Family therapy

“Family” in this context means anyone who plays a long-term supportive role in your life, which may not mean blood relations or family members in the same household. Family therapy’s goal is to reduce distress and conflict within a family system by improving interactions between family members. In family therapy, the therapist sees problems within the family as patterns or systems that need adjusting, instead of focusing on problems within each individual person.

Family therapy is an ideal counseling method for helping family members adjust to an immediate family member struggling with an addiction, medical issues, or mental health diagnoses. It is also recommended for improving communication and reducing conflict.

Other common reasons for seeking family therapy include:

A child is struggling (e.g. school, mood, behavioral concerns, substance abuse, disordered eating)
A major stressor impacts the entire family (e.g. relocation to a new house, natural disaster, incarceration of a family member)
An unexpected or traumatic loss of a family member
Adjustment to a new family member in the home (e.g. birth of a sibling, adoption, foster children, a grandparent entering the home)
Domestic violence
Divorce
Parent Conflict