For parents carrying everything alone, and the grief underneath the forward motion.
Single parenting isn't just parenting without a co-parent. It's carrying the full structural weight of parenting without anyone to co-regulate with, share the decisions with, absorb the overflow with, or take over when you've hit your limit. The exhaustion isn't circumstantial. It's built into the architecture of the situation.
We provide therapy for single parents in Johnson City, TN and across Tennessee via telehealth. We're private pay and don't bill insurance directly. We work with grief, burnout, relationship dissolution, family stress, and the full complexity of what single parenting actually involves.
If this is immediate: If you or someone else may be in immediate danger, call 911 or call or text 988. You can also see our crisis resources. A therapy inquiry is not the right starting point for immediate danger.
What single parenting actually costs
The visible part of single parenting is the logistics: the schedules, the finances, the decisions that have to get made without another adult in the room. But the part that doesn't show up in the logistics is the grief underneath all of it. The grief of a relationship that ended, however it ended. The grief of the family structure you intended that didn't happen or didn't last. The grief of mourning something while still having to keep moving because the children need you to.
There's also the specific guilt that has no resolution. Single parents measure their own needs against their children's needs in a comparison that will never come out in their favor, because children's needs are more visible, more urgent, and more legitimate-feeling than a parent's need for rest, space, or support. The result is a systematic deferral of your own needs that has a cumulative cost that eventually becomes impossible to ignore.
And underneath both of those: the specific loneliness of a situation where there's no one to hand it to. Not the loneliness of isolation, necessarily, but the loneliness of always being the one who doesn't get handed to. That has nowhere obvious to go, and therapy is one of the few places that's actually designed to receive it.
Concerns that frequently bring single parents to therapy
These pages address the specific concerns that often sit underneath what brings single parents to therapy. Each one connects to how that concern may be addressed at Willow & Arbor.
Betrayal and trust
When what ended the partnership involved betrayal, and the experience of that has reorganized how trust, intimacy, and vulnerability feel now.
Blended family
When a new relationship is introducing stepparent and stepchild dynamics into the single-parent household.
Caregiver stress
The structural weight of sole caregiving: responsible for everything, with no one to hand anything to, and no legitimate point where the responsibility actually stops.
Co-parenting
Managing the ongoing parenting relationship with an ex-partner in ways that protect the children from conflict.
Family transitions
When the family structure has changed and the children are navigating it alongside you, and the work of helping them doesn't leave much space for your own navigation.
Grief
The grief of what ended or didn't happen, the family structure that wasn't, and the ongoing loss of mourning something while still having to keep moving because the children need you to.
Life transitions
The dissolution of a partnership, the reorganization of family life, and the ongoing transition of building something new from what the previous structure left behind.
Loneliness
Not necessarily the loneliness of isolation, but the loneliness of always being the one who doesn't get handed to, and having no one to share the weight with at the end of the day.
Not sure where to start
When something is wrong but the forward motion of keeping everything going hasn't left space to figure out what it is.
Parenting stress
When every parenting decision, behavior problem, and developmental question lands on one person alone, without a co-parent to reality-check, share, or absorb the overflow.
Self-esteem
The specific self-esteem challenge of single parenting: the comparison to what two-parent families can provide, and the verdict about what that means about you as a parent.
Service types relevant to single parents at Willow & Arbor
Individual therapy
The primary starting point for most single parents. A consistent space that's yours, focused on what you're carrying rather than what everyone else needs from you.
Couples therapy
When you're in a new or current relationship and what you're carrying from the previous one, or from single parenting itself, is affecting it.
Family therapy
When the dynamics of single-parent family life are affecting the children in ways that need to be addressed with the family present rather than managed alone.
Methods often used in therapy for single parents
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
A values-based approach for building psychological flexibility, reducing the grip of guilt and overwhelm, and clarifying what actually matters in a life with severely limited capacity.
Family systems therapy
An approach for understanding how the single-parent family functions as its own system, and how the dynamics within it can be shifted in ways that work better for everyone in it.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
A skills-based approach for distress tolerance and emotional regulation: directly relevant for a population operating at or near capacity with limited external support.
What's different about therapy for single parents at Willow & Arbor
We work with grief, burnout, relationship dissolution, and family stress in ways that hold the full complexity of what single parenting actually involves.
