Families are where some of our most important relationships live. They are also where some of our most significant pain is felt. When things are going wrong within a family, the effects reach into every part of life: how we sleep, how we work, how we feel about ourselves, and how we show up for the people we love.
If your family is struggling, you do not have to manage it alone. And you do not have to wait until things have reached a breaking point before seeking support.
At Excel Psychology in Spring Hill, Brisbane, our registered psychologist Mary Kedwell provides evidence-based psychological support for families of all kinds. Whether you are dealing with ongoing conflict, navigating a significant transition, struggling with communication, or trying to find a way through a situation that feels stuck, we are here to help.
No referral is required.
Families Are Complicated. That Is Not a Failure.
Every family has its own particular history, its own patterns, its own strengths and its own pressure points. What looks like simple conflict on the surface is often the expression of much deeper dynamics: old wounds, unmet needs, communication patterns that developed long ago and have never been examined, or the accumulated weight of changes that the family has not yet found a way to absorb.
One of the things that is easy to overlook when a family is struggling is that none of us exist in isolation. Our families, schools, workplaces, and the wider world we move through all play a significant role in how we experience ourselves and our lives. The patterns that create difficulty in families have histories, contexts, and meanings that are worth understanding before they can genuinely change.
Family therapy and psychological support for families is about understanding the dynamics that are creating difficulty, developing accountability and responsibility without shame, deepening each person’s understanding of themselves and others, and finding a way forward that honours the relationships that matter.
What We Can Help With
Family Conflict
Conflict within families is one of the most common and most distressing experiences people bring to psychology. It can be acute, a specific dispute that has escalated beyond what the family can resolve on its own, or chronic: a long-standing pattern of tension, disconnection, or recurring arguments that never fully resolve.
Family conflict takes many forms. Conflict between parents and adult children. Conflict between siblings that has hardened into estrangement. Conflict between partners that spills into the family system. Conflict about parenting, about money, about family roles and expectations, about the past. Conflict that has its roots in unspoken grief, in competing needs, or in family histories that were never talked about directly.
Psychological support for family conflict focuses on understanding what is driving the conflict beneath the presenting arguments, developing the capacity to communicate and listen in ways that reduce rather than escalate tension, and creating the conditions for genuine repair. Many families find that even a small number of sessions produces meaningful change in dynamics that have felt stuck for years.
Communication Difficulties
When communication breaks down in families, everything else becomes harder. People stop being able to hear each other even when they are in the same room. Conversations that start with good intentions escalate into arguments. Silence becomes a way of managing what words cannot.
Communication difficulties in families are rarely simply about communication skills. Beneath the surface, this work is really about understanding yourself and others more deeply: the feelings, the unmet needs, the fears and the histories that shape how people hear and respond to each other. We work with families to understand what is happening beneath the surface of their communication patterns and to develop ways of engaging with each other that feel genuine rather than managed.
Separation, Divorce, and Co-Parenting
Separation and divorce are among the most significant transitions a family can navigate. They involve not only the ending of a relationship but the restructuring of an entire family system, and they affect every member of that system, adults and children alike.
The most important factor in how children fare through a separation is the quality of the co-parenting relationship: the degree to which their parents can manage their own hurt, anger, and grief well enough to present a functional and civil relationship to the children who depend on both of them. This is genuinely difficult. Psychological support can provide a space for that pain to be expressed and processed in ways that reduce its impact on the family system, making possible what trying to manage it alone often cannot.
We work with separating parents individually, as co-parents, and with the broader family system to support the transition in ways that protect the children involved and give every member of the family the best possible chance of finding their way through.
Blended Families
Blended families face a particular set of challenges that are rarely acknowledged and almost never simple. Bringing together children from different families, navigating new relationships within the family system, managing the presence of former partners, finding a way to create new shared rituals and expectations while honouring existing loyalties: all of this takes time, patience, and a great deal of goodwill on everyone’s part.
When it is going well, blended families can offer children and adults alike an expanded sense of belonging and connection. When it is going badly, the tensions can be acute and the capacity for resolution can feel very limited.
We work with blended families to understand the specific dynamics that are creating difficulty and to develop practical strategies for the relationships and transitions involved.
Parenting Support
Parenting is one of the most demanding and most important things most people will ever do. It activates everything: our own histories, our attachment patterns, our deepest hopes and our most significant fears. And it does this in the context of an ongoing relationship with a child whose needs are constantly evolving and whose behaviour does not always make sense in the moment.
Parenting support through psychology is not about being told what you are doing wrong. It is about understanding the dynamics between you and your child, identifying what is driving the difficulties, and developing the capacity to respond to your child in ways that strengthen rather than strain your relationship.
