Has anyone tried therapy/counselling between a father and adult son to repair their relationship — especially when a family business is involved?

I’m wondering if anyone has experience with a father and adult son going to counselling together to work through issues that have built up over the years, particularly when a family business and money are involved.

My dad owns a small family business that my brother and I have both been involved in. Recently, things have completely blown up between my dad and my brother. There seems to be a lot of resentment from my brother surrounding the business, money, how our parents have helped each of us financially over the years, and feelings that things haven’t always been fair.

My brother ended up leaving the business after a major argument, and their relationship has become extremely strained. Before all of this, my brother and dad were very close, which makes the whole situation even harder to watch.

My dad is 65 and has been thinking more seriously about retirement and eventually selling the business, so there are also some pretty big decisions that need to be made. Unfortunately, right now it feels like there is so much anger and hurt between them that they can’t have a productive conversation without old issues being brought back up.

I’ve been wondering whether suggesting that the two of them attend a few counselling sessions together could help. Not necessarily because either of them has a “problem,” but because having a neutral third party might help them actually hear each other and separate their father/son relationship from all of the business issues.

Has anyone done something similar with a parent or adult child?

Did counselling actually help the relationship? And would you look for a regular family therapist, or someone who specifically has experience with family businesses/business-related conflict?

I really don’t expect therapy to magically fix everything. I just hate seeing a business destroy a father/son relationship that used to be very close, especially when my dad is getting older and neither of them may ever get this time back.