a differentiation-based parenting approach informed by Bowen family systems theory. Family Process, 00, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.13092

Professional Licenses

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Kansas)

Education

2021-2023: Master of Science in Family Therapy, Friends University (Wichita, KS)

2019-2021: Master of Science in Human Development and Family Science, University of Nevada Reno