Psychotherapy

IMPORTANT: I’m currently not accepting new clients for therapy, whether individual or family. Please see my Consultation page if you wish to speak with me about your situation.

Learn about consultation for parents of estranged adult children

Find a therapist using goodtherapy.org or psychologytoday.com

I offer psychotherapy by telephone or video to clients in Colorado and Oregon. Sessions are 50 minutes long and generally take place once a week. I don’t take insurance, as insurance only pays for “medically necessary” therapy, and I’m a relationship specialist.

If you live elsewhere, and are the parent of an estranged adult child, I offer short-term consultation, which is not the same as therapy. Please see my Consultation page for details.

My greatest strength as a therapist is my ability to get to the root of a problem quickly.

Below are the two main concerns that bring people into my office, and how I work with them.

Relationship problems between parents and adult children

I offer compassion, healing, and practical tools for parents rejected by adult children, and anyone walking on eggshells in parent-adult child relationships. My approach to family conflict is, above all, non-blaming and non-shaming.

Estrangement from a son or daughter can severely disrupt a person’s physical, mental and emotional well-being. Sometimes the best thing you can do is hunker down for a while and catch your breath before taking any new steps.

For many parents, improving the relationship requires setting the stage through personal growth and individual healing first. I’ve seen parents succeed in reconnecting with an estranged son or daughter by approaching the problem with a full emotional “bucket” rather than feeling fragile, vulnerable, or confused.

Therapy can help fill that emotional bucket and add new tools to your tool belt. Parent-adult child estrangement is an area of specialty for me; I’ve sat with hundreds of people in this painful situation. Happily, I’ve seen many succeed in breaking through the impasse.

If you’re a parent, you’re welcome to to join me inside The Reconnection Club, my online school and support hub for parents rejected by adult children. The Club is not a substitute for therapy, so please seek local support.

Both parents and adult children can search for a therapist by zip or postal code at goodtherapy.org or psychologytoday.com.

Sadness/Loneliness/Grief

You wouldn’t know it from watching television, but it’s perfectly normal to feel low sometimes. Life has ups and downs; we respond to them emotionally because we’re human.

Feeling sad or lonely is an authentic response to a loss of connection to yourself and/or others. And grief – in all its forms, including just feeling numb – is a natural response to loss.

Too often, we don’t have the support we need to move through life’s inevitable dark passages. We feel freakish in our pain, or worse, a burden on others.

I’m privileged to provide clients with some of the support we all deserve when we experience loss or disconnection. I can also hold a flashlight to brighten the path that leads through the pain and out the other side.

A good DIY resource for dealing with difficult emotions is my book, Constructive Wallowing: How to Beat Bad Feelings by Letting Yourself Have Them.

Next Steps…

I’m sorry to say that I’m not taking new therapy clients at the moment. If that changes, I’ll update this page.

Therapy for parents of estranged adult children should be the same as regular individual therapy. It’s important to explore your own heart and personal history apart from your child(ren), to achieve emotional healing.

An estrangement specialist may be consulted about the situation (see my Consultation page to learn more), but personal therapy is a separate and usually necessary step for parents. Adult children of course benefit from therapy as well.

Ask around or seek a therapist by zip or postal code at goodtherapy.org or psychologytoday.com.