Family Therapy and Co-Parenting Therapy

Family therapy focuses on relationships, communication, roles, emotional patterns, and the cycles happening between family members. It may include parents and teens, parents and adult children, siblings, partners, or other important family members, depending on the treatment goals and who can appropriately participate.

The purpose is not to identify one person as the problem. We look at how the family system responds under stress and build safer, clearer, and more connected ways of communicating, setting boundaries, and repairing after conflict.

Parent support gives one or more caregivers a place to understand what is happening in the family and build practical ways to respond. Sessions may focus on behavior, nervous system regulation, communication, boundaries, routines, school stress, executive functioning, sensory needs, parenting triggers, repair, or supporting a preteen, teen, or adult child without losing yourself in the process.

Depending on the goals and clinical needs, the service may be therapy or coaching. We will clarify the service, client, confidentiality, documentation, and payment expectations before beginning.

Co-parent support helps parents raise a child while navigating separation, divorce, different households, blended-family changes, parenting differences, communication breakdowns, or ongoing conflict. The focus is not deciding who is the better parent. It is helping adults communicate more clearly, reduce reactivity, create workable expectations, and protect children from being pulled into adult conflict.

Therapy and coaching are not interchangeable. The appropriate service depends on the goals, clinical needs, relationship between participants, licensure requirements, and whether the work involves treatment of a mental health condition.

Family therapy may fit when the relationships and interactions between family members are the primary focus. Parent support may fit when caregivers want help understanding their own responses or supporting a child who is not participating. Co-parent coaching may fit when the main goal is making communication and parenting across households more workable.

You do not need to decide alone. During consultation and assessment, we can discuss who is involved, what you want to change, relevant safety or legal concerns, and which format is most appropriate.

Participation depends on the goals, ages, relationships, consent, safety, and stage of treatment. Some sessions may include several family members, while others may include a parent and teen, parents only, or a planned individual meeting connected to the family work.

We will discuss who should attend before each session rather than assuming the whole family needs to be present every time.

Yes. Sometimes the most useful place to begin is with the parent. You can work on understanding behavior, recognizing your own triggers, responding instead of reacting, setting boundaries, strengthening communication, supporting regulation, and changing your part of the family cycle even when your child is not participating.

My current family work centers on parents, preteens, teens, adult children, and the relationships between them. I also provide parent-only support and co-parent coaching. The best arrangement depends on the presenting concern, developmental needs, safety, consent, and whether telehealth is appropriate for everyone involved.

Online family therapy can still be active, relational, and practical. We can slow down recent interactions, practice communication and repair, role-play a difficult conversation, create routines or plans, and notice what happens in real time when family members feel misunderstood or overwhelmed.

Telehealth is not appropriate for every family or every safety situation. We will consider privacy, technology, attention, ages, locations, symptoms, conflict patterns, and whether online outpatient support can appropriately meet your needs.

Family members may sometimes join from separate private locations, but this must be planned in advance. I need each participant’s physical location, reliable audio and video, privacy, and a way to respond if someone becomes disconnected or needs immediate support.

Therapy participants generally need to be physically located in South Carolina or Colorado at the time of the session. If anyone will be in another state, contact me before the appointment so we can review licensure, service type, and whether the meeting can proceed.

We begin by understanding what brought you in, who is affected, what the family has already tried, what feels most urgent, and what you hope will change. We may discuss family relationships, strengths, stressors, communication, neurodivergence, health, school, trauma, culture, identities, safety, supports, custody arrangements when relevant, and the current family cycle.

You do not have to tell the entire family story at once. We begin where you are and build a plan together.

Neurodiversity-affirming family support may address sensory overload, executive functioning, transitions, routines, emotional regulation, communication differences, masking, burnout, rejection sensitivity, demand sensitivity, school stress, and differences in processing or recovery time.

We do not treat a neurodivergent child or parent as the family problem. We look at the environment, expectations, relationships, nervous systems, strengths, and support needs while still maintaining accountability and boundaries around harmful behavior.

Behavior can communicate overwhelm, fear, pain, sensory distress, disconnection, a missing skill, an unmet need, a desire for control, or an attempt to protect oneself. Looking underneath helps us respond to the function of the behavior instead of only reacting to how it looks.

Understanding behavior does not mean removing every expectation or accepting aggression, cruelty, manipulation, or unsafe choices. Compassion and clear boundaries can exist together.

Therapy and parent support can help you recognize early signs of overload, identify triggers and patterns, reduce unnecessary demands during escalation, strengthen co-regulation, create recovery plans, and repair after difficult moments. We also look at sensory needs, communication, expectations, sleep, school stress, trauma, health, and other factors that may affect capacity.

