When should I seek the help of a family estrangement therapist?
If you are wondering if you should stop being speaking to your parents, you are not alone. A lot of people feel angry, hurt, betrayed, or even abused. If your parents were alcoholics, you might feel like the only thing you can do is cut them off. Often, cut offs occur due to intense emotions and a lack of empathy. You may feel like your parents hurt you deeply, and they just don’t care. Holistic family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut includes art, yoga, drama, music, and walking therapies by the ocean.
What is an estrangement in a family?
In a family estrangement, at least one member of a family intentionally separates from another or other members. You may feel like the relationship you have with your parents is negative and not loving. And, no matter how hard you try, it feels like it just gets more conflictual. At Wisdom Within, the team offers family estrangement counseling and PTSD specialized therapy.
If you are wondering if you should intentionally distance yourself from your parents, working with a family estrangement therapist can really help you gain clarity.
What are common emotions I can talk about with my family estrangement therapist?
You can talk about a variety of different emotions. Studies show that when people go to counseling, their mental health improves. Essentially, you may feel hurt, anxiety, worry, and fear. Many times, if you are wondering if you should work with a family estrangement therapist, you are feeling upset, angry, or even humiliated. Your parents may feel toxic or overwhelming. And, you feel so angry and upset after every conversation or interaction. With your parents, you feel misunderstood or feel that you never get the love you deserve. Adult children who who experience emotional abuse in childhood may feel more stressed out. So, therapy can help you learn stress management techniques.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for holistic family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
Family estrangement counseling can support holistic oping tools for self-care and inner peace.
As well, if you had parents who were emotionally unstable, you may feel like cutting them off now.
There may be so much emotional pain and resentment when you think about your parents. It all feels overwhelming, so you feel cutting them off is the best choice. Well, talking about your thoughts and feelings in therapy can help you make a clear headed choice. You might be striving for a sense of emotional freedom that you are hoping may come from cutting off family members. Your therapist can help you feel inner peace, to make calm decisions. Wisdom Within Counseling offers family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
How might I benefit from meeting with a family estrangement therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling?
Furthermore, meeting with a family estrangement therapist can help you overcome trauma. Trauma occurs when parents make their children take care of their emotions. Maybe, you had a helicopter parent who never gave you confidence or freedom. Now, as an adult, you feel angry because you never got to be a happy, playful kid. Did one of your parents suffer from mental health issues like bi-polar disorder or depression? Maybe, you were forced to stay home and take care of a parent who couldn’t care for themselves. Or, you had a parent who was verbally and emotionally abusive when you cried. Showing emotions, especially tears, at home, was a sign you would be yelled at.
In your family, growing up, you walked on eggshells wondering if your alcoholic parent was going to explode.
Anger management issues in your parents can lead an adult to want a cut off. Parents pass trauma down to their children and may never acknowledge it. Often, cut offs occur from children wanting emotional freedom and clarity in adulthood. Big feelings like anger, loss, and hurt make people want to numb pain. Thinking back to who you wish your parent could have been can be sad. And, family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut can help you shift to positive, present moment thinking.
Why do people develop anger at parents?
Maybe, you parent withholds and withdraws love and attention. Also, it is normal to feel angry with your parent if you were abused, neglected, or hurt emotionally. Perhaps, your parent was a pathological liar, cheater, and manipulator. Any lingering trauma from childhood can cause a desire for a cut off. So, family estrangement counseling supports healthy outlets for big feelings. As well, yes, these are all hurtful experiences. However, the emotions of anger, loss, and revenge no longer need to have power over you and your choices.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut, supports positive coping tools.
Instead, therapy can help you live a calm, grounded, and peaceful life. Therefore, the team of therapists at Wisdom Within Counseling offer communication tools for trauma recovery. It can feel impossible to run or flee from triggering emotions. So, working with a counselor who understands the emotions around estrangement can help. In family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut, you can learn positive ways to handle intense, challenging emotions.
What are symptoms of trauma and how do they play a role in family estrangement counseling?
In terms of behaviors, when you suffer from trauma and PTSD, you may feel more agitation, irritability, hostility, or anger. As well, if you have trauma memories, you may feel more hyper vigilance or on alert all the time. As a child, you may have felt afraid of your parents’ unstable emotions or anger outbursts. So, in adulthood, you may be still living in fear without realizing it. As well, people with PTSD and trauma symptoms struggle with self-destructive behavior.
