Summer is here, a season often defined by slower paces, school holidays, and for many, more time spent with the people who matter most. This change in routine brings unique opportunities to rethink how we connect with our children. If you are looking for a way to positively develop daily interactions with your children of all ages, this is the perfect time to pick up a copy of Relationspaces: A Solution Focused Handbook for Parents.
A Refreshing Approach to Parenting
We often take our daily communication for granted, falling into familiar routines that may not always serve our relationships. Relationspaces invites you to notice how you approach communication. By shifting your perspective, you can transform ordinary interactions – a car ride to the beach, a walk in the park, a quick chat before or after the movie, a quick call, or even cleaning up after dinner – into powerful opportunities for connection. Relationspaces prepares you for conversation so that your interactions become more productive, supportive, and effective.
At the heart of this book are the six core principles of Relationspaces, based in Solution Focused Practice (as applied to daily conversation):
Reflection: Encouraging inquiry, openness, inclusion and autonomy
Strengths: Addressing exceptions to challenges and what is already working – Identifying factors that contribute to success
Success: Celebrating small, cumulative signs of progress
Action: Tapping into interests and abilities to help promote motivation and agency
Noticing: Noticing possibilities over problems and reframing the narrative
Hope: Engaging in topics/issues with hope, and by using a language of change to point toward possibilities and welcome differences
Why This Matters
When using the Solution Focused language of change, conversations become much more hopeful and manageable as you cultivate a deep sense of mattering, belonging and agency in your children. These intentionally safe, welcoming and positive communicative spaces, strengthen and deepen a caring relationship.
Whether you are navigating the challenges of a pre-schooler, the complexities of teenage years, or you just want to improve family communication in general, this handbook is designed for you. It is filled with:
Relatable Scenarios: Real-world examples of situations you may experience.
Guided Dialogues: Concrete scripts to help you put these principles into practice immediately.
Practical Exercises: Simple activities to gain confidence with useful questions and strategies.
This summer I invite you to take an intentional approach to communication with your family. Whether you’re relaxing at home or on vacation, Relationspaces offers the tools to make your parent-child relationship a source of strength for your entire family.
Get your copy today at https://relationspaces.com/book/. Leaving a review is always appreciated and encourages readership.
Thank you and all the best for a great summer season!
Vicky
Vicky Essebag MEd-CPSY, OCT, OPC, CSFC-CCPC (Toronto, Canada) is widely known for inspiring inclusive and compassionate spaces for living and learning as she applies and teaches Solution Focus as a communicative practice to support a relationship-based approach in schools, families and organizations. Vicky pairs her extensive background in education as a teacher, school counselor, head of counseling, curriculum consultant and school administrator, with her experience as a family therapist and certified solution-focused coach. She is Founder of Relationspaces, through which she provides international public speaking, instructional leadership, coaching and consulting. www.relationspaces.com. info@relationspaces.com, and Author of Relationspaces; A Solution Focused Handbook for Parents.
Book: Relationspaces; A Solution-Focused Handbook for Parents. Written by: Vicky Essebag
School Solutions Talk Podcast Vicky Essebag & Tara Gretton. Available with most podcast providers. Contact us at: schoolsolutionstalk@gmail.com
Relationspaces Power Burst Videos. Segments that respond to specific relationship and communicative questions. Vicky Essebag & Tara Gretton. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel – youtube@relationspaces
A Call Across the Pond; Transforming Relationships at School, at Home and Beyond
Podcast Vicky Essebag & Tara Gretton
copyright 2026 Vicky Essebag. Used with permission
