Family Therapy
How Family Therapy Can Help?
Our family relationships, whether they be our nuclear family, family of origin, extended family, family of choice, or some other configuration are often our most important relationships. Having positive, affirming, securely attached family relationships has a powerful positive impact on our overall physical and emotional wellbeing, as well as our success in life.
If your family is experiencing a difficult situation, it can take a toll on everyone involved. Whether the issue stems from a lack of understanding, sibling conflict, an emotional crises, developmental disagreements with a child, parenting challenges, major changes in the family, or even gender journeys, it can have an impact on the entire family system. Whatever created the disruption or family stress, family therapy can be a helpful resource in these situations. By working with a trained therapist, family members can address the root causes of their problems, improve communication and conflict resolution skills, and ultimately restore and improve their relationships and increase harmony at home. Family therapy can be an effective way to promote understanding, compassion, and healing within the family unit. This is true even when the family unit is spread out in different locations.
Some situations that may benefit from family therapy include:
- If a family is going through a loss
- If a family member is suffering from substance abuse or emotional distress
- Issues between parents (parenting issues or going through a divorce)
- If a child or teenager is experiencing emotional or behavioral issues
- Sibling conflict
- When a member of the family is on a gender journey or exploring sexuality
Family therapy can be helpful in a variety of situations, including:
- Communication issues: Therapy can help family members communicate more effectively with each other and resolve conflicts.
- Behavioral issues: Therapy can help address problematic behaviors in children, adolescents, adults, and improve family dynamics.
- Mental health issues: Therapy can be used to address mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety, or substance abuse, particularly since these issues always affect the family as a whole.
- Life transitions: Therapy can be helpful in navigating major life transitions such as divorce, remarriage, or the birth of a new child.
- Gender Journeys: when one person if a family explores gender or transitions, the whole family does.
The goals of family therapy can vary depending on the specific needs and concerns of the family but typically include:
- Improving communication: Therapy can help family members learn how to communicate more effectively with each other, particularly in situations of conflict.
- Building stronger relationships: Therapy can help family members build stronger, more supportive relationships with each other.
- Addressing any problems or conflicts: Therapy can help family members work through any problems or conflicts that may be affecting the family.
- Improving mental health and wellbeing: By improving family dynamics and relationships, therapy can help improve mental health and wellbeing for all family members.
How can family therapy help?
Family therapy can help open up a line of dialogue and communication and can help family members understand each other’s perspectives. This makes it easier to resolve disputes. During the therapy sessions, each member has the ability to learn ways of communicating better, as well as developing techniques to de-escalate arguments while making sure that everybody is getting heard. This can also help with parenting problems such as conflicting parenting styles, rule enforcement and remaining consistent with your child once the rules are established. Family therapy can help the family as a whole and members of the family build resilience as they navigate tough situations together. Since families are a unique ecosystem, problems affecting one member of the family almost always impact the entire unit. Additionally, family therapy may offer the benefit of healing emotional wounds in a shorter amount of time than individual therapy.