We work with parents of children at all ages and stages, including parents navigating particularly challenging behaviour, parents who are managing the impact of their own histories on their parenting, and parents who simply want to do this as well as they possibly can.
Grief, Loss, and Family Transitions
Significant losses and transitions, including the death of a family member, serious illness, major financial change, a child leaving home, retirement, and relocation, do not affect family members in isolation. They affect the family system as a whole, and the way the family navigates them together shapes the experience of every individual within it.
We work with families who are navigating significant transitions and losses, helping them find ways to support each other through difficulty, to communicate about what they are each experiencing, and to maintain the relationships that matter even when circumstances have changed profoundly.
Couples Therapy
The couple relationship is the foundation of the family system. When it is under strain, everything else in the family feels it. And when it is working well, it provides the stability and warmth that every other family relationship depends on.
We have a dedicated couples therapy service at Excel Psychology. You can find out more about our approach to couples work on our couples therapy page.
Link to: excelpsychology.com.au/couples-therapy
Our Approach
Mary takes a warm, systemic approach: one that looks at the whole picture rather than the presenting problem alone. What happens in families does not happen in a vacuum. The relationships, histories, and systems that surround us shape us in ways that matter, and understanding that context is often the most direct route to understanding what is creating difficulty now.
This means that when a family comes to us with a conflict or a difficulty, we are interested not only in what is happening now but in the context that surrounds it: the patterns that have developed over time, the histories each person brings, and the ways the family system as a whole is organising itself around the difficulty.
We draw on approaches that are well supported by research for family and relational presentations, including systemic family therapy, emotionally focused approaches, attachment-informed work, and acceptance and commitment therapy. A central focus of our work is helping people build a different relationship with the thoughts and feelings contributing to their reactions. Research consistently shows that building the capacity to move toward what is difficult rather than away from it, even in small steps, is what creates genuine and lasting change.
Sessions can involve the whole family, a couple, an individual navigating a family situation, or various combinations depending on what is most useful at any given point. Early in the process, we take time to walk clients through the frameworks that guide our practice, so that you can decide together whether our approach feels like the right fit before ongoing work begins.
Our registered psychologist Mary Kedwell has more than 25 years of experience working with young people, adults, families, and couples. Her career has taken her through Child and Youth Mental Health services and 14 years as a school psychologist in a P-12 setting, giving her a deep understanding of how families, schools, and systems shape the people within them. Mary works with young people from age 16 and adults throughout the lifespan. If you would like to work specifically with Mary, please let our admin team know when you get in touch.
A Note on Who We See
When people think about family therapy, they often assume it is primarily for families with young children. It is not.
We work with adult families navigating estrangement, conflict, or the difficult dynamics that can develop between adult siblings or between adult children and ageing parents. We work with individuals who are dealing with the impact of their family of origin on their current life and relationships. We work with parents and grandparents and blended family members of all kinds. We work with young people from age 16 alongside their families when that is the most useful structure.
If your situation involves family relationships that are causing you significant pain or difficulty, that is enough of a reason to reach out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a referral to see a psychologist for family therapy? No. You do not need a referral to make an appointment at Excel Psychology. You are welcome to contact us directly. If you have a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP, you may be entitled to a Medicare rebate on individual sessions. Our admin team is happy to help you understand your options.
Can family members attend sessions together? Yes. Sessions can involve individuals, couples, parent and child combinations, or the broader family depending on what is most useful at any given point in the work. We discuss the most helpful structure with you at the beginning and adjust as the work develops.
What if family members are not willing to attend? This is one of the most common questions we receive. Genuinely useful work can be done with one person even when others in the family are not willing or able to attend. Understanding the dynamics from your own perspective, developing your own capacity to engage differently, and making changes to your own responses can produce real shifts in the family system even without everyone in the room.
Is family therapy only for families with children? Not at all. We work with adult families, couples, individuals navigating family of origin issues, co-parents, blended families, and families at every stage of life. If family relationships are a source of significant difficulty for you, we can help regardless of the specific structure of your family.
How do I know if family therapy is right for us? If family relationships are affecting your wellbeing, your functioning, or your quality of life, that is a reasonable signal that some support would be useful. You do not have to have reached a crisis point. Many families benefit most from support before things have become entrenched, when there is still enough goodwill in the system to work with.
Where are you located? Excel Psychology is located at 445 Upper Edward Street, Spring Hill, Brisbane, close to Central Station and easily accessible by public transport. Parking is available nearby.
You Do Not Have to Have It All Figured Out Before You Call
Many people who contact us about family situations are not sure exactly what kind of support they need or whether psychology is the right fit for what they are dealing with. That uncertainty is completely normal and is not a barrier to getting in touch.
If family relationships are causing you significant pain or difficulty, and you would like to speak with someone who understands this area well, we would be glad to hear from you.