Family Therapy for Asian American/Asian Immigrant Families

in SF Bay Area and throughout California, Florida, and Washington

Rebuilding Connection. Honoring Roots. Healing Forward.

Family is everything — but sometimes, it’s also where our deepest pain begins.

In many AAPI households, love is shown through sacrifice, silence, and unspoken loyalty. Parents give everything, and children carry the weight of that “everything.” It’s not that your family doesn’t love you — it’s that love often gets tangled in generational wounds, cultural expectations, and emotional disconnect.

Maybe you're a parent who feels shut out by your teen or adult child.
Maybe you're a young adult who feels like you'll never be enough for your family.
Maybe your family can’t talk about queerness, mental health, or autonomy without things falling apart.

Family therapy offers a space to shift these patterns — not by erasing who you are, but by healing how you relate to one another.

Common Pain Points We See in Asian American Families:

  • Emotional disconnection between parents and children, despite deep care

  • Unspoken pressure to succeed, be filial, or “make the family proud”

  • Silence around mental health, sexuality, gender, or personal boundaries

  • Lingering resentment, guilt, or fear from childhood or immigration trauma

  • Parents feeling confused or hurt when children “pull away” or set boundaries

  • Adult children feeling like they can never be their full selves around family

  • Families divided by cultural gaps, language barriers, or generational trauma

Underneath it all, what most families want is the same:
To feel understood. To feel safe. To heal from past wounds.

How Family Therapy Helps

At the Center for Asian American Trauma, we approach family therapy through a trauma-informed, culturally responsive lens — integrating Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Structural Family Therapy, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) to guide healing conversations and meaningful change.

Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)

EFT helps family members move beneath reactivity and blame to uncover the attachment needs, fears, and longings that fuel conflict. We help families name what’s really happening under the surface — the child who feels rejected, the parent who feels disrespected, the sibling who feels invisible. Once emotions are safely expressed, new patterns of connection emerge.

Instead of: “Why don’t you listen?”
You begin to hear: “I’ve been afraid you don’t love me unless I’m perfect.”

Structural Family Therapy

Many AAPI families function with rigid roles: the dutiful eldest daughter, the emotionally distant father, the anxious mother who carries everyone. Structural family therapy helps re-balance the family system — strengthening boundaries where needed, restoring respect across generations, and honoring each person’s evolving identity.

We explore the unspoken rules of your family — who gets to speak, who gets dismissed, who carries the burden — and begin to shift the structure so everyone feels safe, seen, and supported.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) in Family Work

IFS invites each family member to explore their own “parts” — the inner protectors shaped by past pain. When families learn that a parent’s harshness may come from their inner wounded child, or a teen’s defiance is actually protective armor, compassion and curiosity replace shame and blame.

Instead of trying to fix each other, families begin to see each other.

What Healing Looks Like

Family therapy doesn’t promise overnight harmony. But over time, it can offer:

  • Safer, more honest communication (even across cultural gaps)

  • New understanding of emotional needs, attachment styles, and roles

  • Repair of past relational ruptures

  • A path toward acceptance and closeness — without needing to “agree” on everything

  • A stronger foundation of trust for the next generation

You Don’t Have to Do This Alone

Asian American families are often expected to “figure it out” within the family — but some wounds are too heavy to carry in silence. Some conversations need to happen with a therapist present, to hold space, slow things down, and translate between love languages shaped by very different life experiences.

We’re here to help.

Whether you’re navigating parent-child tension, identity-based conflict, emotional estrangement, or just want to feel closer again — we offer therapy that honors both your individual needs and your cultural values.

Ready to Begin?

Family therapy is offered virtually for:

  • Parents and adult children

  • Intergenerational family sessions (grandparents, parents, teens)

  • LGBTQ+ affirming family work

  • Sibling repair

  • Culturally mixed or blended families navigating transition

Healing is possible. And it can start with one brave conversation.

This is where your family’s healing begins.