Family Therapy for Parents & Families
Telehealth across Vermont and Massachusetts · Private pay
Telehealth family therapy in Massachusetts and Vermont, with Maxwell Crystal, LICSW, for parents, adult children, and whole families. Family sessions are 50 minutes by secure video and cost $200, private pay. The first step is a free 15-minute phone call.
When someone in your family is struggling, it rarely stays contained to just that person.
The stress spreads. Communication breaks down. Roles shift in ways nobody planned. And often, the people working hardest to hold everything together are the ones least likely to ask for help themselves.
If you're a parent watching your adult child struggle, a family trying to navigate a crisis that keeps escalating, or someone who's been quietly absorbing the weight of someone else's situation — this work is for you.
Who comes here
Parents of adult children in crisis
Your adult child is struggling — and you've moved through every response you can think of. You've offered support, set limits, stepped back, stepped in. Nothing seems to change the trajectory, and in the meantime you're exhausted, frightened, and increasingly unsure where the line is between helping and making things worse.
This is one of the most painful situations a parent can be in. The work focuses on what you can actually control, how to stay connected without losing yourself, and how to respond in a way that doesn't inadvertently sustain the problem.
Families navigating a member in crisis
When one person in a family system is struggling — whether with mental health, substance use, or significant behavioral issues — the rest of the family reorganizes around it. Roles shift. Communication breaks down or becomes reactive. People stop talking about what's really happening. The people who aren't identified as the problem stop being seen as people who need support too.
Therapy helps the family step back from those patterns, understand what's driving them, and build a more sustainable way of responding.
Individuals caught in high-stress family dynamics
Sometimes people come to therapy not because of their own struggles but because of the system they're living inside. They're not in crisis — but they're being worn down by someone else's, and they need a structured place to understand what's happening, clarify their own role, and figure out what they actually have influence over.
Parents and teenagers
A teenager who has shut down, escalated, or changed after a loss, a move, or a divorce, and a household where the same argument keeps ending the same way. Family sessions work on the pattern between you, not just the teen's behavior, and sometimes include parent-only sessions.
Read more: Family Therapy for Parents and Teens on the North Shore and When a Teenager Is Grieving.
What the work focuses on
Most people in these situations don't need to be told to take care of themselves. They've heard that. What they need is a clear-eyed understanding of what's actually happening in the system they're in — and practical strategies for responding differently.
We focus on:
Understanding the patterns that are keeping the situation stuck
Clarifying what you can and cannot control — and what letting go of the rest actually looks like
Reducing the reactive cycles that escalate conflict or inadvertently reinforce unhealthy dynamics
Establishing sustainable limits without severing relationships
Building stability for yourself regardless of what the other person does or doesn't do
The goal is not to fix the person who is struggling. It's to help you stop being destabilized by their situation — and to respond in a way that's genuinely more useful to everyone involved, including yourself.
When addiction or a loss is part of it
When someone's drinking or drug use, or a death in the family, is what has reorganized the household, that's familiar ground for me. Both are a large part of my practice, and you won't need to soften any of it.
What I bring to this work
I've spent my career at the intersection of family systems and crisis.
As Clinical Director of Sana at Stowe, a residential behavioral health program, I worked daily with families navigating some of the most complex and high-stakes situations there are. I've seen what actually moves the needle — and what keeps families stuck despite everyone's best efforts.
That experience shapes how I work in private practice. I understand the guilt that makes it hard to hold limits. I understand the exhaustion of loving someone who is struggling and won't accept help. And I understand the particular confusion of a family system where everyone is trying and nothing seems to work.
This isn't general support. It's structured, experienced work with people in genuinely difficult situations.
This work may be right for you if…
You're a parent who doesn't know what to do next with your adult child's situation
Your family has been managing a crisis for long enough that it's started to feel normal
You've lost your own stability trying to maintain someone else's
You've tried everything you can think of and need a different perspective
You want practical guidance, not just a place to process
Common questions about family therapy
Does everyone in the family have to come?
No. Many families start with one or two people, often a parent or a couple, and others join later if and when it makes sense. Changing how you respond inside the pattern changes the pattern, even if the person who is struggling isn't in the room.
My adult child won't get help. Can you still help me?
Yes. That's one of the most common reasons parents reach out. The work focuses on what you can actually control, how to stay connected without losing yourself, and limits you can keep when things get hard.
Can family members join from different places?
Yes. Everyone joins by secure video from wherever they are, including different homes, as long as each person is in Massachusetts or Vermont during the session.
Do you work with teenagers?
Yes, in family work with their parents. Depending on what's needed, that can include sessions together, individual check-ins, or parent-only sessions to work on the adult side of the pattern.
How long does family therapy take?
It's structured work, not indefinite family meetings. Many families see meaningful change in 12 to 20 sessions, and we'll check together along the way whether things are actually shifting.
Do you take insurance?
No. I'm private pay: $200 for a 50-minute family session and $175 for an individual session. If your plan has out-of-network benefits, I can provide a superbill. Pricing and payment options →
Fees and how to start
$200 per 50-minute family session; 90-minute family sessions are $250
$175 per 50-minute individual session, for a parent or family member on their own
Private pay. Superbills available for out-of-network reimbursement, HSA and FSA cards accepted, and a limited number of sliding-scale spots
Telehealth by secure video. Family members can join from different homes anywhere in Massachusetts or Vermont, from the North Shore and Greater Boston to Stowe and Burlington
How to start:
Free 15-minute phone call. Whoever is reaching out can book it, and I'll call you.
A clear direction. We'll work out who should be in the first sessions and what we'd focus on.
Begin therapy. Structured sessions focused on the pattern your family is caught in, not a generic process.