Family Therapy for Adults
When you love each other, but being in relationship has become painful.
Family relationships can carry years of history into a single conversation.
Maybe every attempt to talk ends in the same argument. Maybe someone has pulled away, and no one quite knows how to find their way back. Maybe boundaries have changed, and the family has not adjusted. Or maybe everyone agrees that something needs to change, but no one knows how to begin.
I specialize in adult family therapy, particularly relationships between parents and their adult children. My work focuses on helping families understand the patterns that keep them stuck, navigate difficult conversations, and explore what a healthier relationship could look like.
Sometimes the goal is to repair a relationship that has become strained. Other times, it's to prevent further distance, establish healthier boundaries, or understand how the relationship needs to change as everyone moves into a different stage of life.
Online Adult Family Therapy Across 12 States
Trauma Wise Healing provides private-pay telehealth therapy for adult family relationships in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Minnesota, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Sometimes the Problem Isn't a Lack of Love
You can love someone deeply and still struggle to have a healthy relationship with them.
In families, the people involved may have very different understandings of the past. Old roles can resurface almost instantly. The responsible one becomes responsible again. The peacemaker starts managing everyone's emotions. The person who never felt heard stops trying to explain.
A parent may experience a boundary as rejection, while an adult child experiences that same boundary as necessary for staying connected.
And everyone may genuinely believe they are responding to what is happening now, even when years of history are shaping the conversation.
Family therapy gives us room to slow those patterns down, understand what is happening underneath them, and explore whether the relationship can begin to function differently.
The goal isn't to determine whose version of the family is correct. It's to understand the relationship well enough to see what keeps happening between you and whether something different is possible.
Who I Work With
My family therapy practice focuses specifically on relationships between adult children and their parents, including situations where partners or other important family members are involved.
This might mean an adult child and a parent working through years of conflict, parents trying to understand changes in their relationship with an adult son or daughter, or family members navigating the impact of a partner, marriage, or changing family roles.
The circumstances may look different, but the underlying goal is often similar: understanding what has happened between you and whether the relationship can begin to work differently.
Sometimes the question is “How do we repair this?”
Sometimes it's “How do we keep this from getting worse?”
And sometimes it's simply “Can someone help us understand what keeps happening?”
Longstanding Conflict The same hurts or arguments keep resurfacing.
Different Expectations You don’t agree on what the relationship should look like.
Family-of-Origin-WoundsEarlier Family experiences still shape things today.
Emotional DistanceContact is becoming limited or increasingly strained.
Changing Boundaries Old roles and expectations no longer fit.
Repeating Family PatternsEveryone keeps falling back into familiar roles.
Communication BreakdownConversations quickly become tense, defensive, or stuck
Family Transitions Life changes are shifting roles and relationships.
Family Therapy Without Choosing a Side
When families are hurting, it can be tempting to search for the person who caused the problem.
That isn't how I approach this work.
Each person brings their own history, experiences, perspective, and understanding of what has happened. Two people can experience the same relationship very differently without either person's experience being meaningless.
My role isn't to decide who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.
It is also not to force forgiveness, automatically endorse distance, insist that a relationship be preserved at all costs, or assume reconciliation should always be the goal.
Instead, we work toward understanding the patterns between you, increasing each person's ability to take meaningful responsibility for their part, and determining what a healthier relationship might realistically look like.
Sometimes that means greater closeness.
Sometimes it means clearer boundaries.
Sometimes it means recognizing that repair requires changes that haven't happened yet.
And sometimes the first goal is simply being able to have a difficult conversation without repeating the same cycle.
How Family Therapy Works
I don't typically begin family therapy by putting everyone in the same virtual room and asking, "So, what brings you here?"
Instead, I start by getting to know each person individually. This gives everyone an opportunity to share their perspective before we begin working together.
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Individual meetings
I begin by meeting individually with each family member who will be participating.
This gives each person space to share their experiences, concerns, and understanding of the relationship without having to navigate everyone else's reactions in the moment.
It also helps me understand the family history, what has happened from each person's perspective, and what they hope might be different.
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Begin together
After completing the individual assessment process, we begin meeting together.
Our initial conversations focus on understanding the relationship, identifying patterns that keep everyone stuck, and establishing a foundation for more productive communication.
We don't need everyone to agree about the past before we can begin understanding what happens between them.
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Work with the pattern
From there, therapy focuses on understanding the recurring family patterns that keep everyone stuck and practicing a different way of responding when those familiar dynamics show up.
Sessions are typically 90 minutes in the beginning, allowing enough time for meaningful family work, particularly when multiple people are participating. As therapy progresses, we can determine whether 60-minute sessions become appropriate.
Specialized Family Therapy
Relationships between parents and their adult children can become complicated in ways that are very different from parenting a child.
Changing boundaries, old family roles, differences in expectations, unresolved childhood experiences, and the involvement of partners or grandchildren can all contribute to tension in the relationship.
My practice focuses specifically on helping adult children and parents understand these patterns and explore what a healthier adult-to-adult relationship could look like.
Explore Adult Children & Parent Therapy
Sometimes families come to therapy after contact has become limited or stopped altogether. Others come because they can feel the relationship moving in that direction.
Therapy can provide a structured place to explore what contributed to the rupture, whether repair is possible, and what each person would need for a healthier relationship moving forward.
Reconciliation isn't always the outcome, and it isn't something I believe should be forced.
Investment
Family therapy is billed based on the amount of time we spend together, not the number of family members participating.
Session Rates
60-minute session: $235
90-minute session: $352.50
These rates apply whether I'm meeting individually with a family member as part of the family therapy process or working with multiple family members together.
Getting Started
I typically begin by meeting individually with each participating family member for a 90-minute assessment before bringing everyone together.
These initial meetings allow me to better understand each person's perspective, the history of the relationship, and what each person hopes might be different.
Once we've completed the individual assessments, we begin meeting together. Most families start with 90-minute sessions, although we can discuss transitioning to 60-minute sessions as therapy progresses.
Payment and Insurance
Trauma Wise Healing is a private-pay practice and does not accept insurance.
Families are welcome to decide among themselves how they would like to divide the cost of sessions. The fee remains the same regardless of how many people participate.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Each family member deserves an opportunity to share their experience without immediately needing to defend or explain it to someone else. These individual assessment sessions also allow me to understand the larger family system, each person's perspective, and what they hope might be different before we begin working together.
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No. But that doesn't mean I avoid accountability or difficult conversations.
Part of family therapy involves understanding how each person's experiences and behaviors have shaped the relationship. Sometimes that means recognizing patterns that everyone contributes to. Other times, it means addressing specific behaviors or experiences that have caused harm.
My role isn't to determine who is right or wrong. It's to help everyone better understand what has happened, what needs to change, and whether a healthier relationship is possible.
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No. Therapy cannot guarantee reconciliation, and reconciliation is not always the appropriate outcome.
We can work toward understanding, accountability, healthier communication, clearer boundaries, or determining what kind of relationship is realistically possible. Sometimes that means rebuilding closeness. Other times, it means understanding why a different kind of relationship or greater distance may be necessary.
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The fee is based on session length rather than the number of participants. The rate is $235 for 60 minutes or $352.50 for 90 minutes, whether we're meeting individually as part of the family therapy process or together.
Your family can decide how to divide that cost. One person can pay, everyone can contribute equally, or family members can contribute different amounts.
FAMILY THERAPY FOR ADULTS
You Don't Have to Know
How This Ends to Begin.
You may want a closer relationship. You may be trying
to prevent further distance. Or you may not know yet
whether repair is possible.
We can start by understanding what has happened,
what keeps happening between you, and what each
person needs moving forward.