Family therapy is a type of psychological counselling (psychotherapy) that can help family members improve communication and resolve conflicts.

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Family relationships are viewed as important for good mental health, regardless of whether all family members are participating in the therapy. The therapy sessions can teach you skills to deepen family connections and get through stressful times, not just for the present but even after you have finished going to therapy sessions.

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Family therapy can be helpful on many levels.  A good course of family therapy helps to:

• Develop and maintain healthy boundaries

• Foster cohesion and communication among family members

• Promote problem solving through understanding of family patterns and dynamics

• Build empathy and understanding.

• Reduce family conflict

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Some reasons for seeking family therapy include:

 

• When a child is having a problem such as with school, substance abuse, or disordered eating

• A major trauma or change that impacts the entire family (i.e. relocation to a new house, natural disaster, incarceration of a family member)

• Unexpected or traumatic loss of a family member

• Adjustment to a new family member in the home (i.e. birth of a sibling, adoption, foster children, a grandparent entering the home)

• Domestic violence

• Divorce

• Parent Conflict

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We all start this life with a family, whether that family is composed of blood relatives, adopted parents, or a 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 the 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.

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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.

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Family therapy offers families a way to do this – a way to develop or maintain a healthy, functional family.