People with PTSD and trauma can benefit from family estrangement counseling
For instance, you may have self-harm, cutting, alcoholism, or be a work-a-holic. Additionally, people with PTSD and trauma histories may socially isolate more than people who don’t. In terms of mental PTSD symptoms, you may have negative flashbacks or panic attacks. Major decisions may have fear, severe anxiety, or mistrust underneath. It may be difficult to do the hobbies you once enjoyed with PTSD.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for holistic family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
Feeling anxious? It is common for adults to develop PTSD and trauma symptoms in childhood that show up as anxiety.
So, as an adult, you may not realize that some of your tendencies are actually from trauma. Maybe, your therapist can help you realize when other parts of yourself developed. For instance, you may always have been responsible. Yes, this is a great quality in adulthood. But, you may first have become responsible after caring for your alcoholic parent. As a young child, you literally had to be responsible or you would not survive. Therefore, being responsible may be a trauma response.
How do trauma symptoms work in family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut?
Now, you are the most responsible person in your family. At a young age, you learned the being responsible helped you survive. And, in your relationships, you are too responsible for other people and tend to give too much, leaving yourself empty. You feel exhausted from being too responsible, and other slack off. Sometimes, you feel used for your responsible qualities. With your spouse, friends, and family, it is hard to say, “No.” And, you often find yourself saying, “Yes,” out of guilt. So, being responsible is not always a positive quality, especially with the guilt. Wisdom Within Counseling offers family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut to help you develop healthy boundaries. With PTSD and trauma symptoms, you may feel guilt under all your choices and decisions.
What are other PTSD and trauma symptoms?
Loneliness is a big part of PTSD and trauma. If you have PTSD and trauma, you may feel afraid of being alone. As well, it is normal for people with PTSD and trauma to have difficulties sleeping, have insomnia, night terrors, or nightmares. If you wake up in the middle of the night afraid or paranoid, family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut can help. Wisdom Within Counseling is a team of trauma and PTSD specialists. Lastly, with trauma, it is common to have emotional detachment, numbing behaviors, or unwanted negative thoughts. If you experience any trauma symptoms, book your phone consult using the pink button below.
A lot of times, when you are considering separating from your family and parents, you have felt angry, abused, or even hurt.
Understanding that experiences you had in your childhood are traumatic is part of estrangement counseling. Just because you had a traumatic past doesn’t mean you need to cut off your relatives though. Sometimes, no contact seems like a good choice because of how hurt you feel.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for holistic family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
Understanding post traumatic stress disorder and trauma are big parts of inner peace.
Counseling can help you find contentment and harmony from the inside out. In estrangement therapy, your therapist can help you create inner peace with painful memories. Often, cutting off relatives still doesn’t bring the inner peace you are is looking for. To help with clarity around this decision, Wisdom Within Counseling can help with family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
If you had parents that ignored your boundaries, you may have experienced emotional abuse and trauma.
Your therapist can help you find healthy ways to cope with the painful emotions like anxiety, fear, anger, and range that come from emotional abuse.
In addition, it is normal to want to create distance if you had parents that didn’t say, “I love you.”
Experiencing verbal, physical, or emotional abuse in childhood is not okay. It is okay to feel hurt, angry, and at a loss for your childhood trauma experiences. However, estrangement is not always the best choice. Therapy can help you gain clarity to make a positive, long-term choice regarding communicating your feelings to your family. Often, in counseling, you can build a positive coping toolbox to deal with and overcome intense emotions. Learning to manage stress and understand PTSD triggers are great skills counseling teaches. Wisdom Within Counseling specializes in a holistic, creative approach to family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut. Video and in person counseling sessions are available.
Self-awareness, self-love, self-acceptance, and inner peace can come from family estrangement counseling.
If your parent was verbally or physically abusive or neglectful, it is really normal to feel uncared for. Additionally, emotionally abusive family members may leave you out of certain gatherings. You might feel excluded and angry. Sometimes, cut offs occur because you feel like your parents prioritized themselves. You might feel dismissed or invalidated emotionally by your parents. Wisdom Within Counseling can help you set boundaries and share your emotions in a calm way. Counseling can help you feel heard, valid, and supported emotionally. Wisdom Within Counseling offers family therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
In general, family estrangement counseling can help you recognize what is outside of your control.
