60-Minute Sessions
Family estrangement is riddled with pain and confusion. Hour-long virtual or in person sessions allow us to cover important topics and develop a toolkit to help with coping and applying effective strategies.
Topics for discussion during our time together:
- Discuss family relationships and history and their impact on family estrangement.
- Evaluate strategies that you’ve implemented in the past – discuss which have worked and which haven’t.
- Evaluate the role of mental illness or learning disabilities and how these may have factored into your estrangement.
- Discuss the common mistakes parents can avoid, then identify those that are interfering with progress despite your best efforts.
- Discuss ways to avoid creating obstacles to progress.
- Evaluate how strategies are working / how tools are helping cope in your day to day.
- Encouragement, support and compassion.

60-minute sessions are ideal for:
- Shorter, more frequent sessions: This time allows us to stay and make incremental progress towards coping and mending. This works best when you’re able to meet regularly.
- Evaluating: One-hour sessions also allow for monitoring progress, developing customized coping skills, providing time for understanding your estrangement, and developing an approach that works for you and your family.
What My Clients Say
Hear what clients had to say about their own experiences.
“Dr. Sierra is knowledgeable about parental estrangement and strategies to get through it with and without reconciliation attempts as well as radical acceptance.”
– Estranged Mother
“Dr. Vivian brainstormed strategies with me, for me, the estranged mother, and also helped me to find my way to myself. I continue to heal, and Dr. Vivian is definitely part of that journey.”
– Estranged Mother
“I have had the pleasure of working with Vivian more than once. Her professionalism is top notch. She understands and has a way of explaining, and communicating that with her patients. I highly recommend Vivian and her services.”
– Estranged Mother & Grandmother
“Vivian’s expertise and compassion has helped us to navigate through some rather difficult issues. Without Vivian’s help, we would likely continue to pursue our prior ineffective efforts and wonder why they were not working.”
– Estranged Father & Grandfather