Family Therapy
When a child has a problem, the whole family has a problem!
I currently offer Family Therapy on an as-needed basis as a companion service for child, adolescent, or young adult clients who are seeing me for Individual Therapy services.
I DO NOT provide Family Therapy as a stand-alone service.
It’s about working together to make a better whole.
The purpose of Family Therapy is to help family members communicate better, solve family problems, understand themselves and their situation better, and generally, to create a healthier and better functioning home environment.
Ideally, Family Therapy involves all family members – or at least all who live in the family household or contribute to the day-to-day affairs of that household. Every member who plays an integral part in the family can then be included in solutions to the problem at hand.
Realistically, for the challenges commonly addressed in this agency, Family Therapy is most often used to provide education, skill-building, and support to parents of children, teens, and young adults still under parental authority, responsibility, or financial support.
Changing family patterns is essential to creating a solution.
A teenager may have emotional outbursts that appear to be the problem – outbursts that disrupt home, school, or other important aspects of the teen’s life.
Family Therapy looks at the whole family dynamic to identify glitches in the system that help the problem stay a problem as well as strengths and resources in the family unit that can help resolve the issue.
The intent is to use whoever and whatever works best to restore peace and stability not just to the teen, but to the whole family.
Understanding is required.
Family Therapy helps the family to see those things that seem to reduce the problem and find ways to do more of those things.
At the same time, we identify things that are consistently present when the behavior gets worse and find ways to have less of these.
By this process, we can change the environment – including the behavior of other family members, household routines, fixtures in the home, and other identified help or impediments, to reduce or eliminate the undesired behavior.
Every problem and family are unique.
Each family is unique, and there are many ways to create change. In addition to facilitating family conversations, I use games, worksheets, role play, and other activities to encourage insight and understanding among family members and to promote better communication and conflict resolution skills.
The goal is to enable the families with whom I work to grow into the healthy and happy families they want to be.
Solving problems requires work.
In addition to in-session work, there is a homework component of Family Therapy.
You’ll be expected to use the insight and skills from therapy at home to practice and master the skills you and your family need to become the family you want to be. For example, if we make a discipline plan in therapy, you’ll be expected to implement and maintain it at home.
Furthermore, you’ll need to pay attention and report back what works and what doesn’t work, so I can get you accustomed to changing things up as necessary to keep things flowing effectively.
With work, family problems can be solved.
Family Therapy requires a significant investment of time and commitment and isn’t for every family.
However, it provides amazing opportunities for growth and connection that would otherwise be missed.
If you’re willing to see it through, your investment in the family will pay off!
Please talk to your child’s therapist if you’re interested in adding Family Therapy to your services.