John Philip Louis
KUCHING: Many parents do not know how to set the screen-time limit for their children, resulting in mobile phone overuse.
According to a professional counsellor with more than 30 years’ experience John Philip Louis, this is because they (parents) themselves do not set the right example as they are also hooked with gadgets.
“These parents don’t have the conviction to tell their kids off.
“They are also unaware of the harm that comes with this,” he said during a press conference at Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus recently.
Louis, who holds a Masters in Counselling from Monash University in Melbourne, said research has shown that the number one thing that comes when people are hooked with gadgets is that their level of empathy will go down without them realising it.
He calls upon parents to set a reasonable limit to meet the core emotional needs, alongside connection and acceptance, healthy autonomy and performance, as well as realistic expectations.
“Research has shown that when core emotional needs are not met during the formative years of a child, schemas (life traps) will develop,” said Louis – a certified schema therapist and member of the International Society for Schema Therapy.
He is the author of ‘Good Enough Parenting’ – a book that explains why meeting the core emotional needs is absolutely crucial for raising emotionally healthy and spiritually-minded children.
Louis, who hails from Taiping, Perak, also conducts parenting workshops under the same title.
“The ‘Good Enough Parenting’ workshop offers a step-by-step guide on how parents can learn to meet these core emotional needs and provide parenting that is ‘good enough’ to avoid exasperation, prevent schemas from developing in their children and weaken the schemas that are already present.”
The ‘Good Enough Parenting’ workshop will be conducted at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, from June 29 to July 1.
For further information, contact Stephen (016-2020106) or Yong Li Kean (016-2295186).