Family Therapy in Nantwich, Cheshire
Family therapy for when you still love each other, but can't seem to be in the same room
For two adult family members: a parent and grown-up child, or two brothers or sisters, who want to find their way back to each other.
Most of the families I see aren't here because of one big blow-up. They're here because something has worn thin over years. The visits have got shorter. Conversations stay carefully on the surface, because everyone knows what happens when they don't. You still turn up for birthdays and Christmas. You just leave feeling worse than when you arrived.
Sometimes it's louder than that. A parent is getting older and decisions about their care have reopened old rivalries. A death, a divorce, a new partner or a will has shifted everything, and nobody knows how to talk about it without it becoming a row.
And sometimes the hardest part is that you're all grown-ups now — and yet, the moment you walk back through the family door, you can feel yourself becoming twelve again.
You don't need to arrive knowing what's gone wrong, who's to blame, or what you want the family to look like at the end. We can start by slowing things down and understanding what keeps happening between you.
Common reasons families come to see me
• You keep having the same argument. It might be about money, a parent's care or who does what — but you can all sense it isn't really about that.
• An adult child feels unheard. And a parent feels shut out, without quite knowing what they did.
• Something big has changed. A bereavement, a separation, a new partner or an inheritance has unsettled the balance, and old hurts have come back up with it.
• Brothers and sisters have drifted apart. You used to be close. Now you speak through your parents, or not at all.
• Something from years ago is still in the room. Everyone knows it's there. Nobody has found a way to talk about it.
• You've slipped into old roles. The peacemaker, the responsible one, the one who always gets it wrong — and you're tired of playing your part.
How I work with families
I trained in Imago Relationship Therapy and Transactional Analysis, and I bring both into my work with families. It's structured but human — not an hour of everyone talking over each other the way you might at home.
From Imago comes a way of slowing the conversation right down: one of you speaks, another listens and reflects back what they've heard, before anyone replies. It sounds simple. In a family used to interrupting, it can be the first time in years someone feels properly heard.
From Transactional Analysis comes an interest in the patterns and roles we each learned early on, and how they still play out when the family is together. Seeing those patterns clearly, without anyone becoming the villain, can make room for something different.
I don't take sides, and I'm not there to decide who's right. My job is to make sure each of you has a voice — including the quieter ones who usually keep the peace by saying nothing.
You might be worried that family therapy will turn into a trial — that someone will be blamed, or that it will open something up that can’t be closed again.
That fear makes sense, and it's worth saying out loud early on. We'll go at a pace the room can manage, and nobody will be pushed to say more than they're ready to.
There's no outcome I can promise your family. What this work often opens up, over time, is a different way of being together: conversations that don't end in the same place, old hurts that can finally be talked about, and a little more understanding of why each of you reacts the way you do.
What sessions look like
Sessions are usually for two of you — a mother and daughter, a father and son, two sisters or brothers. They're 60 – 90 minutes (£75 – £110), in person at The Psychotherapy Place in Nantwich. Family therapy is for adults only — everyone who comes needs to be 18 or over — and isn't offered online.
Sometimes it helps to bring in a third person, such as another sibling or a parent. If that feels right, we can talk about it together once we've started. With three of you in the room, sessions are 90 minutes (£110), so there's time for everyone to be heard.
Our first session is a chance for me to hear from each of you about what's brought you, what you're hoping for, and how you're each experiencing your relationship right now. From there we'll agree together how we'd like to work.
If anyone in your family doesn't feel safe being in the same room as someone else, please tell me before we meet. We can think together about what might help — which may be a different kind of support to begin with.
