When Loving Your Parent Hurts

Therapy for Adults Navigating Difficult Parent Relationships

VIRTUAL THERAPY IN TAMPA AND THROUGHOUT FL & TX

You Keep Hoping Things Will Be Different—But They Never Are

Every interaction with your parent continues to feel like a trap. You’ve worked to set boundaries, maybe even taken space, but things haven’t changed. Instead of peaceful and enjoyable interactions, they make everything about them, dismiss your feelings, or violate your boundaries. When you’re honest with them about your experiences, they become the victim while you’re left looking like the “difficult one”. They’re defensive when you ask them to take accountability and lash out when they don’t get their way. You leave these interactions feeling drained, guilty, and even questioning your reality.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone—and you’re not the problem.

Now you’ve reached a breaking point. You’re tired ofWhen raised by emotionally immature parents, anxiety can show up like:

  • Struggling to set or maintain boundaries without backlash or guilt

  • Constantly feeling pulled between obligation and resentment

  • Ongoing patterns of manipulation, guilt-tripping, or emotional volatility

  • Feeling responsible for managing your parent’s emotions—even as an adult

  • Trying to go low- or no-contact, but questioning if it’s “too extreme”

  • Hoping for a healthier relationship, but unsure if it’s even possible

You’re trying to figure out:

How do I stay true to myself without abandoning my parent—or myself?

When you’re still entangled in a painful dynamic with a parent, it doesn't stay contained—it shows up everywhere:

  • You second-guess yourself in decisions, even small ones

  • You feel guilty for relaxing or prioritizing your own needs

  • You overextend in other relationships or work to prove your worth

  • You struggle with low self-esteem, anxiety, or emotional burnout

  • You feel like you’re never doing “enough”—and never allowed to rest

Even if you live far apart, the emotional hold they have over you is still strong.

Healing doesn’t necessarily mean reconciling. It means choosing your well-being, even if your parent can’t or won’t change.

  • Explore the patterns that began in childhood and still play out now

  • Identify your emotional needs—and why it’s been hard to meet them

  • Set (and enforce) boundaries without drowning in guilt

  • Develop new ways of relating that protect your peace

  • Grieve the relationship you hoped for, and build the life you deserve

In therapy you’ll :

The relationship might stay complicated. But you don’t have to keep being consumed by it, instead you can:

  • Feel more grounded and less emotionally reactive to your parent’s behavior

  • Navigate contact—or distance—from a place of clarity and self-respect

  • Recognize patterns of manipulation or guilt-tripping in real time

  • Stop justifying, over-explaining, or shrinking yourself

  • Create emotional space to focus on your goals, peace, and healing

  • Develop a relationship with your parent that works for you

You get to choose what role your parent plays in your life—if any. Therapy helps you make that decision from a place of strength, not fear.

FAQS

What others have wondered about therapy for anxiety

 

  • As an adult, this can make interactions with them feel confusing, invalidating, or guilt-inducing. You may feel like you're still the one managing their emotions or walking on eggshells to keep the peace. Therapy helps you understand how this dynamic developed and how to protect your own emotional well-being, even if they never change.

  • It’s absolutely okay to want distance—emotionally or physically—if a relationship is causing you harm. Wanting space doesn’t mean you don’t care; it means you’re recognizing your limits. Therapy won’t push you toward any specific decision but will help you gain clarity about what’s healthiest for you. Together, we can explore what boundaries (including low or no contact) might look like, and how to hold them without drowning in guilt or self-doubt.

  • Yes. Guilt is a common emotional response for adult children who were taught—directly or indirectly—that their job was to keep their parent happy. In therapy, we’ll look at where that guilt comes from, what it's trying to protect, and how to set boundaries from a place of self-respect rather than fear. Over time, you can learn to tolerate the discomfort of guilt without letting it dictate your choices.

  • There are several ways to take the next step:

    1. You can self schedule your free consultation by clicking HERE

    2. You can email me at erica@oceanwavescounseling.com

    3. You can call me at 813-406-0525

More questions? Check out my FAQs page.

Take back your control