Bangkok Patana’s Quiet Shift Toward Parent Well‑Being

In a school landscape where conversations about well‑being often revolve around children, one Bangkok Patana workshop shifted the spotlight in an unexpected direction, towards the parents themselves. Last week, the Secondary Social and Emotional Counselling team hosted a Parent Coffee Morning titled “Patterns We Carry: Understanding How We Cope.” The session offered something surprisingly uncommon in the busy rhythm of family life: a structured space for parents to reflect not on their children’s emotional worlds, but on their own.

In a community where high aspirations, demanding schedules and the daily logistics of modern parenting converge, Bangkok Patana’s counsellors recognised a need often overlooked, the well-being of the adults who hold everything together. The morning was less a lecture and more a collaborative exploration, drawing on psychological frameworks to help parents map the many roles they inhabit: caregiver, partner, colleague, friend, child and more. As the discussion unfolded, parents reflected on how these roles overlap and sometimes collide. Responsibilities that pull in opposite directions can generate a quiet emotional friction, one that rarely finds room for expression. The workshop invited participants to examine these tensions with honesty and without judgment.

The group also confronted a universal truth: when strong emotions rise, even the most resilient among us fall back on coping mechanisms that may not serve us well. The counsellors guided parents through recognising these patterns, not as flaws, but as learned responses, understandable, human and improvable. From there, the conversation broadened into what healthier, more adaptive strategies might look like when caring for oneself is no longer an afterthought but a conscious priority.

A Year 6 parent who attended the session captured the sentiment poignantly:

“As parents, we hold multiple roles and responsibilities, with caregiving often taking emotional priority. Much of our energy is directed outward, towards meeting our children’s needs, leaving little space to reflect on how we ourselves cope. This workshop created a valuable opportunity to pause and examine our own patterns of coping and emotional regulation. As both a parent and a counsellor, I strongly believe that developing self-awareness, practicing intentional self-care, and approaching ourselves with kindness enhance our capacity to function well across all our roles, including parenting.”

The morning was remarkable not only because of the content, but also due to the atmosphere: parents leaning in, sharing experiences with candour and listening to one another with empathy. Their openness highlighted an essential truth at the core of Bangkok Patana’s philosophy – that the well-being of a child is deeply connected to the well-being of the family around them.