Family Conflict

In my role as a family-based therapist at Child Guidance Resource Centers, I served the Philadelphia community through intensive home- and community-based family therapy for children and adolescents displaying social, emotional and behavioral disorders and for their families from 2019-2022. I am deeply committed, personally and professionally, to delivering culturally competent treatment to underserved populations in the community.

Our work in Family Law has equipped us with expertise in working with interpersonal violence and other family conflict. We are here to help you manage the significant challenges in a relationship with IPV and assist you on issues of safety and restructuring your boundaries as you move through the process. This includes working with parents and children in improving their relationships and with parents on strengthening their abilities to co-parent.

I have worked with family units who have struggled with being able to effectively communicate their emotions and concerns within the family unit. I will work to remain a neutral party that can facilitate navigation of these complex communication issues and build a plan to increase the effectiveness of communication and emotional regulation.

I believe that we are made up of the stories of our pasts, but that our pasts do not freeze us in time. My hope is that we can examine how our past experiences, particularly those from our childhood, affect our lives today. From here we can move forward and find ways to integrate and heal from our past.

Intimate relationships that are not safe, trusting or respectful make it difficult to maintain your sense of feeling valued. Any compulsion, addiction, or dysfunction in the family, when the focus is on one member affects all. It may be a serious illness, recent death, or huge life stressor that creates upheaval and discord in the family. This can result in estrangement, bickering, loneliness, and isolation. Healing is possible and often can help develop stronger bonds.

Inner child work may help those experiencing interpersonal conflict. Inner child work helps explore unprocessed childhood emotions and feelings that currently impact one’s life and understanding, managing, and/or reducing triggers. One desire for inner child work may be to identify wounded areas and/or unmet needs of the child, learn to advocate, protect, or show compassion for the child, create a safe enough space to invite the child to play, and integrate the child with the adult self.

I believe we are hardwired to seek affirming and intimate bonds with others. Conflict with parents, partners, children, siblings, and extended family can cause significant stress and unhappiness. I can assist in developing communication skills, healthy boundaries, conflict resolution techniques, and relationship scripts. The goal is to establish relationships with others that are fulfilling and allow for personal growth.

Can members of the family grow and develop as individuals, yet support each other... now and in the future?

Facing challenges in relationships and feeling disconnected is tough. I want you to know that you're not alone in this. Together, we can explore these issues and find ways to bridge the gap between you and your loved ones. Let's work on understanding your needs, improving communication, and rebuilding those vital connections. You deserve to feel valued and connected in your relationships, and I'm here to support you every step of the way.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the unspoken and agreed-upon relationship/marital norms. For many of us, couples who spent all day at work are now spending most of their time working from home. For many families, couples who are not privileged to work from home are coping with the stress of the added risk of contracting COVID-19. Many of us are also struggling with our family income being negatively impacted due to the pandemic.

Our family affects who we are and who we become, both for the better and worse. We learn our vocabulary, habits, customs, and rituals and how to view and observe the world around us. Anyone seeking healthier, closer family relationships can benefit from family therapy.Family therapy is necessary to address family issues and heal a family’s wounds. Does this resonate with your family, consider seeking family therapy. Family therapy can be beneficial on many different levels.

I have worked with families that have high conflict. I have worked with the children of divorce and the parents with co-parenting.

Are you struggling to be seen or heard in your family? Do you wish you had more positive ways of interacting with your loved ones? Would you like to find new strategies for parenting your child or connecting with your teen? My work with families centers around reducing conflict and deepening connections throughout the family system by helping increase family members' capacities to communicate wants, needs, and feelings and helping create a family culture of openness and respect.

Are your identities (e.g., gender identity, sexual orientation) causing friction or distance in family relationships? Have you felt torn between loyalty and seeking autonomy from your family? Have complicated family relationships caused longstanding wounds? Are you a "cycle-breaker" in the family? Are you needing help navigating very different values and perspectives held by family members? Together, we can explore the nuances and complexities of your circumstances, and help you find alignment.

Many times people who come to therapy are one of the strongest people in the family. Sometimes individuals come in to cope with family conflict but I also am welcoming to invite the family into the session. Family is complicated because in many ways we can love them but they can also cause suffering. I think it is helpful to explore the bigger picture into why families can go through strains or distress.

You can strengthen your family ties by understanding conflict patterns and how to deal with them successfully. Often there are definite patterns that happen over and over. Once we have a good understanding of these sequences, we can figure out how to change them. Sometimes a pattern happening today is related to past traumas, which can be faced and overcome. Ultimately you will find yourself giving and receiving the love you always wanted in your life.

My course of graduate study emphasized family systems. I then put this study to work with families and relationships who were experiencing distress. I have experience in a therapeutic capacity and in the capacity of a crisis worker reuniting families in lockout or runaway situations, meaning either the child has run away from home or the family has refused to allow the child to return. Having had experience in high-stress situations, I am comfortable working with any level of conflict.