Family or System-Focused Therapy

Family Therapy

“It takes a village…”

“Family dysfunction travels like wild fire from generation to generation until one brave soul turns around to face the flames. That person brings peace to the generations who came before them and spares the generations to come.”-Terry Real

People seek family therapy for many reasons. Sometimes it is recommended by a friend or another professional. Some may choose to engage in family therapy to work on improving relationships with one another, to process shared traumatic experiences or to deal with major life changes such as a divorce, addition to family or shared loss.

Family therapy can provide a safe space to gain insight about maladaptive patterns and to learn healthy ways to communicate with each other. It can help address unresolved conflict, improve communication and gain insight about behavioral patterns.

I often work with people who make a conscious decision to end the cycles of unhealthy communication, boundaries and maladaptive behaviors that were modeled or passed down from previous generation.

Learn more about my approach to family therapy below.

Expressive & Experiential

This approach would involve incorporating Sandtray Therapy, Emotional transformative therapy techniques and tools from interpersonal neurobiology and internal family systems/parts work.

Structural
Family Therapy

We would work together to identify unspoken or invisible set of rules within the family system that may be causing distress or conflict.

My role as your therapist would be to join the family system in order to challenge maladaptive interaction patterns. We would identify family roles, boundaries & patterns of communication to determine where change could occur to improve overall functioning.

we typically work together to identify any under-utilized resources or strengths.

Collaborative Family Therapy

Using this approach, I meet with family members individually to identify individual strengths and understand each perspective, level of insight and role in family system.

A key philosophy in collaborative therapy is that multiple realities exist, so there is no single correct way to view a situation.

Therapy can help clients develop the flexibility to understand and gain insight through meaningful conversations and exploration about each other’s perspectives and realities.