On this page
- January 30–31, 2027
- How do I become a certified parent instructor?
- Built for professionals who already work with families
- What does Parent Instructor training cover?
- Most parents in your room didn’t sign up.
- You don’t leave with a certificate and a blank page
- Learn the session rhythm once. Run any session in the book.
- Dr. Derek Collins
- Parent Instructor training at a glance
- Parent Instructor Certification FAQ
- Stop referring parents out. Start running the class.
Diversion Center · Professional Certification
Get certified to teach parenting classes to individuals, families, and court-mandated clients. This is a two-day live training with a finished curriculum, a complete facilitator guide, and everything you need to run your first class.
- Live 2-day training
- Jan 30–31, 2027
- Certificate on completion
- Curriculum included
- Marietta, GA
- Saturday & Sunday
Reserve a Seat: 404-503-8069 See what’s included
Next training
January 30–31, 2027
Dates
Saturday, Jan. 30 & Sunday, Jan. 31, 2027
Time
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET, both days
Format
Live, in person
Where
Diversion Center 2480 Windy Hill Rd, Ste 401 Marietta, GA 30067
Reserve Your Seat Seats are limited so every trainee gets practice time.
How do I become a certified parent instructor?
Complete Diversion Center’s two-day Certified Parent Instructor Training (Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., in Marietta, Georgia). The next training is January 30–31, 2027. You’ll learn to teach the Effective Parenting curriculum, which is built on evidence-based interventions grounded in cognitive behavioral and solution-focused approaches. You’ll leave with the curriculum, a facilitator guide, and a Certified Parent Instructor certificate. To reserve a seat, call 404-503-8069.
Who should get certified
Built for professionals who already work with families
If parents are already sitting across from you, this certification lets you run the class they’ve been ordered or referred to take.
Counselors & therapists
Add group parenting education to your practice, with a curriculum that fits CBT and solution-focused work.
Social workers & case managers
Deliver the parenting class your clients need yourself, so you’re not sending them somewhere else.
Court-approved providers
Add parenting classes to your court-mandated service line for court, DFCS/CPS, and probation referrals.
Educators
Run structured parent workshops for schools, early-learning centers, and family engagement programs.
Coaches & mentors
Turn your experience with families into a structured class with a professional credential behind it.
Community & faith organizations
Fatherhood programs, reentry, workforce, and ministry teams serving parents in your community.
What you’ll learn
What does Parent Instructor training cover?
- Positive parenting and effective discipline strategies
- Parent-child communication skills
- Conflict resolution and anger management
- Establishing rules, boundaries, and consequences
- Co-parenting and healthy family relationships
- Understanding child and adolescent behavior
- Supporting children’s emotional and social development
- Facilitating individual and group parenting classes
- Maintaining professional boundaries and documentation
- Working with court-mandated and agency-referred parents
- Expanding your private practice with parenting education services
Real talk
Most parents in your room didn’t sign up.
Somebody sent them. A judge, a caseworker, a probation officer. They walk in with their arms folded, wondering how long this is going to take. A curriculum that pretends otherwise loses them in the first ten minutes.
Effective Parenting was written for that room. It names the elephant on day one, separates guilt from shame, and teaches parenting as a skill, not a moral verdict. You get a class people actually engage with, and you’re trained to run it.
This training teaches you how to handle resistance, disclosures, mandated-reporting questions, and the parent who checks nothing on the inventory. That last one is armor, not accuracy.
What’s included
You don’t leave with a certificate and a blank page
You leave with a finished, ready-to-teach program built on the Effective Parenting: The Conversations Parents Avoid But Need to Have workbook by Dr. Derek Collins.
- CurriculumEffective Parenting workbookA session-by-session skills curriculum for parents and caregivers of children from birth through age 17.
- GuideFacilitator guide & session notesSession-by-session teaching notes, facilitation tips, and a timing plan for 2-hour and 90-minute formats.
- ResearchResearch base for every sessionAn APA-referenced evidence summary you can put in front of courts, agencies, and grant reviewers.
- AdminAdministrative packetAn attendance and participation log plus a facilitator fidelity checklist, so your documentation is ready on day one.
- OutcomesPre/post assessmentA program-specific self-report measure you can use to track change across your cohorts.
- SafetyCrisis & referral resourcesA crisis and referral resource guide plus a developmental reference aligned with the 2022 CDC/AAP milestones.