As much as you want a different reaction from your parents, you may never get it. Counseling can help if you suffer from PTSD and trauma symptoms. Your parents may never change, but therapy can support acceptance and self-love tools. In counseling, you can learn to set boundaries that help you feel stronger and calmer. So, counseling can help you understand if your parents are toxic and how to set boundaries. Starting with healthy boundaries can be a good first step before jumping right to estrangement.
It is normal to feel rage, angry, and hurt, and then want to never speak to your family or parents again.
When triggered, or flooded, you may want to stop all the pain. As well, your therapist can help slow down racing thoughts to see if estrangement would even help. At Wisdom Within Counseling, you can use holistic therapies like art, yoga, music, and walking therapies.
We help couples and individuals overcome symptoms of PTSD and trauma together
How can marriage counseling and couples therapy support dealing with family estrangements together?
Our Wisdom Within Counseling team has extensive relationship training, which helps couples overcome conflicts, poor communication, emotional distance, sexual difficulties, infidelity, money, trauma, and parenting.
The team at Wisdom Within Counseling helps you learn skills to build a loving, long-term relationship after childhood trauma and loss.
As well, couples therapy with a focus on childhood trauma, pinpoints honesty and trust. From there, you and your spouse can understand trauma triggers and rekindle intimacy.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for holistic family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
Trauma counseling in couples therapy can help you and your spouse talk about handling family estrangements together.
Sometimes, family estrangements occur because parents criticize your spouse. Family estrangements can impact romance and your marriage in negative ways. So, in estrangement counseling, you can process anger, anxiety, worry, and guilt.
Yoga Therapies Help Individuals and Couples Gain Inner Peace
In couples therapy and in individual counseling, you can do yoga therapy for mind-body healing. Furthermore, in yoga therapy, you can calm your parasympathetic nervous system. You can use polyvagal theory to take back your personal power over negative trauma memories. Also, you can use somatic experiencing tools and holistic counseling to build inner peace.
No matter the pain you have been though, yoga therapy and meditation supports self-care.
Yoga therapy also supports present moment thinking, which reduces trauma symptoms of flashbacks. In yoga therapy for couples and individuals, you can pick from yoga nidra, Ayurveda, mindfulness meditation, and yoga poses. Additionally, yoga therapy includes calming breathing skills, Ayurvedic knowledge, gentle movement, positive affirmations, stretching and yogic self-care skills to release your body and mind.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for holistic family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
Your estrangement therapist can help you develop a secure couple bubble with healthy communication, identify areas that need strengthening, and see unhealthy patterns.
We like to focus on the family as a unit, so in couples therapy you’ll learn ways to grow positively alongside each other. At Wisdom Within Counseling, we will look at your relationship in four areas, moment to moment, daily, yearly, and generationally. Plus, in counseling, we take a holistic approach which allows us to be creative with therapy. For couples to get playful together again, we have expert training to guide you in art therapies, yoga, music, drama, and outdoor walk and talk sessions. We are Gottman Level Two trained.
In couples therapy, you can learn about trauma and how childhood trauma impacts your relationship.
For couples and individuals, PTSD healing is possible from working the team at Wisdom Within Counseling. You can feel stronger and clear your mind from negative flashbacks and memories. Furthermore, trauma counseling can help you build a self-care toolbox through holistic skills.
How can walking and talking therapies outdoors by the beach offer PTSD support in family estrangement counseling?
Maybe, you sit all day and you want an outdoor walk-and-talk session by the beach. Overcoming PTSD and trauma symptoms means getting present. Being in and living in the present moment is very challenging for people who have experiences of childhood trauma. So, walk and talk therapy helps you get present by smelling the salty air. Also, walk and talk therapy provides some body movement. In walk and talk therapy, you can be in the fresh air by the Niantic Bay Boardwalk. The team at Wisdom Within Counseling can help you gain confidence and clarity in family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
How can walking therapies and holistic therapies help with PTSD and trauma recovery?
You can walk to the park or to the beach with your therapist to move anxiety and relieve trauma symptoms and depression. As well, walking therapy supports lifelong coping tools for mental wellness and self-care. You and your family estrangement therapist can meet on video and go or virtual walks. Or, you and your therapist can meet at the office and go along the walking loop, ending back at the office.
Walk and talk therapy in family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
Walking and talking are great ways to reduce trauma symptoms in counseling. It is also a somatic therapy for mind and body. For instance, you can pick a destination as one of our therapists walks with clients to the local record shop. You can also goto the Book Barn with your family therapist. Lastly, going to a walk in counseling helps with using mind and body therapies to break free from trauma memories that cause a need for family estrangements and stop negative thinking.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, you can heal from loss, trauma, and emotional abuse by reconnecting with your whole self in mind, body, and spirit.
