Parenting & Family Changes
Therapy for Parents & Family Transitions in California
This is therapy for parents themselves, rather than therapy for children. It supports adults whose own emotional well-being or relationship is being affected by parenting demands, family transitions, or a child's needs. Available to parents in California individually or as a couple, entirely online.
Why this happens
Why parents deserve their own support
Parents are used to being the ones who hold everything. They become fluent in everyone else's needs and lose track of their own, and often only reach out when something has become unmanageable.
But parenting asks a great deal. It surfaces your own upbringing, usually without warning, and typically at the least convenient moment. It reshapes a relationship that was organized around two people. It can strain your patience past where you thought it went, and then hand you guilt for having a limit at all.
When a child is struggling, parents carry that too, and often have nowhere to set it down. Taking care of yourself here is not a diversion from caring for your family. It is part of it.
What this often looks like
- Feeling depleted, irritable, or numb more often than you want to admit
- Reacting in ways that remind you of how you were parented
- Guilt that arrives regardless of what you actually do
- Distance or recurring conflict with your partner since children
- Carrying a child's difficulties with nowhere to process them
- Losing a sense of who you are outside the parenting role
The work
How therapy helps
We start with your experience rather than a parenting technique. What is the day actually like. Where does it become unbearable. What comes up in you at that moment, and how old is that feeling.
From there, this work commonly helps parents:
- Stay regulated in the moments that reliably undo you
- Understand which reactions belong to now and which are inherited
- Set limits without guilt swallowing the decision
- Reconnect with a partner beyond logistics and handoffs
- Process a child's struggles with somewhere to put the worry
- Recover a sense of self alongside the parenting role
Getting started
When to consider reaching out
Reach out if parenting stress is affecting your mood, your health, or your relationship; if you are repeating patterns you promised yourself you would not; or if a family transition such as a new baby, a separation, or a blended family is asking more than you have.
You do not need to be struggling badly to justify support. Wanting to do this well and sustainably is enough.
“Parenting surfaces your own childhood, usually without warning.”
Support for the person holding everything together.
Consultations are free, about 20 minutes, and there is no obligation to book after. It is simply a chance to talk through what is going on and see whether working together feels right.
Common questions
Questions about parenting and family change
No. My practice serves adults and couples. I work with parents on their own well-being, their relationship, and their experience of parenting. If your child needs direct support, I am glad to help you think about what kind of referral would fit.
Early parenthood combines sleep deprivation, identity change, and a reorganized relationship all at once, which is a substantial load even when the child is wanted and loved. Support usually means having somewhere to be honest without being judged, protecting some recovery, and renegotiating expectations with your partner explicitly rather than by resentment.
Most couples find that parenthood shifts them toward logistics and away from connection, at least for a while. Add unequal loads, different parenting instincts, and very little time alone, and distance builds quietly. This is a common reason couples seek couples therapy.
Usually by getting clear on what you actually want before the conversation, expecting some discomfort rather than treating it as evidence you were wrong, and being prepared for pushback from a system that was organized around the old arrangement. This is frequent work in individual therapy.
More questions are answered on the frequently asked questions page, and fees are listed on fees & insurance.
Keep exploring
Related areas of focus
Couples Therapy
Support for partners who want to feel understood again, communicate without escalating, and reconnect.
Learn moreEmotional Regulation
For feeling flooded, shut down, or reactive, and wanting steadier ground in your closest relationships.
Learn moreLife Transitions
For the in-between seasons: a move, a new role, a growing family, a relationship or identity in flux.
Learn more
Who you would be working with
About your therapist
Silvana is a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (License #108266) and the founder of Rise & Rooted Therapy, a telehealth practice serving adults and couples throughout California. Her work is relationship-centered, attachment-informed, and grounded in a family systems perspective.
Read more about how she works →
Rise & Rooted Therapy · Telehealth throughout California