Single parents often arrive at therapy having systematically deferred their own needs for so long that identifying what those needs are has become genuinely difficult. The work often begins there: not with a presenting problem but with the prior question of what's actually underneath all the forward motion. That's a legitimate starting point, and it's one the work here is built to receive.
The grief that runs underneath single parenting is often disenfranchised: it doesn't have cultural permission to be grief because it's not the grief of death, because the relationship ended rather than being lost to tragedy, or because the grief is ongoing and incremental rather than acute. That makes it harder to name and harder to put somewhere. Therapy is a place where it can be named and received as the real thing it is.
Practically: telehealth is available across Tennessee when it's a clinical fit. For single parents whose schedules make in-person sessions logistically difficult, telehealth means sessions can happen from wherever works, at whatever time fits. Session frequency is something you and your therapist work out together based on what's realistic.
Grief received: the disenfranchised grief of single parenting, what ended, what didn't happen, what keeps being lost, is named and worked with as the real thing it is.
No insurance billing: private pay means no third-party involvement in your care and nothing that goes beyond this practice.
Telehealth available: sessions from wherever works, at whatever time fits your schedule, without adding another logistical demand.
When therapy for single parents may need a different starting point
We provide individual therapy through a standard appointment structure. For most single parents seeking support with burnout, grief, anxiety, depression, guilt, or the accumulated weight of sole parenting, this is an appropriate level of care.
If what you're experiencing involves active crisis, significant safety concerns, or a level of impairment a standard therapy appointment can't adequately address, a higher level of care or a different kind of support may be the right starting point. The consultation can help sort that out.
We also work with single parents whose concerns connect to specific clinical presentations as well as those whose experience is more diffuse. You don't need a diagnosis or a clear category to begin.
Your needs qualify: the depletion of sustained caretaking is a real concern, not a failure to manage better.
Telehealth available: therapy across Tennessee when telehealth is clinically appropriate and fits your schedule.
The consultation is free: a 15-minute conversation to understand what's bringing you in and whether we may be an appropriate fit.
In person and telehealth
Sessions are available in person in Johnson City, TN and by telehealth across Tennessee when appropriate. Clients from Kingsport, Bristol, Jonesborough, and surrounding communities are welcome.
Learn about telehealthFees and consultation
The initial consultation is free. Sessions are self-pay and vary by therapist and type of appointment. We don't bill insurance directly. Therapy is provided by associate-licensed therapists under the clinical supervision of Dr. Katherine Barteck.
View feesCommon questions about therapy for single parents
I barely have time. How would therapy even fit?
Telehealth is available across Tennessee when it's a clinical fit, which means sessions don't require travel, childcare, or time away from home. Session frequency is also something you and your therapist work out together based on what fits your schedule and what the work calls for. The consultation can help clarify what's realistic.
Is it selfish to spend time and money on therapy when my kids need things?
No. The depletion you're carrying affects your capacity to be present, patient, and available for your children. Addressing what you're carrying isn't in competition with what your children need. It's often the most direct path to being more of what they need.
What if I'm not sure what I need to talk about?
That's a reasonable place to start. Many single parents arrive at therapy knowing something is wrong without being able to name it precisely, because the forward motion of keeping everything going doesn't leave much space for identifying what's underneath. The consultation and early sessions can help clarify what's actually there.
Practical questions about starting therapy
If you're still working through the practical questions: what therapy costs, what the first session looks like, how confidential it is, or whether this is even the right time, our starting therapy guides answer those from the perspective of this practice.
Browse starting therapy guides →
This page is provided for educational purposes only. The information here is not clinical advice about your particular situation, and reading it does not establish a therapeutic relationship with any Willow & Arbor therapist. Guidance that applies to your specific circumstances can only come from a direct professional relationship with a qualified provider.
Therapy for single parents at Willow & Arbor is provided through individual therapy and telehealth therapy across Tennessee. See all therapy by concern or all services.
Somewhere to put what you've been carrying alone.
The consultation can help sort out whether we may be an appropriate fit and where the conversation should begin.
If you're in crisis or immediate danger, call 911 or call or text 988. See our crisis resources.