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Family Therapy

Why Family Therapy?  Because it deals with family pain.

Virginia Satir

Family constellations come in all shapes and sizes; nuclear families, families of divorce, blended families, multi-ethnic families, single-parent households, same-sex parents, or grandparents or other relatives as primary caregiver(s).  No matter how you define your family, its overall functioning is a product of complicated interconnected relationships made from complex personalities.

In family therapy, negative patterns are identified and goals are established together.  Family members become more adaptive in their thoughts and behaviors.  They develop insight, empathy, and respect for one another so that the family environment is more peaceful, and overall family functioning is improved.  Family therapy helps resolve various conflicts.

Family Therapy is a well researched and effective treatment for families experiencing many different types of difficulties, such as divorce, death of a loved one, financial strain, mental health concerns, substance abuse issues, school and work stress, relationship difficulties, sibling rivarlries, body image/eating/food issues, and/or communication problems.

Family therapy assesses and treats the family system as a whole, picturing the family as a unique social system with its own structure and patterns of communication.  A family develops its own personality and type of communication.  Each family member is connected to the others and any one person’s actions impact the others.  Within the family, one person’s struggles may be a symptom of a larger family problem.   At times, it may be best to treat the family rather than only the one member.

Family therapy includes psychoeducation, helping the family to learn how they function together as a family as well as the impact of each member’s individual functioning.  The focus is on the entire family with the belief that changing aspects as the family functioning will improve individual functioning.  Family therapy can be active therapy with assignments to work on in between sessions.  In addition to family therapy, LWC Counseling offers parenting support and a solution-focused approach that addresses a range of problems for a range of parents; new parents, single parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, grandparents, and more.