What is Family Therapy?

Written by: Liza Reed, M.S, LMFT, NCC

Is Family Therapy Right For You?

• Feelings of being alone or isolated within your own home?
• General atmosphere of high stress/chaos within your family or living space?
• Frequent breakdown of everyday routines; Increase in unpredictable or inconsistent events?
• Reduced or strained communication with significant members of your family?
• Increase in worry/stress regarding family members and potential incompatibilities/confrontations?

If any of these questions sound familiar, Family Therapy could be beneficial for you.

 Family Therapy

Most of us within our families strive and work towards peace between each other, ways to connect on a regular basis, and effective and compassionate ways to communicate. So, why is it that families can so easily hurt one another and affect daily living so profoundly, when most of us intend to create unity and closeness? Quite simply, because of the intense investment and concern we hold for those we love, the easier it can be to enter into patterns and ways of being that can become ineffective or unhealthy.

What is Family Therapy?

Family Therapy is done with a mental health professional and is unlike traditional talk therapy, in that it is meant to incorporate the entire family or as many willing members as possible. Seeing as every person is complex and multi-faceted, the purpose would not be to delve into individual pathology; rather, Family Therapy seeks to conceptualize a problem outside of each individual, which the family can combat together as a whole. Family Therapy is meant to be a brief intervention that can quickly establish healthy and effective family systems.

How Can Family Therapy Help?

Family Therapy can explore patterns that leave all parties dissatisfied, and begin replacing these old habits with more effective ways to communicate and come together while honoring the unique individuality of all people that make up the family. Common responses to Family Therapy include statements like: “We just get along better,” “We are all able to come together and enjoy dinner time now,” and “Our house feels like a place of comfort again.”

Family Therapy is part helpful for complicated family situations:

• Blended Families
• Divorce
• Loss in the Family
• Location Change/Transition