Parenting Adult Children Today with Catherine Hickem Artwork

Coaching Your Family Relationships

Is your relationship with your adult child strained, distant, or heading toward estrangement?

Do you replay conversations, walk on eggshells, or wonder what you did wrong?
Are you dealing with family conflict, difficult adult children, or toxic in-laws — and feeling powerless to fix it?

You’re not alone.

I’m Tina Gosney, Family Conflict Coach and Family Life Educator. I help parents move from anxiety, overfunctioning, and emotional reactivity to calm, confident connection — even when their adult child won’t change.

Grounded in Bowen Family Systems theory and nervous system science, this podcast will help you:

1. Understand why stress spreads through a family system

2. Recognize patterns like overfunctioning, fixing, triangles, and emotional cutoff

3. Stop walking on eggshells

4. Navigate adult child conflict without losing yourself

5. Repair strained relationships with your adult child in a healthy way

At the heart of this work is the Differentiated Connection Map — balancing two core needs in every family:

• Closeness and belonging
• Individuality and autonomy

Through my HEAL framework, you’ll learn how to:

Hold onto yourself
Engage with calm clarity
Allow space for difference
Lead with grounded love

You cannot control your adult child.
But you can change your position in the system.

And when one parent becomes steadier, the entire family shifts.

If you’re searching for how to repair your relationship with your adult child and reduce family conflict without losing yourself — you’re in the right place.

All Episodes

Coaching Your Family Relationships

Parenting Adult Children Today with Catherine Hickem

February 03, 2026 • Tina Gosney • Episode 206

0:00 | 42:48

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Episode 206: Parenting Adult Children Today with Catherine Hickem

Are you parenting your adult children with the same mindset you had when they were little? It might be time for a shift.

In this powerful episode, I'm joined by Catherine Hickem, a licensed therapist and founder of Parenting Adult Children Today. We talk about the emotional journey of parenting grown kids and why so many families are experiencing estrangement and emotional disconnection.

Catherine brings decades of experience, both professional and personal, to this conversation. She shares her own heartfelt story of healing with her father, the powerful restoration that took place between them, and why she believes it’s never too late to repair a family relationship.

We cover:

Why parenting adult children requires a different mindset than parenting younger kids
How unconscious expectations can damage connection
The role of fear, disappointment, and emotional reactivity in estrangement
What it really means to “do your own work” as a parent
How emotional maturity and self-awareness create safety for adult children
Practical first steps for shifting how you show up in your relationships

This episode is packed with wisdom and hope. If you’ve ever felt like you “did your best, but your child still won’t talk to you,” or you’re asking, “why won’t my adult child talk to me?” this conversation will speak directly to your heart.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Catherine’s work at Parenting Adult Children Today
The importance of emotional healing and growing self-awareness
The idea that our success as parents isn’t how our children turn out, it’s how we show up

This is how you know if you need help with this…

You’re walking on eggshells around your adult child
You’re carrying guilt, fear, or confusion about what went wrong
You feel like your adult child is pulling away and you don’t know why
You want to reconnect but don’t know where to start
You find yourself stuck in anxiety, reactivity, or resentment

Tina Gosney is the Family Conflict Coach. She works with parents who have families in conflict to help them become the grounded, confident leaders their family needs.
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Connect with us:

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/tinagosneycoaching/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tinagosneycoaching

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Tina is certified in family relationships and a trauma informed coach.
Visit tinagosney.com for more information on coaching services.