About Karl

Karl Melvin is an Irish based Psychotherapist, who has specialised in the area of Family Conflict and Estrangement for over 10 years.

Karl is an accredited therapist with the IACP (Irish Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists) and has a Master’s Degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy. His dissertation was entitled “The Experiences of Familial Estranged”, which offered an Irish perspective of the impact of Family Estrangement.

He has one academic paper published in the Family Journal entitled “The Changing Impact and Challenges of Family Estrangement” (Available here: https://doi.org/10.1177/10664807211035490)

As a relationship phenomenon, family estrangement is a process of creating and maintaining distance of one or more family members, for a multitude of reasons. Yet despite the prevalence of estrangement, which is estimated to affect 1 in 4 families, there is still a great stigma surrounding this issue as it does conform to the traditional views of family as being enduring and never ending. This is particularly felt by those estranged individuals who do not feel a reconciliation is possible or desired.

Karl works with all estrangement perspectives, such as parents, adult sons and daughters, siblings, grandparents, etc. to help them connect with the deep sense of loss and rejection they carry as a result of their family situation. Focusing on each individual’s strengths, both intrinsic and learnt, he addresses how they can manage the many Psychological, Social and Relational challenges of being an estranged adult in this complex world, where estrangement is often misunderstood and stigmatized.

As well as working 1-2-1, he also delivers workshops to estranged individuals and professionals, such as therapists and social workers, who regularly work with estrangement and wish to better understand and help their own clients.

Karl has worked with various media outlets, including Virgin Media Television, Spin FM, the Irish Examiner, A Lust for Life, The Garda Review, Elite Daily (US) and Good Housekeeping Magazine (US), discussing issues such as men’s mental health, anger mgmt., and family estrangement.

And as a speaker, he has presented talks to Davy, AIB, the IFA, St Vincent’s Hospital and more recently at the 2022 Beyond Family Struggles Summit (US), alongside other experts in the field of estrangement, relationships and loss.