Filial Therapy Parenting Series
When Kids or Teens Struggle,
The Relationship They Need Most Is You
A relationship-based family therapy approach that strengthens the adults around a child — at home and at school.
What is Filial Therapy?
Filial Therapy is a short-term 10-session parent training program that teaches parents the same therapeutic framework therapists use with children and teens.
As parents, we are not always the cause of our kids’ struggles—but we are almost always the most powerful part of the solution.
Rather than sending children to therapy alone, parents learn how to become the most powerful healing influence in their child’s life.
Filial Therapy is a relationship-based family therapy approach that strengthens the adults around a child — at home and at school. Filial focuses on strengthening the relationships around a child first—empowering parents, supporting the family system, and then working individually with children or teens when additional support is needed.
Why Families Reach Out
Parents often reach out because their children are struggling with:
• anxiety or perfectionism
• emotional outbursts or shutdown
• low self-esteem
• school stress
• behavioral challenges
• divorce or family transitions
• trauma or other major life changes
How Filial Therapy Works:
Children grow and regulate through relationships.
When children or teens struggle with anxiety, emotional outbursts, shutdown, or acting out, families often try many different strategies without lasting change. Many families reach out after months or even years of therapy where parents were largely left outside the process.
Filial Therapy helps parents respond to their child’s emotions with clarity, structure, and empathy. Filial brings parents back into the center of the healing process, strengthening the relationship that matters most. Because children grow and heal within relationships, strengthening the parent-child relationship often leads to the most meaningful and lasting change.
What parents often notice after participating:
• stronger connection and trust between parents and children
• more calm and cooperation at home and school
• less anxiety, shutdown, and acting out
• practical tools that actually work in everyday moments
• greater confidence in responding to big emotions
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Parent support and education often takes the form of filial therapy. Filial therapy is a structured and time-limited training model in which parents of young children are trained in play therapy skills, similarly to how therapists are taught in graduate school, with the goal of empowering parents and caregivers to be the change agent for their child instead of having to rely on an “expert” to “fix” whatever their child's struggle or problem. Filial therapy is a play-based approach that builds on the inherent strength of the parent-child relationship. In an average of 10 sessions, parents learn to manage their children’s behavior and anxieties, and discover the keys to enhancing and strengthening the parent-child bond. Filial therapy is often a welcomed gift for parents who yearn to be involved in their children’s therapy and healing.
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Parenting an adolescent can be humbling and overwhelming during the best of times, let alone during times of anxiety, family stress, or conflict. Even more distressing is when our efforts to support, discipline, and guide our children through stressful times feel like not enough, and we and our children are left desperate and overwhelmed by their anxieties, sadness, or misbehavior. Just as teens are often very much in need of therapy, parents are often in need of support.iption text goes here
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Parent consults are held in conjunction with your teen's individual therapy, and are essential not only for my understanding of your hopes for your child, but also for their therapeutic success. It is my strong belief and experience that teens and parents often yearn for closeness and connection, yet misunderstandings, family stress, or fear of judgement often blocks the open and constructive communication that is necessary for a strong relationship. Therefore parent consults are devoted to providing a framework that will allow you to invite open and honest conversations and equip you with the language to talk so your teens will listen, and to listen so your teens will talk.
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Parents who have completed the Filial Therapy series often share that both they and their children are doing so well they no longer need ongoing therapy. At times, though, it can be helpful to briefly talk through how to apply the filial framework as children grow, develop, and encounter new challenges.
Filial Drop-In sessions offer parents and caregivers a place to reconnect with the approach, ask questions, and troubleshoot real-life situations — whether it has been months or years since completing the series.
Even if the parents attending your drop-in were part of a different Filial group, everyone shares the same framework, so you can quickly connect and jump right into meaningful conversation.
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Bonding with adoptive and foster children and teens can sometimes be complicated by early experiences of loss, disrupted attachment, or trauma. Even when families are deeply committed and loving, these early experiences can make connection and trust more difficult at first.
Filial Therapy has been recognized by the Donaldson Adoption Institute as a therapeutic parent training model with one of the strongest evidence bases for supporting adoptive and foster families. By strengthening the parent–child relationship and helping caregivers respond to children’s emotional needs in therapeutic ways, filial therapy can help build trust, connection, and security within the family.
Filial Therapy - Parenting Support & Education
As parents, we may not always be part of a child's pain or struggle, but I do believe we are the most important part of the solution. Click the links below to learn more.