Family Therapy
Family relationships are incredibly important, but can also be quite complicated. When conflicts arise, they can create significant stress for everyone involved. Family therapy is designed to help individuals improve their connections with each other, leading to deeper closeness, better understanding, and stronger bonds.
In family therapy, everyone in the family may attend each session together, although some meetings may involve only specific family members at different times. Sometimes, individual family members might also have one-on-one sessions with the therapist, but the goal is always to support the entire family as a whole. It's especially helpful for kids and teens dealing with emotional challenges or behavioral issues to have their family involved.
Families choose to participate in therapy for various reasons, such as navigating parent-child conflicts, co-parenting difficulties, welcoming new family members (like siblings from birth, adoption, or fostering), addressing behavioral concerns in kids and teens, improving communication, setting healthy boundaries, coping with the loss of a family member, handling significant life changes that affect everyone, managing in-law relationships, dealing with parental conflict, blending families, or going through divorce or separation.
The Process:
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1. Get a Consultation
Your family is navigating conflict or stress, and you all are tired of pretending everything is fine.
Schedule a free consultation, and we can help you identify where to start to support your family on their journey.
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2. Start Therapy
Have you ever wished that your therapist could have witnessed the argument you had with your spouse or child? Family therapy involves including all family members in the therapy sessions. This approach allows you to share the conflicts and stress you are experiencing in real time, enabling the therapist to support your entire family system in moving toward hope and healing.
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3. Strength your Family
Let’s make your family relationships even stronger! By working on how we communicate and understand each other, we can all grow closer together.
✺ Frequently asked questions ✺
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The goal of Family Therapy is to work with the entire family system to identify the root problem contributing to the relational issues experienced by its members. This is accomplished by the whole family attending therapy together with the therapist.
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The differences between Family, Couples, and Individual therapy are determined by who the client is:
Individual Therapy focuses on one particular client. While family members, significant others, and friends might join to support the individual, the primary focus of the therapy is on the individual client.
Couples Therapy focuses on the relationship between two individuals who are romantically involved. The client within couples therapy is their relationship. The therapist will focus on how the two individuals communicate and interact with each other.
Family Therapy focuses on the relational system that all members of the family are a part of. The client in family therapy is the family system itself. The therapist will work with the relational patterns between members to help them improve their relational health.
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Family Therapy addresses presenting problems that stem from the family relational system. These problems can be best addressed with all members of the system in therapy together. Some examples include, but are not limited to:
Relational Conflict
Parent Reunification
Reconciliation for Relational Cut-off
Child/Adolescent Anxiety or Depression
Family Grief
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The relational system serves as the client in Family Therapy. For insurance clients, there will be an identified patient for billing purposes; however, the therapist is working with the whole family to achieve success.
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Do not pressure someone to attend Family Therapy who does not want to be there. While it may be appropriate for a child or teenager to attend, all participants in the family therapy should be willing and engaged in the therapy process. Suppose there is an adult spouse or child who is unwilling to participate. In that case, it may be better to use individual or couples therapy to begin the therapeutic journey, so that when they are ready for Family work, you will be prepared.
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Family Therapy is the best bang for your buck at the Counseling Center of Great Lakes. Insurance and private pay rates for Individual, Couples, and Family Therapy are all the same. The more family members involved, the lower the cost per person.
Learn more about our insurance partners, out-of-network benefits, and private pay options for detailed information on billing.
