Conflicted Adult Parental Relationships

Imposter syndrome • Burnout • Feeling like a fraud • Compassion fatigue

Do any of these feel familiar?

• You avoid interactions with your parents, or you need to emotionally “gear up” before seeing them.
• You can’t fully be yourself around them.
• You work hard to make others happy, often at the expense of your own needs.
• It feels easier to sense what others expect from you than to know what you genuinely want for yourself.
• You feel anger, irritation, or heaviness with a parent—even when you long to feel warmth or closeness.

Why this feels so hard

Shifting from a child–parent relationship to a mutual adult–adult connection can be unexpectedly complex. Even when everyone genuinely wants closeness, old patterns—formed from years of family dynamics, attachment histories, and even your parents’ own experiences with their parents—can pull you back into roles that no longer fit.

These patterns can make you feel torn: wanting connection, yet feeling unsafe or unseen when you try.

What we can do together

In AEDP work, you don’t have to navigate this alone. Together, we slow down and make space for the emotions, needs, and longings that often get buried in these relationships. We explore:

• The parts of you that protect, avoid, or overperform
• The parts that yearn for authenticity and connection
• The relational wounds that still shape how you show up today
• The possibilities for new, healthier patterns—within yourself and in your relationships

If you’re hoping to break intergenerational cycles—to stop replaying the same conflicts with your parents, your partner, or your child—there is a path forward. And you don’t have to walk it alone.

Reach out, and we can begin exploring these experiences together—safely, gently, and with compassion.