Family Counseling for Adults in Roanoke, VA and Online
Are you struggling with your family relationships and seeking support? Maybe you’re undergoing lots of life changes at once, such as redefining relationships with adult children, caring for your own aging parents, or trying to reconnect with estranged siblings.
Family dynamics can be complex and painful — and having the guidance of a trained therapist can help relieve some of the stress or trepidation surrounding addressing family issues.
It may be hard to think about airing out your family’s dirty laundry or addressing long-carried baggage — especially if a lot of time has passed. But if healing is what you seek, family counseling can be a tremendous source of comfort, support, and growth.
Don’t worry if family therapy seems too daunting as a starting point. I get it! We can start on an individual basis, and then explore if family healing would be appropriate. For more information about individual therapy services, please click here.
Not all family members may be ready or capable of engaging in family therapy, and that’s okay too. We will prioritize your safety, wellbeing, and boundaries, and happily welcome those family members who are willing and able to participate.
Even as children, our relationships with our family members can be complex and multilayered. As we age and encounter more of the complexities of adult life, these struggles can take on more nuanced elements. As past disagreements, unspoken misunderstandings, changing family dynamics, and even personal growth occur, the bonds with family can become strained. By offering guidance and support, I help facilitate healing and understanding between adult family members.
I am passionate about working with adults who are curious about the possibility of shifting long-standing family dynamics. This is a specialized area of need. As there are many providers who address family therapy when children are still being raised in the home, I choose to focus on the underserved area of adult family issues and their repair.
What is Family Therapy for Adults?
Family therapy is a place for family members to come together to discuss unhealthy or unhelpful patterns of relating so that they can be replaced with more effective, healing ones.
A lot of unintended hurt can be caused within a family unit, even if there is also a lot of love there.
My goal is to help you develop healthier connections — starting with understanding how past experiences impact current relationships — then healing those past harms so that you and your family can live more fully connected to each other. If a deep connection between family members is not possible, we will work together to find ways for you to live with intentional boundaries that promote your wellbeing and safety.
I utilize an Internal Family Systems approach in family therapy as well as in individual and couples therapy. Through IFS, we’ll track communication patterns in the family unit and understand how those patterns impact each person individually. You’ll notice what self-talk is triggered by whom, how you feel when speaking to certain family members, what actions you take and how those actions might “protect” you — thereby unearthing the unintended impact each family member is having on the rest of the family.
In family counseling, you may wish to work on issues such as:
- Strengthening or redefining your parent-child relationship
- Adjusting to life changes such as:
- Children moving into adulthood
- Adult children becoming parents and parents become grandparents
- Caretaking for aging parents
- Reconciliation after estrangement and/or lost connections
- Harmful parent-child dynamics that hinder growth and development and damage self-esteem
- Communicating respectfully and practicing active listening
- Emotion regulation
- Naming emotions, hurt feelings, or missed opportunities for connection
- Acknowledging and navigating the unique challenges that come with eating disorders
I offer both in-person and online family therapy.
Via the PSYPACT agreement, I am ethically and legally able to see clients from anywhere in Virginia, where I reside, and most other states via telehealth. To see if your state is covered by the PSYPACT agreement, please click here.
Part of family therapy includes psychoeducation in an empathetic, non-pathologizing way. If you or a family member is struggling with an anxiety disorder, mood disorder, substance use disorder or eating disorder, family therapy can help provide additional support.
Family Counseling For Eating Disorders in Roanoke, VA
Living with and recovering from eating disorders can be incredibly difficult and create painful, stressful situations in family dynamics. I can help you and your family navigate these situations with family therapy online in most states or in person.
I have extensive experience working with individuals in recovery from eating disorders, and including the family is a key component of the healing journey.
In family therapy, we can address stressful, hot button topics such as:
- What to say to your family member who is recovering from an Eating Disorder.
- If you are in recovery, what triggers you when you are around family?
- How will family meals, especially on vacations or holidays, be handled?
- Has there been an opportunity to understand how childhood experiences may have contributed to the development of disordered eating? Because IFS therapy is non-pathologizing, this is NOT about assigning blame, but furthering connection with each other through courageous communication. Even comments made with the intention of “helping” the family member can have unintended and deeply painful consequences. I can help heal these wounds and empower deep and authentic connection with each other.
- Mother/Daughter relationships, which can be fraught with issues related to body image
- The transmission of attitudes about the body and food across generations
- Implicit and explicit messages about how to be a man or woman in society
Adult Family Dynamics Can Improve with Family Therapy
It takes tremendous courage to admit that your family would benefit from family therapy, especially when you’re all complex adults with established values, habits, and belief systems. But I want you to know that I approach every family unit with openness and compassion rather than judgment.I am not here to judge you for what you have or have not done. As an experienced, licensed clinical psychologist, I act as a guide and support system as your family unearths past pains while moving forward toward a more hopeful, connected future.
My hope for you is that by healing the family unit, we heal ourselves. But I recognize that not all family members are willing and/or able to participate in family therapy. If you think your family would benefit from family therapy online, but you’d like to start with individual therapy, please visit my individual therapy services page to learn more.
Right now, it may feel like you don’t have a choice in how you react to loved ones. You may be on auto-pilot, allowing the same triggers, the same people, and the same situations to get under your skin. Family therapy teaches you that you do have a choice — and will help you turn difficult or seemingly impossible conversations into courageous conversations.
Start Healing Your Adult Family Relationships Today
The longer that rifts in adult family relationships remain unresolved, the deeper and more entrenched they become. The sooner you start your journey of healing with your family, the sooner you can grow and heal together. Call (540) 915-1508 or click here to set up a free 15-minute consultation.