Good Enough Parenting (GEP) is an evidence-informed programme which has transformed the lives of thousands of families in Singapore and abroad, by empowering parents to meet their children’s “Core Emotional Needs”, avoid “Exasperation Interactions”, cultivate “Nurturing Interactions”, build “Intrinsic Values and Community” as well as “Repair and Reconnect” with teenagers and adult children.
The programme draws from principles of Schema Therapy and Movie Therapy® and offers a step-by-step guide for parents to learn how to raise emotionally healthy children. endorsed by Dr Jeffrey Young from the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, and Founder of Schema Therapy.
In Singapore, the programme is offered by Louis Counselling and Training Services and there are now over 1,000 trained facilitators from Asia, Europe, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Australia, and the Americas. Good Enough Parenting is a trademark in the United States and in the process of being trademarked in Singapore. The Good Enough Parenting book has just been published by a New York publisher, Morgan James Publishing. It is now available at retail throughout the United States and Canada. It is also available from Amazon.com.
Based in both Singapore and Malaysia, and married for almost 30 years with two adult children who are also parents, John and Karen Louis bring unique experience and expertise to Good Enough Parenting. Both are global citizens, with John being of Indian descent, born and raised in Malaysia and educated in the UK, while Karen hails from a cotton farm in Texas. Given that they have also lived in England, Australia, and Indonesia, the Louis are sensitive to marriage and parenting issues from many cultures.
John holds a PhD from the UK (Stirling University) and has conducted research on schemas and parenting scales. His research findings on some of the GEP concepts was published in several reputable peer reviewed journals. He is a Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor and Trainer, and was trained directly by Dr Jeffrey Young, founder of Schema Therapist. Karen holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Monash University and is a Master Solution Focused Practitioner.
When we began to think about writing a book on parenting in 2008, we decided to write a marriage book first since we taught that a healthy relationship between husband and wife is a key component in meeting the core emotional needs of children. Therefore, we decided to put a parenting book on the back burner and write I Choose Us. At that time, we were overseeing a large ministry in our fellowship of churches, and we were very much in “love connection”, the optimum state for married couples.
This was the case until a few years later, about the time we were becoming empty nesters, when we let our busy work and travel schedule and the challenges we faced writing our parenting book get the best of us. In hindsight, we had stopped “practicing what we preached” in our own book…we had arrogantly taken on too many roles and were not making sure our hearts were soft towards God and each other.
Over the next few years our marriage deteriorated, and the dysfunction caused us to not be able to lead anyone in a healthy way. We stepped down from leadership roles for several years in our Southeast Asia church family, went on a sabbatical and I (John) resigned from being an elder. A number of close friends helped us (some of it we did not appreciate at the time) and we are grateful for their perseverance with us amidst our many weaknesses.
We wanted to write this statement on our website to let people know that we are not teaching from a pedestal of having done everything well – far from it – rather from a place that has woven together our experiences of highs, lows, grief, loss, victory, defeat, mercy and hope. Secondly, we openly welcome any questions written to us personally or if you prefer, you can contact some of our mentors/ministry partners:
Harliem Salim: [email protected]
Vincent Sim: [email protected]
Mike Fix: [email protected]
Bill Hooper: [email protected]
We hope that even as we are still getting help and making progress, the resources on this website will be useful to you.
Warmest Regards,
John & Karen Louis
