A 6-week parenting group · Now enrolling

Raising Connected Kids,
Toddler Through Teen

A beginner-friendly group blending psychoeducation with parent process work — for parents of kids toddler through age 18. Half of each night is teaching. The other half is ten other parents in a room saying the things out loud that you haven't said to anyone.

Reserve your seat See the six weeks
Flyer: Raising Connected Kids, Toddler Through Teen — a 6-week parenting group starting September 1 Tap the flyer to open it full size
Is this you?

You've read the parenting books. You know what to do.

This group is about why you don't do it when it counts — and that's the actual gap. If any of these sound like your house, you're in the right place.

Your kid does the same thing every day and some days you're fine, some days you snap — and you can't predict which.
You said no. Then you said no again. Then you gave in — and now you feel like a pushover in your own house.
Explaining it calmly, three times, still doesn't work.
"How was school?" gets "fine," and that's the whole conversation, every day.
You yell in a way you swore you never would, then spend the night sick about it.
Their friends' opinions clearly outrank yours, and you find out about their life from someone else's parent.
You and your co-parent respond to the exact same behavior in opposite ways — and the kid has learned exactly who to ask.
The same fight at the same time every single day: mornings, bedtime, transitions.

"I don't need six weeks of theory — I need my kid to stop hitting his sister." Fair. And the reason this isn't a list of tricks is that the tricks are what you already tried.

The through-line

These aren't six unrelated topics. They're one path.

What you believe about behavior, what you do about it, what gets in your way, and how you come back after it goes wrong.

Weeks 1–3What you believe about behavior — and what's actually happening in your child's brain and body.
Week 4What you do about it — the difference between a rule and a boundary, and why one of them works.
Week 5What gets in your way — the part of you that reacts before you can choose.
Week 6How you come back after it goes wrong — because it will, and that's the part that builds security.
The curriculum

The six weeks

Tap any week to see what it addresses and what we actually cover.

1
Foundations & Values
"Have you ever heard your mother's voice come out of your mouth — and hated it?"
Details

What this addresses

  • Your kid does the same thing every day and some days you're fine, some days you snap — and you can't predict which.
  • You and your co-parent respond to the exact same behavior in opposite ways, and the kid has learned exactly who to ask.
  • You swing between letting things slide all week and then coming down hard on Sunday.

What we actually cover

There are four parenting styles, mapped on two dials — warmth and structure. The one with the best outcomes is high on both. Most of us didn't have that modeled, so under stress we default to whatever we grew up with. This week you find out which one you snap back to, and you name the five values you actually want to parent from — so you have something to steer by when you're tired.

You can't be consistent until you know what you're being consistent about. This is the week the rest of the class stands on.
2
Attachment
"When did your kid stop coming to you first?"
Details

What this addresses

  • Toddler: clings to you, then melts down the second you walk out — and you're told to just ignore it.
  • Elementary: "how was school?" gets "fine," and that's the whole conversation, every day.
  • Teen: their friends' opinions clearly outrank yours, and you find out about their life from someone else's parent.

What we actually cover

Not baby stuff. Attachment is who your child orients to — whose approval steers them. It deepens through six stages as they grow, and if it isn't anchored to you, it doesn't disappear; it relocates. Usually to peers. This week is about keeping the compass point right as they're becoming more independent — which is exactly when parents assume they're supposed to back off.

Every hard conversation you'll ever need to have with your teenager depends on whether they still come to you. That gets built years before you need it — and it can be rebuilt later.
3
Behavior & the Nervous System
"Why does explaining it calmly, three times, still not work?"
Details

What this addresses

  • Toddler: full meltdown on the floor over the wrong color cup.
  • Elementary: homework turns into rage — thrown pencil, "I'm stupid," slammed door.
  • Teen: goes from zero to furious over nothing, then acts like it never happened.
  • Any age: the same fight at the same time every single day — mornings, bedtime, transitions.

