Healing Estranged Relationships: Strategies for Supporting Young Adults and Their Parents

 Earn 1 CE Contact Hour

Estrangement between young adults and their parents can be painful, confusing, and emotionally charged for both parties. This workshop explores common reasons young adults become estranged from their parents, including family-of-origin dynamics, relational patterns, and challenges that a new in-law may add to the mix.

Participants will learn a variety of therapeutic approaches and intervention strategies designed to help families reconnect and rebuild trust and emotional closeness. Through case examples, discussion, and practical interventions, clinicians will gain tools to assess the situation and identify strategies to support both parents and young adult children in repairing their relationships.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify common reasons for estrangement between young adults and their parents, including family-of-origin influences and relational patterns.
• Apply a variety of clinical strategies to support family reconnection.
• Integrate these approaches into practice to foster trust, relational repair, and emotional engagement.

Who Should Attend:

Mental health professionals, therapists, social workers, and clinicians who work with families and young adults and want practical strategies for understanding and addressing parent-child estrangement.

Meet Dr. Peter Abrons:

Peter Abrons received his PhD in clinical psychology in 1984 from Ferkauf Graduate School in New York City, and then a certificate in family therapy in 1995 from the Ackerman Institute for the Family. He has maintained a private practice in New York City since 1985, specializing in family and couples therapy. He supervises graduate students in clinical psychology at Lenox Hill Hospital on their family therapy cases and teaches family therapy to graduate students at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. In 2022, he joined the board of the Ackerman Institute.