A calm serene space that creates a sense of safety and openness. Close-up of a rattan chair with a textured white pillow, green leafy plants in the background, and a light gray wall.

Nurturing those who care for others

Caregiver and Family Services

Helping care partners stay grounded during some of life’s hardest transitions.

Schedule a Consultation

You never expected to be here —

or, did not think it would be like this.

  • Caring for an aging parent, partner, or loved one. This journey can be deeply meaningful — and deeply exhausting. Geropsychology is a specialty focused on the emotional, relational, and life-transition needs that come with aging. Jaybird and Oak supports older adults and the family members who walk alongside them.

  • Navigating memory changes, health transitions, role shifts, grief, and the everyday stress of caregiving. We create space for reflection, dignity, and connection — honoring the full life your loved one has lived, while supporting the life you are living now.

  • Working together with others who see things differently. Sometimes diverse perspectives produce conflict - but with the right support, we can often integrate the best of multiple perspectives and find ways to move forward with clarity, authenticity, and collaboration.

Maybe you’re struggling with…

You know you need something to change….

But you are not sure where to start or how to move forward.

At Jaybird and Oak, we provide:

  • Family Consultation - A one-time focused session where Dr. Ilem meets with involved family members to help better understand and navigate a specific situation. This service is designed to be short-term, and is often used when families are:

    • Unsure how to support a loved one with changing needs

    • Struggling with decision-making or communication

    • Facing major transitions (like moving to assisted living, dealing with a new diagnosis, or hospital discharge)

    • Wanting consultation on how to respond to challenging behaviors or emotional challenges

    • Needing clear, expert guidance and a plan for what to do next

  • Family Caregiver Services - Ongoing, broader supports designed to help the person who is providing daily care or navigating big decisions. This can include multiple sessions over time and focuses on the caregiver’s needs and well-being. This often includes:

    • Emotional support for stress, grief, or burnout

    • Strategies for managing caregiver overwhelm

    • Building coping skills and self-care routines

    • Help with balancing caregiving and other responsibilities

    • Support with long-term caregiving decisions and planning

    • Tailored support to help caregivers stay healthy, supported, and sustainable over time

Support for the person who supports everyone else...

Supporting families and caregivers in honoring deep roots, integrating life stories, finding more balance, and clarifying the path forward.

Work With Us
Close-up of an elderly couple holding hands, with one person's hand resting on the other's lap. These older adults are coping with hard things, and trying to navigate caregiving responsibilities and age issues together.

With the right support

Imagine a life where…

  • You feel more balanced

  • You feel more like yourself

  • You smile and laugh more often

  • You do more things that give you energy

  • You feel a clear sense of purpose

  • You have a sense of clarity about your next step

Interested in ongoing family caregiver services?

Here’s what we’ll do together.

Therapy can help you feel more like yourself again.

Caregiver therapy is a space just for you. While your care and concern may be centered on someone else much of the time, the sessions focus on supporting the person who carries the responsibility, the worry, and the ever-adapting load.

In therapy, you can expect a steady, respectful pace. We begin by listening and learning about your family story, your caregiving role, and what feels most heavy right now. Together, we make room for the practical challenges of caregiving and the emotional layers that often go unspoken: grief, guilt, fatigue, resentment, tenderness, and hope.

Sessions may include:

  • making sense of role changes and shifting family dynamics

  • coping with stress, burnout, and anticipatory grief

  • clarifying boundaries and expectations

  • finding language for difficult conversations

  • reconnecting with meaning, identity, and self-compassion

  • developing new skills and understanding

Dr. Allison Ilem, a psychologist specializing in aging and caregiving. She is a woman with glasses and shoulder-length light brown hair smiling and wearing a colorful scarf, sitting on a couch in a living room. She engages with the person next to her

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

  • Caregiver therapy is for anyone providing emotional, practical, or decision-making support to an older adult or a loved one with health or cognitive changes. Care partners can include spouses, adult children, partners, extended family members, and chosen family.

  • No. Caregiver therapy focuses on you. Sessions are a space to talk openly about your experience, stress, and needs without worrying about protecting someone else’s feelings. Talk with your therapist if you want to schedule a family session that includes loved ones or care recipients.

  • No. Caring for yourself is an essential part of caregiving. Therapy can help you sustain your well-being so you can continue showing up in ways that feel healthier and more grounded.

  • Anything; it’s all fair game. Caregivers often talk about stress, burnout, guilt, grief, role changes, difficult family dynamics, medical decision-making, boundaries, and the emotional impact of watching someone they love change.

  • These feelings are common and understandable. Therapy offers a non-judgmental space to talk about them and explore ways to cope with compassion for yourself.

  • Yes. Therapy can provide a space to slow down, reflect, and think through complex or emotionally heavy decisions in a way that aligns with your values.

  • Caregiver therapy centers on the caregiver’s experience and support needs. Family therapy typically involves multiple family members and focuses on shared communication or relationships. Jaybird and Oak offers both.

  • Yes. While therapy may not change the situation, it can help change how you experience it—by offering support, perspective, coping tools, and space to process complex emotions.

  • Caregiving is demanding. Therapy is designed to be a supportive pause—a place where your experience is held with care, even within limited time.

Three people outdoors, holding hands, smiling, and enjoying a sunny day. One man with a beard and orange turban, wearing a red shirt, middle woman in a pink sleeveless top, and woman on the right with sunglasses and a blue top.

Let us support you

so you can be at your best with those you care about.

Like the OAK —rooted, steady, and enduring

and the JAYBIRD —awareness, voice, and perspective

In caregiver therapy, we tend to both — honoring the roots of legacy and the life already lived, while helping you notice your own needs, limits, and inner wisdom.

Find your aligned path forward.

Work with Us

strong roots, aligned paths, open skies

—

strong roots, aligned paths, open skies —