Caregiver Counselling for Aging Parents in Coquitlam & Across BC
Caring for an aging parent can bring love and closeness, but it can also leave you feeling exhausted, worried, resentful, guilty or responsible for more than you can reasonably carry.
You may be balancing your parent’s changing needs with work, relationships, children, your own health and the many transitions that can accompany midlife.
I offer compassionate caregiver counselling in Coquitlam and online across British Columbia for adults navigating caregiver stress, burnout, anticipatory grief and the emotional realities of caring for aging parents.
You Can Love Your Parent and Still Feel Overwhelmed
You may be the person who notices what needs to be done, coordinates appointments, responds when something changes and makes decisions that never feel simple. Even when other people are involved, much of the responsibility, and worry, may still seem to fall to you.
You can care deeply about your parent and still feel angry, exhausted, trapped or unsure of what you can continue to give. These feelings do not make you uncaring, but they may be signs that you have been carrying too much without enough space or support for yourself.
Caring for Ageing or Elderly Parents Can Take Many Forms
You do not need to be providing full-time or hands-on care to be affected by caregiver stress. The emotional responsibility can begin long before you think of yourself as a caregiver.
Noticing changes
You may be seeing changes in your parent’s memory, mobility, health, mood or ability to manage daily life and wondering what they mean.
Adjusting to increasing care needs
You might be coordinating appointments, managing practical responsibilities or becoming the person your parent contacts whenever something goes wrong.
Supporting a parent at home
You may be providing care yourself, arranging home support or trying to respect your parent’s independence while also worrying about their safety.
Navigating assisted living or long-term care
Decisions about care, placement and living arrangements can bring uncertainty, disagreement and guilt—even when you know a change may be necessary.
Caring from a distance
You may be supporting a parent from another city or province, relying on others for updates and feeling helpless when you cannot be physically present.
y previous work as a social worker in long-term care homes included supporting families as they came to terms with a parent’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, other forms of dementia, Parkinson’s disease and other age-related health conditions.
Through this work, I saw how changes in a parent’s memory, communication, behaviour or independence can reshape the relationship around them. You may find yourself taking on unfamiliar roles, making difficult decisions and missing parts of the person—or the relationship—you once knew.
This can involve anticipatory grief: grieving changes that are already happening while knowing that further loss may still lie ahead. Counselling offers space to process that grief, adjust to changing family roles and care for your own emotional well-being alongside the needs of your parent.
Caregiver counselling shaped by experience with Alzheimer’s, dementia and long-term care
Signs you may be experiencing caregiver burnout
Caregiver burnout can develop when ongoing emotional and practical demands exceed the time, energy and support available to you.
Feeling emotionally or physically exhausted
Worrying constantly about your parent’s health or safety
Becoming more irritable, impatient or easily overwhelmed
Feeling guilty whenever you rest, say no or attend to your own needs
Resenting your parent or other family members and then feeling ashamed
Withdrawing from relationships or activities you once enjoyed
Struggling to concentrate, sleep or be present in other areas of your life
Feeling as though everything depends on you
How counselling can help caregivers
Counselling cannot remove every responsibility or make difficult decisions for you. It can give you somewhere to think, feel and speak honestly without needing to protect anyone else.
Make space for grief and complicated emotions
Therapy offers room for sadness, fear, anger, resentment, relief and uncertainty, including emotions that may feel difficult to admit elsewhere.
Work through guilt and responsibility
Together, we can explore the beliefs and expectations that leave you feeling responsible for everything or unable to prioritize your own needs.
Navigate boundaries and family conflict
Counselling can help you consider how to communicate your limits, respond to sibling or family conflict and remain caring without taking on every responsibility alone.
Find a more sustainable way to care
We can work toward choices that support your emotional well-being, relationships and sense of self alongside the care you continue to provide.
Women, midlife and the “sandwich generation”
Women are frequently expected to anticipate other people’s needs, hold families together and take on caregiving responsibilities without fully acknowledging the emotional and physical cost.
You may be caring for an aging parent while raising children, maintaining a career, navigating a relationship and experiencing your own midlife transitions. Changes in health, hormones, identity and family roles can make an already demanding season feel even more complex.
Cultural and family expectations may add further pressure, particularly when setting boundaries feels selfish or conflicts with what you have learned a caring daughter should do.
My approach considers the full context of your life. Therapy can help you recognize your needs and limits without losing sight of the love, values and relationships that matter to you.
Common questions about caregiver counselling
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Counselling can help you understand what is contributing to your exhaustion, make room for difficult emotions and explore boundaries or changes that may make caregiving feel more sustainable. You do not need to stop caring for your parent in order to begin caring for yourself.
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Yes. You may be noticing changes, worrying about the future or beginning to take on more responsibility without knowing exactly what is happening. Caregiver counselling focuses on your experience and emotional well-being; your parent does not need a confirmed diagnosis for you to seek support.
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Guilt is common when family roles, cultural values or long-standing expectations have taught you to put other people’s needs first. Counselling can help you explore what healthy and realistic boundaries might look like in the context of your particular relationship.
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Yes. I offer online counselling to adults throughout British Columbia, as well as in-person caregiver counselling from my office in Coquitlam.
Caregiver counselling in Coquitlam and online across BC
I offer in-person caregiver counselling in Coquitlam for adults throughout the Tri-Cities, including Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. Online sessions are also available across British Columbia.
You can care deeply about your parent without carrying every responsibility alone. Counselling can help you make space for your own well-being while navigating caregiver burnout, anticipatory grief and changing family roles with greater clarity and support.