Family Therapy | What is Family Therapy in Edmonton?
To understand family therapy, it’s important to truly define and understand what a family is and how it functions in a healthy way. Once this is established, it will be clear how to measure your family’s function and determine if the unit as a whole needs guidance from a therapist or if only one or a few members of it could benefit from therapy sessions.
The following will help define the issues that may be plaguing your family. From there you can determine if your family unit is suffering, and if therapy could benefit the situation. There may be things you thought were normal and could try to fix or solve on your own. However, you may discover that a little help in the right area will give you back your peace. From there you can grow and thrive as a family unit. In addition to all this information, methods and techniques will be explored that can be used to give your family the success you desire.
Get a free consultation
Once you come to realize that a therapist is the right decision for your family, call ReDiscover Psychological Services for a free consultation with a licensed therapist who will walk you through what to do next.
What is a Family?
The family is a social group of people connected by blood, marriage, adoption, and other legal groupings. The goal is to create a healthy, supportive unit that allows for the individual to have a safe place to grow while receiving from and contributing to the group with love, care and affection. Most families around the world are characterized by similar attributes. To name a few, they are relationship, support, culture and identity, roles and responsibilities, communication and interaction, dynamics, types of families, and evolving by nature.
Not all families are biological
Every family is bound together through relationships of biology, legal or social ties. These healthy social groups share support and care for one another when it comes to emotional, financial, and practical needs.
A family shares an identity and culture devised of similar values, traditions, and practices unique to the unit. These are often passed down for generations. Each member of the group has unique roles and responsibilities for the family to be healthy. Things like, finances, parenting and maintaining the home are examples of this. These can be defined by gender and/or age.
Improve your communication skills
Communication skills are a key characteristic in how the family functions within the unit but also as individuals in the outside world. How you relate to and interact with one another in your family is transferred to how you function in the world around you. Healthy dynamics within your family are directly related to healthy communication skills and how you relate to one another. There are factors that alter these dynamics, which we will go into later.
You may be a part of any number of types of family. There are nuclear, that is parents and children, extended like grandparents, cousins, etc, single parent, blended (two families coming together) and chosen like friends and non-biological. All these types of families are constantly evolving. Major life events change the family. A new baby, a death, job loss, a big move, marriage, divorce and more can all be thrown into the mix and affects the dynamics and roles of each member.
Each family has different dynamics
Every family is very different. They can be supportive and loving but equally dysfunctional and strained. Seeking professional help will give you the tools and direction you need for healing and restoration. When you come to family therapy you can expect to find support in improving communication, working through conflict not necessarily removing it, and creating healthy connections from within the unit. The family is treated as a group where patterns are uncovered and explored. The therapist will help with giving insight into how the patterns of communication and behaviours are contributing to the dynamics of the family. There are several key methods to successful family therapy.
Different methods to successful family therapy
Systems approach is when a family therapist treats the family as a whole rather than individuals. Patterns of behaviour are uncovered and worked through as a unit. The belief is if one part of the system is changed it affects the whole group. Among the areas of focus are interactions, roles, and relationships. The purpose is to gain understanding in these areas.
Interdependence is when one family member’s behaviours and emotions affect other members in the family unit. A therapist will help to discover the dynamics and how everyone is interconnected in positive and negative ways.
How a therapist helps
One of the biggest things a therapist helps the family with is the communication patterns that exist. The goal is to direct the family into healthier and more effective ways to improve this area. The point is to have understanding and reduce family conflicts.
Therapists help the family members define roles and responsibilities. Boundaries are explored and reinforced within the family unit with the help of the therapist. This gives the family healthy structure which causes dysfunction to decrease.
A therapist is there to help the family system evolve and grow in a positive way while also considering cultural influences that affect the family’s beliefs and values.
Areas of interest for therapy can range from marital and couples’ conflict, parent-child conflict, substance abuse issues, behavioural issues with children or teens, grief and loss, mental health, major life events like divorce, remarriage or a big move, and trauma or abuse.
Get professional counselling
Family therapy is a great first step in working through any of these areas in helping start the healing process. It can involve all family members or only a portion of them. It is dependent on the specifics within the family and not a one size fits all approach. Goals for the family are set. Tools and strategies are provided while promoting healthy changes in communication and interactions. Each family is unique and therefore the number of sessions depends on the specific issue and family. Reach out to ReDiscover Psychology to start the healing process in your family today.