From trauma counseling, you can repair past hurts, focus on the present moment. From self-love and self-acceptance skills, you can build a strong foundation for the future. The team at Wisdom Within Counseling offers family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut. Sessions can support you individually, with you and your spouse, or the whole family.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for holistic family estrangement therapy in Sarasota, Florida and Connecticut.
How can art therapy or yoga therapy be a part of family estrangement counseling?
We have an art closet with materials to choose from for expressing emotions beyond words around estrangement. Using clay helps release intense feelings, lowers anxiety, promotes creativity, and teaches resilience. For instance, you can draw with glitter gel pens, paint, or do a tye dye shirt. You can make a bracelet, do beading, or a craft. Also, experiencing depression is normal after cut offs and family estrangements. So, creating art provides hope and healing after estrangements.
Talking about anxiety and trauma may only go so far. However, painting about what anxiety and trauma feel like can provide freedom in artistic expression.
You can paint or draw while talking or if you don’t want to talk at all, and need silence, our therapists can help you communicate without words. The art is up to you and your interest that day. No worries if you are on video. Wisdom Within Counseling can send you a link to purchase art supplies for your home sessions. For instance, one of our therapists is making a fairy house with her client. As well, another therapist is making figures with clay, and another therapist is making vision boards. Art is a healing language beyond words for PTSD and trauma healing.
A family estrangement therapist can help you understand if your parents are toxic.
Creating boundaries with a toxic parent is key from therapy. If you felt hurt or ignored, this is a trauma. Having toxic parents can lead to intense emotions of anger and loss. So, if you have a parent who struggles with alcoholism or drug abuse, healthy boundaries can be helpful. For your own mental health, having boundaries supports your needs.
How can therapy help make yourself a priority again?
Your parents may not know how to put your needs first. Working with a holistic family therapist can help you overcome traumatic memories while still having a relationship with your parents. For one, self-care, setting boundaries, and good communication are essential. And, from setting boundaries with a toxic parent, you can gain self-worth back. From counseling, you can recognize what is outside of your control. Talking with a therapist can help you develop self compassion and acceptance for all the trauma you have been though. You can also gain inner wisdom to practice self-care from counseling.
As well, yoga therapy, art therapy, and mindfulness practices can be a part of holistic counseling.
Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness can help you develop self-awareness. This way, you can push away negative thoughts so they don’t take over your life. No matter what happened in your childhood with your parents, you can learn to build a positive life for yourself. Also, you can learn to parent yourself in a nurturing way, that you didn’t get. In childhood, you may have felt hurt, abandoned, unwanted, or even criticized for being you. At Wisdom Within Counseling, family estrangement therapy supports confidence at your core. You can gain awareness to know when trauma memories take over and lead to anger. When you have a trauma response like an anger outburst or a panic attack, you can learn holistic ways to practice self-care and calm yourself down.
Read About Trauma For Self-Care
Check out online resources and support groups, or books like these:
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
If you have patterns of cut offs with toxic parents, holistic therapy can provide a sense of peace, grounding and validation.
Holistic family estrangement therapy helps you explore your options
Also, ask yourself, “Is there any that will allow me to maintain some kind of healthier relationship? How can I keep my mental wellness balanced?” Sometimes, this means only emailing verses talking on the phone. Therapy can be a safe place to understand your next steps from boundary setting, to reading, to self-care. Sometimes, talking with a therapist helps with gaining acceptance and inner clarity.
How can therapy help trauma triggers?
Working with a family estrangement therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling can help you understand your triggers. Maybe, it is a smell that triggers you. Or, being in your parent’s home where abusive took place triggers you. With trauma and PTSD, certain things may trigger you. To add, your parent may not even realize they are triggering you. This means that if your parent uses a specific tone of voice, you may feel small, angry, and helpless all over again. So, in these cases, emailing or texting may be a better form of contact.
LGBTQIA+ Affirming
So, family estrangement therapy can be a safe place to learn to set boundaries verses reacting out of anger or anxiety.
Working with a family estrangement therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling gives you a safe space and time to reflect. So, when you come to a decision, you can feel content and calm. Many times, people make decisions out of anger and fear. Meeting with a family estrangement therapist can help you process loss, anger, trauma, guilt and anxiety.
Working with a family estrangement therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling can help you decide if estrangement is the right choice for you.
