Health Professionals
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Thelma McMillen Frontiers in Addiction Lecture Series
When Family Enmeshment Leads to Ambivalence and Betrayal in Adult Romantic Relationships: Helping Clients Unburden Inappropriate Guilt and Obligation
Tuesday, January 20, 2026 | 9 - 10:30am
Event Registration
Family system therapists inform us that there can indeed be too much closeness in a family. Enmeshed family systems demand obligatory loyalty leaving family members wishing to chart their own course feeling guilty and torn between their wishes and their families' implicit and explicit demands of them. Normal developmental separation, differentiation, and emancipation are disrupted.
When one of the adult children is enmeshed specifically with a parent additional difficulties arise in the unfolding of relational capacity and sexual development. As a result, they become the surrogate husband or wife to a lonely parent. Romantic relationships suffer and spouses and partners of enmeshed adults occupy a secondary role to the enmeshed adult's parents creating a cascade of relationship distress and difficulties. Addictions are common as they offer a perceived escape from the excessive burdens associated with enmeshment.
Presenter Bios:
Kenneth M. Adams, Ph.D., CSAT-S, a licensed psychologist since 1981, is a faculty member with the International Institute of Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP) and the clinical director and founder of Kenneth M. Adams and Associates in suburban Detroit and the popular Overcoming Enmeshment workshops. Adams is a national lecturer, workshop leader, and consultant in the areas of child abuse, dysfunctional family systems, and sex addiction.
He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and Silently Seduced, When He’s Married to Mom, and A Light in the Dark as well as co-editor of Clinical Management of Sex Addiction-Revised. He was the co-recipient of the 2001 “Readers Choice Award” for his paper on Shame Reduction and Affect Regulation. In 2011, Dr. Adams received the “Carnes Award” for “outstanding work in the field of sexual addiction and compulsivity and in 2016 received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from IITAP for his work with trauma and addiction.
He is a certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT), a CSAT supervisor, and CSAT training facilitator as well as an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) practitioner.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify and assess for enmeshment in clients and learn best practices in how to engage the client in breaking through denial and come to acceptance of the problem.
- Describe the role of enmeshment in the development of addictions and needed recovery process.
- Evaluate the impact of parental enmeshment on the spouse or partner and the romantic relationship and best practices to assist in managing the impact.
EARN 1.5 CE Credit Hours
Learning Levels
To be added to our mailing list, please contact jamie.gelbart@tmmc.com. Participants will receive an email link to register for each presentation.
2026 Lecture Schedule
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