Adult Children & Parent Therapy
You’re both adults now. But sometimes the relationship still feels stuck in the past.
The relationship between a parent and an adult child is supposed to change over time.
Roles shift. Boundaries change. Adult children build lives, relationships, and families of their own. Parents have to figure out how to stay connected without parenting in quite the same way.
Sometimes that transition happens naturally.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
Old hurts resurface. Boundaries are experienced as rejection. Concern feels like criticism. Conversations about the past turn into arguments about whose memory is accurate. A parent may feel confused about why everything seems to come back to what they got wrong. An adult child may feel exhausted from trying to explain why something still hurts.
Eventually, you may find yourselves having the same conversation over and over again.
Therapy creates space to have a different one.
When You Both Have a Different Version of the Relationship
Most parents and adult children don’t come to therapy because they stopped caring about each other.
Often, there is still enormous love underneath the frustration, defensiveness, guilt, anger, grief, or distance.
But you may understand what happened very differently.
An adult child may need a parent to understand the impact of something that happened. A parent may hear that conversation as a judgment of everything they did as a parent.
One person explains. The other feels dismissed. They push harder to be understood. The other becomes defensive or shuts down.
And suddenly you're back in the same cycle.
Therapy gives us room to slow that down.
We can make space for impact without automatically assuming harmful intent, and for context without using it to erase impact.
What Brings Parents & Adult Children to Therapy?
You might be navigating:
Longstanding conflict or resentment
Childhood experiences that still affect the relationship
Changing boundaries and expectations
Feeling criticized, controlled, dismissed, or misunderstood
Differences involving partners, parenting, or grandchildren
Old family roles that no longer fit
Increasing emotional distance or limited contact
Reconnecting after estrangement
Trying to prevent estrangement before it happens
You do not have to agree on exactly what the problem is before coming to therapy.
There Doesn't Have to Be a Villain
I don’t begin this work assuming that parents are entitled to relationships with their adult children.
I also don’t assume that distance or estrangement is automatically the healthiest response to relational pain.
Adult children should not have to ignore harmful patterns to preserve a relationship. Parents should not be reduced to a list of mistakes without room for context, accountability, growth, and change.
My approach intentionally takes a middle path.
Rather than deciding who is right, we look at what happened, what continues to happen between you, what responsibility belongs to each person, and what would actually need to change for the relationship to become healthier.
How We Begin
I meet individually with each person first before beginning joint sessions.
This gives everyone space to share their experience, important family history, and hopes for therapy without immediately having to defend their perspective or manage someone else’s reaction.
We then begin meeting together, typically for 90-minute sessions, which gives us enough room to work with difficult conversations without rushing them.
My approach is informed by attachment, trauma, family systems, and relational therapy, along with specialized training in parent and adult child estrangement and reconciliation, including training with Dr. Joshua Coleman.
When Estrangement Is Already Part of the Story
You may already have limited or no contact. Perhaps someone is considering reconnecting, or contact has resumed but still feels fragile.
Reconciliation is not something I force or promise.
We can explore what contributed to the rupture, what each person needs now, and whether a different kind of relationship is possible.
Investment
60 minutes: $235
90 minutes: $352.50
Fees are based on time, not the number of family members participating. Families can divide the cost however they choose.
Trauma Wise Healing is a private-pay practice.
ADULT CHILDREN & PARENTS
The Relationship Doesn't Have to Stay Where It Is.
Maybe you want to feel closer. Maybe you're trying to prevent more distance. Or maybe you aren't sure yet what you want. You don't have to know how this ends to begin understanding what would need to change.