Online Parenting Classes & Family Therapy in Colby, KS
The families who reach out to New Connections Mental Health from the Colby area often describe a similar experience: they have been pushing through. Parenting classes in Colby, Kansas offer those families a chance to stop pushing and start building something more intentional and more sustainable than willpower alone.
Thomas County stretches across the northwest Kansas plains, and Colby anchors it as a city that functions both as a waypoint along I-70 and as a genuine community with deep roots. Families near Colby Community College, along the US-24 corridor, and out through the rural townships toward Oakley and Goodland have all made their way to New Connections. The Prairie Museum of Art and History speaks to the identity of a community that knows where it came from and values what endures, and that same quality of rootedness shows up in how Colby families approach their parenting.
Thomas County parents tend to combine ambition with groundedness, a combination that makes them particularly effective in the CPRT program. Most families who take parenting classes in Colby, Kansas describe an experience of finally having the language to match the instincts they have had all along. The tools make concrete what they already sensed but could not quite do consistently.
Explore our Online Child Parent Relationship Training
The Child-Parent Relationship Training is a 10-week guided program to help you turn daily meltdowns into moments of connection through play, co-regulation, and relationship-based tools, without yelling, power struggles, or feeling like you’re failing as a parent.
How it works
The CPRTprogram is a
framework built around connection, not correction
CPRT draws on decades of research in child development and relationship science. What makes it work in practice is not just the evidence behind it but how it translates into the small moments of daily parenting. Parents do not need to understand attachment theory. They need to know what to do in the next five minutes, and CPRT gives them that.
Explore the right type of coaching for your family
Colby families can call New Connections and speak with Michelle Holdeman to talk through what is happening at home and which format works best. Group or individual, virtual or in-person in Hays, the right fit depends on the family, and the first conversation exists entirely to figure that out.
Skills that stay with families long after the program ends
Every week of the program brings one new skill and one short practice session at home. By the final week, those skills have layered into a new daily fluency with a child. The relationship does not just improve during the program. It keeps improving afterward because the tools become second nature.
Explore our services and specializations
CPRT works best when parents come in genuinely curious. Not at the end of the rope, just open to learning something that might change how they read their child. That openness is the only real prerequisite, and most Colby families have it in abundance.
The changes that accumulate over the course of the program tend to be specific and observable. Parents start catching themselves before they react. Children start bringing things to parents they previously kept to themselves. The relationship becomes a safer place for both of them, and that safety tends to hold.
As a virtual online parenting course, CPRT is accessible to Colby families without requiring a long drive or a rearranged schedule. The sessions come to the family, which means the energy parents save on logistics can go directly into the practice itself.
In a community like Colby, where the school is central and everyone's story is at least partly visible, teenagers sometimes have a harder time admitting what they are actually going through. Teen therapy offers something uncommon in that context: a completely private relationship with a trusted adult whose only job is to understand them.
Adolescents often enter therapy a little wary and leave it considerably lighter. Over time, the work helps young people develop a more honest relationship with their own internal experience. They start identifying what triggers them before it escalates, and they begin communicating it at home in ways that change the dynamic between them and their parents.
Virtual sessions give Colby teens access to consistent support without adding visibility to the experience. The therapy stays between the teen and the therapist, and the scheduling stays flexible enough to fit around what actually matters to a teenager's life.
The families that come to family therapy at New Connections are not broken families. They are families that have gotten stuck in a way of being with each other that no longer serves anyone well. Family therapy provides the structure to examine those patterns honestly and begin moving through them toward something better.
What tends to emerge in the process is a kind of mutual recognition that each person had been experiencing things the others did not fully see. That recognition does not dissolve conflict, but it transforms the ground on which conflict happens. Conversations start going somewhere new instead of cycling through the same worn grooves.
Virtual sessions make family therapy in Colby genuinely workable. Nobody has to coordinate transportation or burn a weeknight driving. The family participates together from home, and the work is just as substantive as anything that happens in an office.
We serve clients in Colby and nearby areas
New Connections Mental Health serves Thomas County and the northwest Kansas communities around it, including Oakley, Goodland, WaKeeney, and the rural areas between. Virtual parenting classes and an online parenting course are available statewide, and in-person sessions are held at 2810 Plaza Avenue in Hays for families making the drive east. The map below shows the Hays office for reference.
Testimonials
“I’m very grateful for your wisdom! You are so gifted at your profession!”
“Thank you so much for helping me with my child. You have no idea how much we appreciate it and how much you mean to the both of us!”
“I hope you know how much you mean to us. You are incredibly talented and came into our lives at the exact right time. Thank you for supporting and loving us. Your work has made a world of difference in our trajectory and healing. We love you very very much!”
Hi, I'm Michelle Holdeman, founder of New Connections Mental Health group practice
Frequently asked questions
How is CPRT different from any other parenting curriculum?
- CPRT uses the language of children's play to build connection and understanding between parent and child.
- It introduces one new concept weekly, practiced in short sessions, making it easier to retain and implement.
- Best of all, CPRT is recognized by SAMHSA as an Evidence-Based Treatment, proving its effectiveness.
What is expected from the parent:
- CPRT focuses on gradual learning, introducing one practical skill at a time so parents can apply and retain new strategies effectively.
- Rather than overwhelming you with too much theory, CPRT is structured to be clear, doable, and supportive for busy families.
- Each week builds on the last, helping you strengthen your bond, improve communication, and reduce conflict with your child in a manageable way.
- CPRT has been validated by SAMHSA as an Evidence-Based Treatment, setting it apart from standard parenting guides.
Will my insurance cover the cost of CPRT?
Group CPRT classes are not eligible for insurance billing. However, if you’re attending individual sessions, we can provide a superbill. This document can be submitted to your insurance provider for possible reimbursement, depending on your plan’s coverage.