Family Therapy

If you are seeking to reduce conflict or alter unproductive patterns of communication within your family, or among family members, working with a therapist can help. Family therapy can help you rework styles of engagement, minimize stress, improve relating, and enhance each family member’s capacity to communicate and cope amid differences.

What Is Family Therapy?

Family therapy proceeds from the idea that family members cannot be completely understood without considering each member’s roles, or who each person is in relation to another and within the family as a whole. For comparison, think of the balance that holds an ecosystem together. Each element functions in connection with another.

Family therapy clarifies interconnected conflicts that emerge within the family system. All family members participate in the search for solutions.

When Should I Seek Family Therapy?

A therapist can assist you and your family to address emotional and relational challenges that might be disrupting your household interactions.

Situations in which the assistance of a family therapist could be helpful include:

• Separation or divorce
• Conflict between parent and child, or among siblings
• Challenges in blended families; the step-parent/step-child relationship
• Strife or stress in families contending with alcohol, cannabis, drug abuse, or other addiction-related issues
• The impact of a family member’s physical illness or mental health
• Financial difficulties
• Life transitions such as job loss, disability, or illness
• Difficulties with eldercare

What Happens in Family Therapy?

If you seek out family therapy, you will address such matters as your patterns of behaviour, the transmission of troubles from parent to child in your family, among other issues. The therapist will work to offer support and nurture change in accordance with the roles and relationships held by each family member.

As part of your family therapy, your therapist might:

• Encourage active involvement from all family members
• Assist each member in articulating their concerns, anxieties, and wishes for the therapy
• Help each member better understand their place in the family system, and their impact on others
• Aid family members in developing strategies to shift unhelpful forms of communication and behaviour
• Assist family members in building, or rebuilding, new forms of understanding and trust

The frequency and number of sessions vary from family to family depending on their unique circumstances. Your therapist may suggest meeting with family members individually, as well as in a group.

An overview of family therapy approaches is available on Wikipedia.