Is your family experiencing tension and stress?

• Are you having frequent conflicts with one another?
• Is someone in the family experiencing depression, grief, anxiety, or other issues that get in the way of you connecting?
• Are you struggling to communicate without shame, blame or hurt?
• Do you find yourself stuck in patterns that you don’t know how to get out of?

We hope to feel safe, heard and loved within our families, and it can be devastating when that isn’t happening.  Parents and children alike often find themselves at a loss with how to communicate their needs and feel heard within the family system.

As people grow and change, and as life throws new challenges our way, families often take the brunt of the tension.  Stress and transitions, such as job changes or a new baby, can impact the typical routine and create new struggles.  Families don’t always have the communication skills needed to navigate these conflicts.  We may find ourselves wondering

• Why can’t we just get along?
• Will this ever get any better?
• Why can’t we connect in a loving way?

Conflict is to be expected

Conflict itself is not a sign of disaster.  When people live, work and play in close contact with one another, different needs, opinions and approaches will come up.  As families grow, old patterns can persist and new ones can arise.  

School, work and other daily activities can be stressful enough, and when we additionally are dealing with a move, a loss, divorce, or other serious changes, we often lose access to our healthiest means of coping.  When under extra pressure, most people will experience themselves blaming others and being critical of themselves.  At these times, it can be difficult for anyone to feel supported.

Family Therapy can offer family members the focused time and attention they need to bring up challenges and find new ways to hear one another and work through conflict.  Having a neutral party to mediate and facilitate discussion that doesn’t turn into arguments can allow new information to surface, supporting the family in finding common ground and solutions that work better for everyone. 

Family Therapy can help you find more harmonious ways of being together 

Family Counseling gives you the chance to have your particular struggle be heard, while also being offered a new perspective, and shining light on areas of discomfort that may need some attention.

Rather than telling you that something is broken, we support each member of the family in finding their way to loving the person they already are, while also learning more effective ways of communicating their needs. This allows everyone to connect in more authentic and productive ways with one another.

The counselor in family therapy is offered the honored role of getting a glimpse into the inner workings of a family, allowing each person’s point of view to be witnessed and heard.  In addition, by modeling connection to self, and through the use of mindfulness techniques, somatic awareness, and non-violent communication, the therapist can offer new ways of viewing and tackling the often repetitive conflicts.

Family counseling can look many different ways.  Sometimes it does involve every family member, in order to ensure all perspectives and dynamics are present and considered.  Family therapy may also at times consist of individual sessions with different members or subgroups, or even meetings between divorced parents wanting to work on their co-parenting.

Each family is truly it’s own system, with each member playing different roles in different moments, and bringing awareness to these modes of interacting can offer powerful opportunities for understanding and change.