Supporting an aging parent can change a family quickly. Decisions about care, money, and where a parent will live often arrive alongside grief, caregiver stress, and disagreements with siblings, while you are still managing your own work and children. Therapy gives you a place to sort through it. Sessions are available in person and online.
We work with adult children, siblings, and partners who are helping a parent through illness, memory loss, or a major change in independence. Some people come on their own to find their footing. Others bring a sibling or spouse to work on how they communicate and make decisions together.
How Support for Adult Families Works
Caring for a parent tends to bring up old family patterns. Siblings can fall back into the roles they had growing up, and the person who lives closest often ends up doing most of the work. Therapy helps you notice those patterns and decide how you want to respond to them now.
Your clinician helps you sort out what is yours to decide, what needs to be shared, and where you need limits. We also make room for the grief that comes with watching a parent change. Where it fits, we bring siblings or partners into sessions to work on a shared plan.
What We Help With
Caregiver Stress and Burnout
Exhaustion, guilt, and resentment that build when you are the one holding everything together.
Sibling Disagreements About Care
Conflict over who does what, who pays for what, and how involved each person should be.
Decisions About Care and Housing
Thinking through in-home help, assisted living, or a move, and how to talk about it with your parent.
Grief Before and After a Loss
Sadness over memory loss or chronic illness, and mourning that begins well before a parent dies.
Balancing Parents, Children, and Work
Managing competing demands without losing sight of your own health, marriage, and kids.
Changing Roles With a Parent
Adjusting to a relationship in which you are now the one who makes calls and arranges care.
Approaches We Use
Individual Therapy for Caregivers
Regular sessions to process stress, set limits, and make decisions with less guilt.
Facilitated Family Conversations
Sessions with siblings or other relatives to talk through care decisions, with a clinician guiding the conversation.
Grief and Anticipatory Loss Counseling
Support for the loss that comes with chronic illness or cognitive decline, and for the loss that follows.
Strategies for Limits and Self-Care
Practical ways to protect your time, energy, and relationships while caring for a parent.
What to Expect
You don’t need to have it all figured out before you reach out.
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1
A Free Consultation
We talk briefly about what is happening with your parent and your family, and match you with a clinician whose training and style fit.
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2
Getting to Know Your Situation
Your clinician learns about your parent’s needs, your family, and the pressures you are under, then agrees on goals with you.
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3
Building and Practicing Your Plan
Sessions are usually weekly to start, 45–60 minutes. You work on communication, limits, and decisions, and revisit the plan as your parent’s needs change.
Care That Connects Across Specialties
Supporting a parent often touches other parts of your life. Our clinicians work across specialties, so care can adjust as your needs do.
- Adult individual therapy for stress, mood, and your own well-being
- Grief and transitions for loss, caregiving changes, and life shifts
- Couples therapy when caregiving is straining your marriage or partnership
- Family therapy for your wider family system
- In-law and extended family therapy when relatives are part of the tension
- Parent-focused therapy when you are parenting your own children while caring for a parent