Plus your Certified Parent Instructor certificate when you complete the training requirements.
How every class runs
Learn the session rhythm once. Run any session in the book.
Every Effective Parenting session follows the same six-part rhythm. New facilitators get comfortable fast, and parents always know what’s coming.
- HookOpens by naming what the room is already thinking
- TeachingThe concept, always explained, never just dropped
- Self-InventoryA private checklist, never collected, never scored
- It Could Happen Like ThisA real-life scenario the group works through
- ReflectionWritten, individual, in the workbook
- Action StepOne thing to practice before next session
Topics your parents will cover
- Why You’re Here
- What’s Really Going On With Your Child
- The Moment Before You Lose It
- Cooling Down for Real
- What You Learned at Home
- Naming It
- Talking So They Hear You
- Discipline Is Teaching, Not Punishment
- Structure Is Love
- Keeping Them Safe
- The World They’re Growing Up In
- Co-Parenting and the Repair
DC
Curriculum developer
Dr. Derek Collins
- PhD
- CADC-II
- MATS
- SAP
Dr. Collins is CEO of Diversion Center and founder of the National Association of Court Approved Treatment Providers (NACATP). He has spent more than 15 years running court-mandated programs in metro Atlanta. He wrote Effective Parenting for the parents who actually end up in those rooms, and built this training so other professionals can deliver it with the same results.
Diversion Center operates DBHDD-approved, court-approved outpatient programs in Marietta, Lawrenceville, Duluth, Jonesboro, and Fayetteville, Georgia.
Training details
Parent Instructor training at a glance
| Credential | Certified Parent Instructor certificate |
| Format | Live, in-person professional training |
| Length | 2 full days (Saturday & Sunday), about 14 hours |
| Schedule | 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET, both days |
| Next dates | Saturday, January 30 – Sunday, January 31, 2027 |
| Location | Diversion Center, 2480 Windy Hill Rd, Ste 401, Marietta, GA 30067 |
| Curriculum | Effective Parenting: The Conversations Parents Avoid But Need to Have |
| Approach | Evidence-based interventions grounded in cognitive behavioral and solution-focused approaches |
| Enroll | 404-503-8069 |
Questions professionals ask
Parent Instructor Certification FAQ
A certified parent instructor is a professional trained and certified to teach structured parenting education classes to individuals, families, and court-mandated or agency-referred parents. Diversion Center’s certification prepares you to deliver the Effective Parenting curriculum in individual and group settings.
Complete Diversion Center’s two-day Certified Parent Instructor Training in Marietta, Georgia, and meet the training requirements. You’ll receive a Certified Parent Instructor certificate, the Effective Parenting curriculum, and a facilitator guide. Call 404-503-8069 to reserve a seat.
The training runs two full days, Saturday and Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern each day, for about 14 hours of live instruction.
The training is designed for counselors, therapists, social workers, educators, coaches, case managers, court-approved providers, and community-based professionals who work with parents and families.
The training prepares you to work with court-mandated and agency-referred parents, including documentation and attendance tracking. Each court, state, and agency sets its own rules for which providers it accepts, so check the requirements in your jurisdiction before you take court referrals.
Yes. You’re trained on the Effective Parenting: The Conversations Parents Avoid But Need to Have workbook. It comes with a facilitator guide, session notes, a research base, an administrative packet, a pre/post assessment, and crisis and referral resources. Each parent in your class needs their own workbook, and bulk orders are available.
Parent Instructor training is held live and in person at Diversion Center, 2480 Windy Hill Rd, Suite 401, Marietta, GA 30067.
The next Certified Parent Instructor Training is Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31, 2027, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days, at Diversion Center, 2480 Windy Hill Rd, Suite 401, Marietta, GA 30067. Call 404-503-8069 to reserve a seat.
Yes. Agencies, probation departments, and community organizations can ask about training a group of staff and licensing the Effective Parenting curriculum. Call 404-503-8069 or email info@thediversioncenter.com.
Get certified
Stop referring parents out. Start running the class.
January 30–31, 2027. Two days. A finished curriculum. A credential behind your name. Call to reserve your seat in the next cohort.
404-503-8069 Reserve Your Seat
Diversion Center · 2480 Windy Hill Rd, Ste 401, Marietta, GA 30067 · info@thediversioncenter.com Certification prepares you to deliver parenting education. It is not a clinical license. Court and agency acceptance of providers varies by jurisdiction.
