Helping Families Thrive: Evidence-Based Therapy for Real Life Parenting
Giving Parents, Educators, and Clinicians Tools They Can Trust.
Support for All Families.
Not every family can or will walk into a clinic for therapy. Our mission is to bring evidence-based tools to families within and beyond our clinic walls.
Therapy and Support that understands both the science and the reality of parenting.
Helping Families Thrive provides psychological support for parents and families who are overwhelmed by mixed messages, impossible expectations, and the very real challenges of raising humans. Parenting can be deeply meaningful and deeply exhausting at the same time.
Support here is shaped by academic research, extensive clinical experience, and lived parenting experience across foster, kinship, adoptive, and biological roles. That combination allows therapy to be structured, evidence-based, and practical—while remaining real, compassionate, and grounded in everyday life.
The work focuses on helping parents live values-driven, authentic lives, even when things feel chaotic. Therapy is active and intentional, offering space for honesty, challenge, and growth rather than aimless venting. The goal is not perfect parenting, but a life that feels more aligned, sustainable, and possible.
Evidence & Balance. Less Shame. More Support.
Meet Dr. Shanna Sarita Alvarez, Founder & Licensed Psychologist
As a child development researcher and clinician, I am passionate about evidence-based parenting even before having kids myself. Once we became parents, we were overwhelmed by the amount of parenting information available, much of it not backed by research. This inspired the Helping Families Thrive mission: to bring parenting science to the real world.
The tools we share have been found to decrease challenging behaviors, improve parent-child relationships, and decrease parental stress. We don’t promise to make parenting easy, but we do promise that applying our techniques will make the hard work you put in more valuable to you and your family.
Service Locations
Helping Families Thrive provides telehealth services for adults and children in Washington State and all PSYPACT-participating states in the USA.
Telehealth services are offered in accordance with licensing and PSYPACT Regulations.
Telehealth services are also available in British Columbia, Canada
In addition to virtual care, in-person school and community observations, consultations, and trainings are available in Washington State and British Columbia.
Improve Your Child’s Emotion Regulation Skills
