The job nobody applied for
Houston has hundreds of thousands of family caregivers, and most of them don’t call themselves that. They’re just a daughter, a husband, a mom doing what needs doing. Managing medications, driving to the Medical Center, fighting with insurance, lifting, bathing, watching someone they love change. Often while working a job and raising kids.
The people around you see the patient. They rarely see you.
What therapy for caregivers covers
- Burnout. Not as a buzzword but as the specific exhaustion of being on call for another human being around the clock, and what it’s doing to your body.
- The feelings you’re not supposed to have. Resentment. Anger. Wishing it were over. Relief when it is. These are normal, and saying them out loud somewhere safe takes the pressure off.
- Anticipatory grief. Losing a parent to dementia, or a spouse to a terminal illness, is grief that starts long before the death. I treat it as grief. If the death has already happened, grief counseling in Houston picks up from there.
- Family conflict. The sibling who criticizes from another state. The relatives with opinions and no time. We work on boundaries and on saying what you need.
- Your own health. Caregivers cancel their own appointments, sleep badly, and carry anxiety that gets dismissed as stress. Some are managing their own chronic illness at the same time.
- Life after. Caregiving ends, and a lot of people are lost when it does. We plan for that too.
From home, because you can’t leave
You don’t have to find respite care to attend therapy. Sessions are online, and they can be short-notice, rescheduled, or taken from wherever you happen to be. If your person needs you mid-session, that’s understood.
Book an online therapy session, or send Laura a question first. Insurance and private-pay costs are explained on the insurance and fees page.