The goal is not to punish a nervous system response or force someone to appear calm. It is to increase safety, understanding, recovery, communication, and access to skills over time.

No. Neuro-affirming support respects how a person’s brain and nervous system work while maintaining expectations for safety, respect, and accountability. We may adjust how a direction is communicated, reduce unnecessary sensory or executive functioning barriers, make expectations more concrete, or change the timing without removing the boundary itself.

The goal is structure without shame and boundaries without treating legitimate needs as defiance.

Yes. Parenting can activate old wounds, fear, shame, grief, perfectionism, anger, or the belief that you must get everything right. We can explore what happens in your body and mind during difficult moments, identify the patterns you want to change, build regulation and self-compassion, and create boundaries that protect your capacity and your relationship with your child.

Yes. Parents and adult children may seek therapy to address old hurts, estrangement, changing roles, caregiving, boundaries, communication, neurodivergence, grief, or a desire to understand each other differently. Therapy can create room for honest conversation and accountability without assuming that reconciliation, closeness, or one particular outcome is always the goal.

Co-parent support can help adults separate relationship hurt from parenting communication, reduce emotionally charged exchanges, make requests more specific, create plans for schedules and transitions, respond to changes, and keep children out of loyalty conflicts. It can also make room for the grief, anger, guilt, or fear that family changes may bring.

We may work on communicating directly between adults, avoiding the use of children as messengers, not asking children to report on the other home, keeping adult disagreements away from them, responding carefully when a child shares concerns, and giving children permission to care about both parents.

The exact plan depends on safety, age, development, court orders, and the family’s circumstances.

You may still be able to work individually on the part you can control: your communication, boundaries, documentation habits, triggers, responses, expectations, and the emotional environment you create in your home. We may discuss shorter and more factual messages, clearer limits, fewer unnecessary points of contact, and whether a parallel-parenting structure should be explored.

Coaching cannot make another person cooperate or replace legal advice, court orders, or specialized domestic-violence support.

Parallel parenting is a lower-contact approach that may be considered when frequent direct interaction creates repeated conflict. Responsibilities, communication, schedules, and decision-making may be more clearly separated so children are exposed to less adult escalation.

It is not the right structure for every family and must remain consistent with current court orders and legal agreements. A family-law professional should answer legal questions about your parenting plan.

Yes. New relationships, stepfamily roles, changing routines, loyalty concerns, different parenting expectations, and transitions between homes can affect everyone. We can slow down expectations, clarify roles and boundaries, protect parent-child relationships, build communication, and make room for the mixed emotions that often accompany a blended family.

No. Co-parent coaching is not legal advice, mediation, custody evaluation, reunification therapy, parenting coordination, expert testimony, or an investigation into which parent should receive custody. I do not decide legal disputes or make recommendations to the court through ordinary therapy or coaching.

Court-involved cases bring additional consent, confidentiality, record, role, and safety concerns. Share any current orders, litigation, attorney involvement, or expectations about records before scheduling so we can determine whether this practice and service are appropriate.

Family therapy has different privacy considerations from individual therapy because several people may participate while the family or relationship is the focus. Before beginning, we will clarify who the client is, who consents to treatment, who can access records, how individual contacts are handled, what information may be shared within the family work, and the legal exceptions to confidentiality.

Consent and access can be more complicated with minors, separated parents, adult family members, or court involvement. These questions must be reviewed for your specific situation rather than assumed.

Coverage varies by service and plan. Insurance may cover family therapy when it is medically necessary for the treatment of an identified member’s mental health condition. Parent or co-parent coaching focused on skills, relationship conflict, or parenting coordination may not be covered.

Visit the rates and insurance page for current practice information. Contact your insurer directly to ask about family therapy, telehealth, diagnosis requirements, deductibles, copays, and whether coaching is excluded.

Online outpatient work may not fit when there is immediate danger, active violence, coercive control, fear of retaliation, inability to speak privately, severe instability, a need for crisis care, or court requirements outside the service I provide. Joint sessions may be unsafe when one person cannot speak honestly without consequences.

If you are in immediate danger, call 911. For confidential domestic-violence support and safety planning, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), text START to 88788, or use its online chat. If internet use may be monitored, consider using a safer device when seeking help.

You can ask a question or request a consultation, or use the secure client portal to book. Share who you hope will participate, whether the concern involves one home or co-parenting across homes, the ages of any children involved, each participant’s location, and any current court or safety concerns. We can then discuss whether family therapy, parent support, or co-parent coaching appears to be the best fit.