Transitions are often double-sided: they can be welcome, yet challenging; or difficult, but with opportunity for emotional growth or skill building.
Some of the life transitions that bring people to therapy include:
~ Birth or adoption of a child - which may have followed a struggle with infertility;
~ Relationship commitment - to each other informally, or more formally through engagement or marriage;
~ The cycles of a relationship or marriage - as time goes on, you may face decisions about your life together or need to explore your feelings about your partner and your relationship;
~ Parenting - you may be lucky enough to be exactly on the same page, as you and your spouse or partner parent together, but your child's needs are overhwelming you or your relationship. Or you disagree about many things and need to talk it through. You may be facing issues with a child with special needs;
~ Co-parenting after divorce or ending your relationship - parenting together separately can be highly challenging for people who are ending their relationship; the struggles contributing to their breakup can affect parenting issues and decision-making;
~ Single parenting - many single parents perceive little or no relief to concerns or worry. You may react to the constant need to organize your life around conflicting priorities including child care, finances and self-care. A child's behavioral or academic challenges can occur in any family, but a single parent is faced with decision-making alone;
~ Deployment and Post-Deployment - often this holds multi-faceted challenges affecting the couple relationship and the various family and parent-child relationships;
~ Medical issues - this could be yours, your spouse or partner's, or a family member's acute or chronic medical problem, one you or they may be struggling to deal with or accept;
~ Aging parents/caregiver burnout - at times, meeting the needs of aging parents can be extraordinarily challenging or overwhelming, as you attempt to walk the line between adult "child" and responsible, respectul caretaker. This situaiton may be complicated by past relationship challenges;
~ Retirement - the economy, with its own stressors, may have delayed or changed the retirement picture. Many times, individuals or couples may struggle with unexpected aspects of retirement;
~ Death of a loved one - grief and loss due to death means facing the unchangeable - where everything has changed.