What we actually cover

The thinking part of the brain isn't finished until the mid-twenties, and it goes offline entirely when a kid is flooded. Logic can't reach them there — that's not defiance, that's biology. Two questions change everything: instead of what's wrong with this behavior, ask what is this behavior telling me. And instead of my kid won't, consider my kid can't yet. Behavior you've been reading as a motivation problem is usually a skill that hasn't caught up.

If you've been punishing harder and it isn't working, this week explains why it can't work — and gives you the thing that does.
4
Boundaries
"You said no. Then you said no again. Then you gave in."
Details

What this addresses

  • Toddler: "five more minutes" becomes thirty, every time.
  • Elementary: hits or screams at you when told no, and you don't know if consequences are working.
  • Teen: negotiates everything — curfew, the phone, the car — until you're worn down or you blow up.
  • Any age: you hold the line and it becomes a two-hour war you regret.

What we actually cover

The distinction that lands hardest in the room: a rule is something your child has to do. A boundary is something you do. "Stop hitting me" requires their cooperation. "I won't stay here while you hit me — I'm stepping back" doesn't. Most parents aren't failing at boundaries; they're setting rules, calling them boundaries, and then losing a fight they were never able to win. You'll also get the piece people skip: you can validate the feeling and still hold the limit, in the same sentence.

This is the most immediately usable week in the course. Parents change one sentence and see a difference that night.
5
Inner Child Work
"Why does spilled milk make you angrier than it should?"
Details

What this addresses

  • You yell in a way you swore you never would, then spend the night sick about it.
  • One specific thing your kid does — the eye roll, the whining, being ignored — sends you through the roof, while other parents wouldn't blink.
  • You shut down, go cold, or disappear into your phone instead of exploding.

What we actually cover

This is the one that sounds the softest and does the most. The framework is simple: you have parts. A part that tries to control everything so nothing goes wrong. A part that yells or shuts down when things go wrong anyway. And younger parts carrying old hurt that the first two are protecting. A reaction way out of proportion to what your kid actually did is almost never about your kid — it's an old part getting activated. Once you can spot it, it stops running the show.

A light, educational introduction to parts language, held carefully in a group where everyone is in the same boat — not a deep therapeutic process.

You've read the parenting books. You know what to do. This is the week about why you don't do it when it counts.
6
Repair & Integration
"What do you actually do the morning after you blew it?"
Details

What this addresses

  • The kid who won't let it go for days after a fight — or the one who goes silent and you can't tell if you're okay.
  • A kid who apologizes constantly, or can't apologize at all, because they've never seen it modeled without shame attached.
  • You and your co-parent working at cross purposes, and neither of you can raise it without it turning into a fight.

What we actually cover

No parent is rupture-free. What predicts a secure kid isn't a parent who never loses it — it's a parent who comes back. You'll practice an actual repair, plus a plain feedback structure (what happened → the effect it had → what I'm asking for) that works on a co-parent, an older kid, or yourself. And you'll get the developmental map: the needs never change from toddler to eighteen, but a two-year-old needs those arms around them and a sixteen-year-old needs room to move inside a clear line.

You will lose it again. This is the week that makes that survivable — and turns it into the thing that actually builds security.
What a night looks like

Half teaching, half the part that actually changes things

Ninety minutes, once a week. You leave with something you can use before the next session.

Psychoeducation

The concept for the week, translated out of clinical language and into the behavior you're actually living with at home.

Parent process work

Real-time processing with the group. Ten other parents admitting the same things you haven't said out loud to anyone.

Toddler through teen

Every concept is taught across ages — what it looks like at three, at nine, and at sixteen. Bring whichever kid you've got.

Beginner-friendly

No prior therapy, reading, or vocabulary required. If you've never done any of this before, you're exactly who it's built for.

Grounded in the work of Dan Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson, Gabor Maté, Gordon Neufeld, Brad Reedy, Becky Kennedy & Richard Schwartz.
Details & registration

Reserve your seat

Sixteen seats total — ten in the room, six on Zoom. Registration closes August 25.

