adult family dynamics therapy in austin, tx

• Sibling relationships and the dynamics that follow you into adulthood

• Aging parents and shifting family roles

• Family estrangement — chosen or unchosen

• Being the family scapegoat, peacekeeper, or the one who holds it all together

• Inherited family roles that no longer fit who you've become

• Intergenerational patterns and what gets passed down without anyone naming it

• Friendships that function like family — and carry similar dynamics

• Families of choice and how to build them intentionally

The family we grew up in is our first map for how relationships work — what's safe to need, who gets to take up space, how conflict is handled, and what love is supposed to feel like. We don't leave that map behind when we become adults. We carry it into every close relationship we have, and we often don't see it clearly until something — a family gathering, a rupture, a role that suddenly doesn't fit anymore — makes it visible.

Adult family dynamics work isn't about re-litigating the past or deciding who was right. It's about understanding the system you grew up in well enough to see how it shaped you — and making more conscious choices about what you want to carry forward. This work can happen individually, as you make sense of your own experience and history. It can also happen with the people themselves — siblings, parents, adult children — when there's willingness on all sides to look at the dynamic honestly and try something different. Sometimes that means working through estrangement or a relationship that's caused real harm. Sometimes it means navigating the complexity of aging parents and shifting roles. Sometimes it means recognizing that a sibling dynamic or family role has been quietly running your life in ways you're only beginning to see.

In our work together, we pay attention to the whole system — not just your individual experience of it, but the patterns that developed between people, the roles that got assigned, and the stories the family told about itself that you may have internalized without realizing it. That kind of clarity doesn't undo the past, but it does change what you do with it.

I offer adult family dynamics therapy — for individuals or for the whole family — in Austin, Texas and via telehealth across the state for adults who are ready to understand the system they came from — and decide for themselves what they want to pass on.