Mahatma Ghndhi

We all start this life with a family, whether that family is composed of blood relatives, adopted parents, or foster family. This family that we acquire when we are born influences every aspect of our lives, from our first moments to our last.

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Our family affects who we are and who we become, both for better and for worse. We learn our vocabulary, our habits, our customs and rituals, and how to view and observe the world around us.  We also learn how to love, and how to interact with others from these first important relationships. If we are born into a healthy family with healthy relationships, we are likely to learn how to maintain healthy relationships. If we are born into a dysfunctional family that struggles to connect, we may also struggle to connect with others.

While it is certainly unlucky to be born into the second kind of family, it’s not an unchangeable situation. Nearly all families deal with some sort of dysfunction at one time or another, yet most families retain or regain a sense of wholeness and happiness.  Family therapy offers families a way to do this – a way to develop or maintain a healthy, functional family.

Family therapy is designed to address specific issues that affect the psychological health of the family, such as major life transitions or mental health conditions. It may be used as the primary mode of treatment or as a complementary approach.

The Benefits of Family Counseling:

Families can benefit from therapy when they experience a stressful event that may strain family relationships, such as financial hardship, divorce, or the death of a loved one. In addition, it can be effective in treating mental health concerns that impact the family as a whole, such as depression, substance abuse, chronic illness, food issues, or everyday concerns, like communication problems, interpersonal conflict, or behavioral problems in children and adolescents.

Family counseling aims to promote understanding and collaboration among family members in order to solve the problems of one or more individuals. For example, if a child is having social and academic problems, therapy will focus on the family patterns that may contribute to the child's acting out, rather than evaluating the child's behavior alone. As the family uncovers the source of the problem, they can learn to support the child and other family members and work proactively on minimizing or altering the conditions that contribute to the child's unwanted behavior.

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