Family Issues

Family Issues

Our primary caregiver(s), biological or otherwise, are instrumental in our sense of safety, security, and stability. We have no choice but to adapt our behaviors and beliefs in childhood to our caregiver(s) because without them we would not survive. Evolutionarily speaking, being wired this way allows us to survive. We take these behaviors and beliefs with us into adulthood, oftentimes unaware they no longer serve our needs in a necessary way. We may know logically we are no longer helpless without our caregiver(s), but our body and our emotions do not “know” things have changed. These beliefs and behaviors we carry into adulthood can be challenging and frustrating to notice, understand, accept, and adjust. They can cause conflict and stress in and between family members.

Max’s Experience

Max has helped clients navigate supporting family members who struggle with such mental health challenges as depression, anxiety, alcoholism, narcissism, suicidality, neurocognitive disorders, anger, personality disorders, sex addictions, bipolar, and PTSD. He has helped parents clarify their values as caregivers and strengthen their relationships with sons and daughters, newborns to adults. He has helped clients reconnect with estranged family members, build healthier personal boundaries with parents and siblings, focus on self care, and find compassion for both themselves and their family members in even the most challenging of circumstances. 

Through methods such as IFS, ACT, family systems theory, attachment focused therapy, schema therapy, and trauma informed therapy, Max has helped many clients develop secure attachment patterns with those around them and within themselves.