Family Therapy

When a child has a problem, the whole family has a problem!

Dealing with your youngster’s low grades and uncontrollable behavior leaves you feeling crushed and exhausted.

Your teen’s rebellious behavior is both infuriating and terrifying, as you worry about the relationship you‘ve lost or expulsion from school – maybe even legal action if things don’t change.

Perhaps your son or daughter has sunk into a dark hole and only surfaces to lash out in anger or burst into uncontrollable tears.

Or maybe the child you love no longer comes out at all, and self-harm or suicide is a looming threat.

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 plays a part in the family and needs to be included in finding a solution to the problem.

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 them.

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 stimulate change. In addition to facilitating family conversations, I use games, worksheets, role play, and other activities to facilitate 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 them working 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 many families never experience.

If you’re willing to see it through, your investment in the family pays dividends!

Please talk to your child’s therapist if you’re interested in adding Family Therapy to your services.