Family therapy with everyone in the room
When a household gets stuck, each person usually has a different explanation for why. Family therapy gives everyone a turn to be heard, and helps the whole family see the pattern they share. In person in Denver, or online anywhere in Colorado.
- Sessions50 minutes, together
- TherapistsKirsten & Becca
- WhereDenver office & online
- First stepFree 15-minute call
Here the family is the client
Caring about each other isn’t always enough, especially when everyone sees the same situation completely differently.
Family therapy treats the relationships between people as the thing to work on. Instead of one person going to therapy and reporting back, the people involved meet together with a therapist who sees the dynamics as they happen. Patterns that are invisible from inside a family, like who always smooths things over or who gets blamed first, start to show up in the room, where they can be named and changed.
We work with families of every configuration: two-parent, single-parent, blended, adoptive, multigenerational, and families with same-sex parents. We also see adult children and their parents working out how the relationship has changed, and siblings sorting through a shared history.
One person’s hard month becomes everyone’s
Families are connected, so pressure on one person rarely stays with that person. Here is one ordinary way it moves through a house.
- 1One parent
A parent is stretched thin
Work, money, a sick relative. They come home depleted and a little short with everyone.
- 2The other parent
The other parent compensates
They take over bedtime and the hard conversations, and quietly start keeping score.
- 3The teenager
The teenager reads the room
Nobody has named the tension, but they can feel it, so they spend more time behind a closed door.
- 4The youngest
The youngest gets loud
Meltdowns, trouble at school, picking fights. Loud gets attention when everyone else is distracted.
- 5The whole family
Everyone agrees on the problem
It’s the youngest. Family therapists call this the identified patient: the person carrying the family’s stress where it’s easiest to see.
Nobody in this story is the villain, and each person is doing something that makes sense from where they stand. Therapy helps the family see the whole chain, so the fix stops landing on one person.
What brings families in
Some families come in during a crisis. Many more come because the same argument has been running for months and nobody knows how to end it.
- Parent and child conflict, including power struggles, broken trust, and teenagers who have stopped talking
- Blended families working through step-relationships, clashing parenting styles, and divided loyalties
- Grief and loss, after a death, a divorce, or an illness that changed how the family runs
- Conversations that escalate every time, until people stop trying to have them
- Big transitions like a move, a new baby, a child leaving home, or an aging parent moving in
- Adult children and parents renegotiating boundaries, distance, or an old hurt
Three lenses we use with families
We choose what fits your family rather than running every situation through a single framework, and most families get some of each.
Structural family therapy
Looks at how the family is organized: who makes decisions, where the boundaries sit, and which alliances have formed. Small changes to that structure can ease conflict quickly.
Narrative therapy
Families tell stories about themselves, and some of those stories lock people into roles. Narrative work separates the person from the problem so everyone can step out of them.
Read about narrative therapy →Attachment-based work
A lot of family conflict comes down to whether people feel safe and wanted by each other. We work on repairing those bonds directly, in the room.
Read about attachment →
“I work with couples who love each other and keep ending up in the same painful loop, and with individuals and families who want to understand why their closest relationships feel so hard.”
Kirsten Adorno, LPC, MFTC · Read her bio →
How sessions unfold
A free 15-minute call
Any family member can make it. We’ll ask what’s going on and who is involved, and suggest who should come to the first session.
Getting the full picture
Early sessions cover your history, the key relationships, and what each person hopes will change. Sometimes the therapist meets with a parent or a teenager alone for part of this.
Working on the pattern
From there, sessions are held together. Some families need communication tools. Others need to process something that happened, or make a hard decision as a group.
Checking that home feels different
Every so often we step back and ask whether things are actually better between sessions. If they aren’t, we change course.
How long family therapy takes varies a lot. A family working through one specific conflict may need a couple of months of regular sessions. Older patterns, or a major loss, usually take longer, and your therapist will give you an honest read once they’ve met everyone.
Sessions happen at our Denver office or by video anywhere in Colorado, and online sessions make it easier to include someone who can’t get to the office. If a teenager also needs a room of their own, teen therapy can run alongside family work, and parents sometimes add couples therapy or individual therapy for themselves.
Family therapy questions we hear often
It depends on the situation. Ideally everyone involved takes part, but we can often begin with whoever is willing and widen the circle from there. We’ll work out what makes the most sense on your consultation call.
Yes. Family systems work can happen even when not everyone is in the room. Sometimes working with one or two members creates enough change at home that others become more open over time.
Yes. We have experience with adolescents in family therapy, and we know how hard it can be to be a teenager and the parent of one at the same time.
Individual therapy focuses on one person’s experience, patterns and goals. Family therapy focuses on the relationships and dynamics between people. Often a combination of both works best.
Yes. We see families by secure video anywhere in Colorado, as well as in person at our Denver office. Family members can join from different locations if that’s what makes it possible for everyone to come.
We’re out of network with insurance. We provide a superbill after each session that you can submit to your insurer for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Current rates are on our FAQ page, and we’ll confirm the cost of family sessions with your therapist on the consultation call.
Who to see for this
Start with a single conversation
Start with a 15-minute conversation. In person at our Denver office, or online for families anywhere in Colorado.
Schedule a Free Consultation