Online Parenting Classes & Family Therapy in Norton, KS

There is a particular kind of resourcefulness that develops in families who live far from most services. Norton County parents know how to manage, improvise, and carry a great deal without asking for help. Parenting classes in Norton, Kansas are designed to meet that kind of parent: one who is already doing much of it right and is ready for the specific tools that make everything they are doing more effective.


Prairie Dog Creek winds through Norton County, and Prairie Dog State Park sits to the west, marking the edge of a region shaped by open land, agricultural rhythms, and communities that take care of their own. Families spread across Norton and out toward Oberlin, Phillipsburg, and the rural townships in between are part of one of the most spread-out corners of Kansas. New Connections reaches that region through virtual sessions that require nothing more than a connection and a quiet window of time.


In northwest Kansas, distance is not just geographic. The gap between needing support and being able to access it has always been real, and many Norton families have adjusted to simply going without. What virtual parenting classes make possible is a different calculation: one where meaningful family support is as close as wherever a parent happens to be sitting.


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

 

 

The CPRT model gives parents a completely new way of reading what their children do. When a child acts out, melts down, or withdraws, that behavior is not the event. It is the message. Learning to read the message rather than respond to the surface of it changes the way parents move through every difficult moment.


Explore the right type of coaching for your family

 

 

Families in Norton and the surrounding area can reach Michelle Holdeman by phone to talk through what is going on and find out which format fits best. The conversation is informal and focused entirely on the family's needs. There is no pressure and no obligation until a family is ready to begin.



Skills that stay with families long after the program ends

 

 

Because the program is built around weekly skills practiced in short home sessions, it adapts to the realities of rural family life. There is no expectation that Norton families rearrange their schedules around the program. The program arranges itself around them.



Explore our services and specializations


For parents in Norton who have been holding things together with patience and consistency but still feel like the connection with their child is slipping, CPRT offers something specific: a way back in. Not through more discipline or more structure, but through a fundamentally different kind of attention to what the child is actually trying to express.


Parents in the program describe the experience as gradual and then suddenly very clear. Week by week the daily interactions at home shift in quality. Children who felt distant start initiating. Parents who felt stuck start feeling capable. The relationship becomes something neither party has to work as hard to sustain.


As an online parenting course available virtually across Kansas, CPRT asks nothing of Norton families beyond showing up and doing the weekly practice. The commute is zero. The impact tends to last long past the final session.



Growing up in rural northwest Kansas comes with real gifts and real pressures. The land is open, the community is tight, and the future can feel both wide and uncertain at the same time. Teenagers in Norton who are carrying anxiety, identity questions, or the strain of difficult family dynamics deserve support that understands that context.


Teen therapy at New Connections gives young people a space that is specifically built for them: not a lecture, not a set of goals handed down by adults. Just a consistent relationship with someone trained to listen and respond in ways that help adolescents understand themselves better and carry things more easily.


Virtual sessions make consistent therapy possible for teens in Norton without requiring a drive across the county or a parent to take time off work. The work is accessible, private, and designed to fit into the actual shape of a teenager's life.



When family members have been in close quarters through harsh seasons, financial pressure, and the particular strain of rural life, conflict has a way of settling into the structure of the household itself. It becomes background noise that everyone has stopped noticing and no one quite knows how to address. Family therapy names it and gives it somewhere to go.


What happens when families do this work is rarely what they expect. Instead of sides and arguments, there are revelations. Instead of the same conversation cycling through endlessly, there is a different kind of exchange: slower, more honest, and more generative than anything the family managed on their own.


For Norton families and those across the county, virtual sessions make family therapy accessible without the barrier of distance. Everyone can participate from the same living room, which is often exactly where the work most needs to happen.



We serve clients in Norton and nearby areas

New Connections Mental Health extends its services throughout Norton County and across northwest Kansas. Virtual parenting classes and an online parenting course are available statewide, making consistent support accessible in Oberlin, Phillipsburg, Almena, Lenora, and the rural townships between. In-person sessions are available at the Hays office at 2810 Plaza Avenue for families able to make the drive. The map below shows the office location.


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

I understand that distance is one of the biggest barriers between northwest Kansas families and the support they deserve, which is a central reason I built New Connections Mental Health to reach families virtually as well as in person. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Registered Play Therapist with training in CPRT and EMDR, I have spent two decades working with children ages 3 to 17 and the adults who raise them. The team I have built shares my belief that no family should go without support because of where they live. Behavior is communication, and connection is the foundation of healing.



Frequently asked questions

  • How is CPRT different from any other parenting curriculum?

    • Most parenting curriculums can feel overwhelming CPRT isn’t. It offers a gentle learning curve: one skill per week, practiced during short playtimes that help you bond while learning.
    • Children use toys to process emotions, so CPRT helps you join them in that space and truly understand them.
    • And unlike many popular guides, CPRT is officially recognized as evidence-based by SAMHSA.

  • What is expected from the parent:

    I was surprised at how doable CPRT felt. Instead of overwhelming myself, I learned one skill a week and practiced it during playtime. It helped me connect with my child on a deeper level. Plus, knowing it’s evidence-based made me feel confident I was using something that truly works.

  • Will my insurance cover the cost of CPRT?

    Currently, CPRT group classes are not billed through insurance. If you opt for individual sessions, we can provide a superbill a detailed receipt of services that you can submit to your insurance company for possible out-of-network reimbursement.