EXPRESS YOURSELF THERAPY
FAMILY THERAPY
Family therapy in NYC — for every kind of family.
Families are complicated in ways that are hard to describe from the outside. The history, the unspoken rules, the roles people get cast in from childhood, the grief of what was hoped for and what actually happened — all of it lives in the room whenever a family comes together. Family therapy creates a space to slow that down, hear everyone, and figure out what’s actually happening beneath the patterns that keep repeating.
At Express Yourself Therapy, we work with biological families, blended families, chosen families, and families that don’t fit a standard template. We bring an affirming, anti-oppressive lens to all family work — which means we don’t assume what a family should look like, and we don’t treat any particular family structure as the norm everyone else is measured against. Whatever your family is, we work with it as it actually is.
In person in Manhattan or virtual across New York State. All family structures welcome.
WHO WE WORK WITH
Families navigating conflict between members, painful communication patterns, major life transitions, or the aftermath of loss, illness, or rupture. We work with families at any stage — in acute crisis, in the slow grind of a long-standing dynamic that isn’t working, or proactively, because a family wants support through a transition before things get worse.
Biological and blended families
When a family member comes out — as gay, trans, non-binary, bisexual, or in any other way — it changes things for the whole family system. Sometimes parents and siblings need support in understanding what that means and how to show up well. Sometimes the person who came out needs support navigating a family that is struggling. Sometimes the whole family needs a room together to have conversations that have been too hard to have at home. We work with all of it, and we always center the wellbeing and dignity of the LGBTQIA+ member.
Families with LGBTQIA+ members
Family rejection — particularly around LGBTQIA+ identity, relationship structure, or values — is one of the most painful experiences a person can carry. We work with people on both sides of estrangement: those who have been rejected by their families and are grieving and rebuilding, and families who want to understand what happened and find a path back if one exists. We don’t push reconciliation when it isn’t safe or wanted. We support people in figuring out what they actually need.
Families navigating rejection or estrangement
Families navigating the space between generations — or between cultures — carry a particular kind of complexity. First-generation Americans, immigrant families, and multi-generational households navigating different values, expectations, and ways of understanding the world need a therapist who understands that context matters. We bring cultural humility and genuine curiosity to this work, and we don’t treat assimilation as a goal.
Multi-generational and immigrant families
The relationship between parents and teens or young adults is one of the most demanding relational dynamics there is: the young person is doing the necessary work of separating and becoming their own person, and the parent is trying to hold on and let go at the same time. When there’s added complexity — a child who is queer or trans, a young person struggling with mental health, a family system that communicates through conflict or silence — family therapy can be the thing that keeps the relationship intact through the hardest years.
Families with adolescents and young adults
For many people — and for a disproportionate number of LGBTQIA+ people — chosen family is primary family. The people you chose to build a life with, who show up when biological family can’t or won’t, deserve the same quality of care and attention as any other family system. We work with chosen family constellations of all sizes and configurations on conflict, caregiving, transitions, and the relational work of being family to each other without any of the external structures that usually define it.
Chosen Families
WHAT WE HELP WITH
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Communication breakdown — the same arguments, the same silences, the same stuck places
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A family member coming out as LGBTQIA+ — supporting the whole system through that change
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Conflict between siblings, between parents and children, or across generations
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Navigating a family member’s mental health, addiction, or chronic illness
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Grief — loss of a family member, a relationship, or a version of the family that won’t exist anymore
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Major life transitions — divorce, remarriage, a move, a new child, a child leaving home
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Estrangement — understanding it, grieving it, or carefully considering whether to repair it
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Trauma that runs through a family system across generations
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Cultural and values differences within a family
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Co-parenting after separation — building a working relationship for the sake of children
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Families with trans or gender-nonconforming members navigating transition together
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Setting and holding boundaries within family systems that didn’t have them
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Preparing for a hard conversation that keeps getting avoided
HOW WE WORK
Family therapy at EYT begins with a session where we hear from everyone about what brought them in and what they’re hoping for. We name dynamics when we see them, help family members hear each other in ways that haven’t been possible at home, and focus on what’s actually driving the patterns that keep repeating rather than just managing the symptoms. Not every family member needs to attend every session. We’ll work out the right format together — whether that’s full family sessions, subgroup sessions, individual sessions alongside family work, or a combination.
For more info, see our F.A.Q's page.
A note on our approach to LGBTQ+ family work
We offer a space for families to do the genuine work of understanding, grieving, adjusting, and reconnecting — built on the foundation that the LGBTQIA+ family member’s identity is not the problem to be solved. If you’re looking for a therapist who will help you “convince” a family member to change or “come back around,” we are not the right practice. If you’re looking for support in building a family that can hold everyone in it with honesty and care, we are.