When
Tuesdays
7:00 – 8:30 PM · 6 weeks
Starts
September 1
Register by August 25
Format
In-person + Zoom
10 in-person seats · 6 virtual
Investment
$675 / person
$900 / couple · due in full at registration. That's $112.50 per session per person, or $150 per session per couple.
Step 1

Fill out the registration form

A few quick questions so I know who's coming, your kids' ages, and whether you want an in-person or virtual seat.

Open the registration form →

Takes about two minutes. Seats are held in the order registrations and payment come in, so if you know you want in, do both today — there are only sixteen.

Step 2

Pay to confirm your spot

Payment is due in full at registration and is what holds your seat. Choose the option that matches your registration:

$675
Individual · one parent
Pay with Stripe →
$900
Couple · two parents
Pay with Stripe →

Secure checkout through Stripe. Credit card, HSA and FSA cards accepted. Need a different arrangement? Reach out before you pay — see below.

Rates are set per cohort. The rate you register at is the rate you pay for this group, and returning participants are always offered the rate they first paid.

Your facilitator

Stephanie Snuffer, M.Ed, CMHC

Mental Refinery Therapy & Coaching
Mental Refinery Therapy & Coaching LLC
Licensed therapist & coach · Sandy, Utah

I'm a licensed therapist and coach with a belief that most of us are doing the best we can with what we know. My work is helping you learn more — about yourself, your relationships, and the patterns that keep you stuck.

I've been a therapist for years, but I've also been a wife, a parent in a blended family, and someone who's had to do a lot of my own work along the way. That lived experience shapes how I show up — grounded, direct, and genuinely invested in your progress.

This group draws on the same evidence-based modalities I use in the office: Gottman, IFS, Lifespan Integration, DBT, somatic work, and polyvagal theory — translated into language you can use at 7:00 on a Tuesday morning when nobody has shoes on.

Gottman · Level III Trained IFS Trained DBT Certified Lifespan Integration · Level III
FAQs

Good questions

My kids are different ages — is this still for me?
Yes. Every concept is taught across the full range, toddler through eighteen. The needs never change from two to eighteen; what changes is what meeting them looks like. Parents of a three-year-old and a fifteen-year-old both leave with something to use that week.
Do I need a therapy background, or to have read any of these books?
No. This is beginner-friendly by design. Nothing is assumed and no vocabulary is required — the whole point is translating this material into plain language about behavior you're actually living with.
Is this therapy?
No. It's a psychoeducational group with real-time processing built in. Week 5 includes a light, educational introduction to parts language, held carefully in a group setting — it isn't a deep therapeutic process, and the group is not a substitute for individual or family therapy.
Can I come without my partner? Can we both come?
Both work. Plenty of parents attend solo. If you and your co-parent want to attend together, the couple rate covers both of you — and the co-parenting material in weeks 1, 4 and 6 lands differently when you're both in the room.
What's the difference between the in-person and virtual seats?
Same content, same night, same group. In-person meets at the Sandy office; virtual joins live on Zoom. Ten in-person seats and six virtual seats, first come first served.
What if I have to miss a week?
Life happens. Let me know as early as you can and I'll make sure you get what you missed so you're not lost when you come back. The weeks build on each other, so consistency matters — but one absence won't sink you.
Is the group confidential?
Yes. What's said in the room stays in the room — it's the first agreement we make together, and it's what makes the process half of the night possible.
Do you take insurance for the group?
Group fees are paid directly and are not billed to insurance. HSA and FSA cards are accepted at checkout. If you have questions about payment, reach out before you register.

Still deciding?

Ask me anything before you register — whether it's a fit for your family, your kids' ages, or how payment works. I'll get back to you within one business day.

stephanie@thementalrefinery.com
(801) 692-3391
11075 S. State St., Bldg. 25, Sandy, UT 84070
Mental Refinery main site