A family is made up of the most important connections people have with one another, whether they are blood relatives or chosen family. Cultures have, for the most part, been built around family units, and humanity’s progress as a species has benefited from the love, protection, and responsibility that comes with being part of a family unit. However, most family systems will experience tension, conflict, or strain. This is why a family therapist is very important to your marriage and family’s success.
What Is Family Therapy?
Family therapy is a type of group therapy that focuses on fostering and maintaining healthy family connections. This therapy aims to deal with the issues in the family as a whole, which includes conflicts that may exist among its members. These difficulties might be psychological, behavioral, financial, or marital.
Family therapy can help address problems such as communication difficulties, alcohol or substance abuse, financial troubles, and behavioral issues. If you think your family could benefit from family therapy, reach out to our trusted team today. At Marriage Couples Counseling, you can find the right marriage and family therapist to help your family and improve your family life.
In order to discover the source of distress and eliminate it in the most cooperative manner possible, a family therapy approach that works for everyone in the family from the immediate members to the extended family is essential. In a holistic family therapy approach, the marriage and family therapist may include grandparents, aunts and uncles, younger children and adult children, in-laws, and even parents.
Why Are Family Therapists Important?
Family therapy lowers tension and alleviates conflict in a family, taking into account the peculiarity of each family member. Marriage Couples Counseling’s family therapists and counselors specialize in Family Therapy, Psychotherapy, and Mental Health Counseling to assist couples and family members develop better interpersonal skills. Our mental health professionals can help you in several ways, including:
Guidance
Some life changes may put a significant amount of strain on members of the family and their relationships with one another. This is why marriage and family therapists are called upon to assist families dealing with tough circumstances such as job loss, sickness, or the death of a loved one.
Family therapists work with family members by counseling them and guiding them through their difficulties. They are able to teach coping mechanisms so these family members can work through these issues and move on together.
Diagnosis of Psychological Conditions
Marriage and family therapists are trained to detect and diagnose psychological disorders. If one spouse or family member is suffering as a result of mental and emotional disorders, therapists can identify and treat these issues.
Therapists engaged in psychotherapy might help you with a variety of issues, such as depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and other mental disorders. After the mental health issue is resolved or treated, both the individual and his or her family members may begin to heal. This is a powerful component in fostering family unity.
Mediation
Couples and families often go to therapy to resolve a certain problem that they are unable to manage on their own. Therapists provide people with practical communication methods that will assist in reaching a reconciliation. They also employ communication tools that encourage self-awareness and provoke a meaningful discussion of the issue at hand.
What Are the Benefits of Marriage and Family Therapy?
Marital and family therapy is an excellent option that may help your family members get to know and appreciate one another better. The advantages of family therapy services, as well as the ways that the Marriage Couples Counseling in New York City can help you, are listed below:
Strengthens Family Bonds
When bonds in a family weaken over time, new methods may be required to strengthen them. The ways that strengthened old ties in the past might no longer work in the present. In marriage and family therapy, part of the aim is for everyone to better understand who they are now and how they want to relate to one another. This refers to recognizing how each connection between family members is unique and may require new bonding experiences as time progresses.
Boosts Healthy Relationships
Family therapy is a great way to improve your relationships with others. When you’re fighting or having trouble listening, it can often seem like nothing will ever get better because no one knows what they did wrong anymore!
However, by engaging in family counseling sessions where everyone listens and learns from their mistakes – even if those insights aren’t always pleasant – people find that not only do things between themselves change but how they interact with other members of the family improves as well!
Important for Conflict Resolution
Family and couple therapy is sometimes necessary because family efforts to manage conflict on their own have not worked as planned. This is when a competent and experienced therapist comes in handy for conflict resolution. The best benefit of a therapist is that they are neutral experts who can look at the situation from the outside and offer you a fresh viewpoint. They draw on their expertise in family discord to assist you in resolving, mending, and growing as a family.
Family therapy also gives your family the tools they need to prevent future conflict and resolve it healthily when it does arise. What happens in family therapy is certain to have a beneficial and long-term impact, whether it’s teaching each member the value of forgiving or providing everyone a deeper understanding of how families need cooperation.
Improves Mental Health
The family is one of the most important sources of emotional health support for most people. When we are under stress at work, we look to our family for encouragement and assistance. However, if the marital or family relationship is damaged, how can you manage your physical and mental stress?
Family therapy programs are used to help identify the source of stress in the family, as well as patterns and habits that may be contributing to it. Then, with the assistance of a family therapist, issues within the family and what’s causing tension at home are addressed so that they can be dealt with promptly.
A family therapist can also assist family members in coping individually when difficult times arise. This is all about creating a stress-free existence for the entire family and assisting with each individual’s physical and mental health.
How to Decide If Your Family Needs a Marriage and Family Therapist
Choosing whether or not marriage and family therapy is the best option for your family may be a difficult decision. Even if it appears as though you’re giving up or failing initially, deciding to have family counseling might be a significant stride towards success.
Family counseling may be thought of as adding to your family’s relationship toolbox. You may find that you can learn new ways to communicate and work through problems with your family. Generally, you can pick up new skills for communicating, solving difficulties, and parenting.
If any of these symptoms appear in your family, it’s time to seek the advice of a licensed marriage and family therapist:
Struggling with Communication
It’s important to be able to discuss your feelings with family members, but if you find it difficult to communicate or they don’t engage in conversation, it could mean there is an issue at hand. Whatever the case may be, therapy may be very helpful!
Marriage and family therapists can help you find new ways of communicating with your partner and family members that will make relationships healthier.
Withdrawal
Adolescents typically have a desire for privacy. It’s natural and healthy for teenagers to want some alone time. Everyone, regardless of age, has the desire to be alone at times. If you see your loved one withdrawing from the family more often, preferring to stay in their room rather than come down or socialize with friends and relatives, it is time for concern.
People that are not getting their emotional needs met may become dissatisfied and repel others. They might feel even more alone than they were before. This is especially true when other symptoms of withdrawal are present. At times, this withdrawal from others might be a sign of a severe depressive episode.
If a person feels lonely in their family, or if they are facing additional issues that make them feel alone, such as bullying, family therapy may be a good way out for them. In family therapy, you can learn more about each other’s perspectives and work together to help one another as a family.
Changes in Behavior
Even a modest behavioral change that persists for more than a week might be an indication of something significant going on in a child’s mind. Don’t overlook behavioral changes. A family therapist may be consulted about behavioral changes and difficulties in children. You should be aware that a child’s behavioral challenges do not exist in isolation; rather, they exist in the context of the family and will almost certainly require immediate attention.
Family therapists treat the complexities of human relationships. In addition to being knowledgeable about child development and psychology, a family therapist will be able to effectively communicate with people of all ages and bring about a lasting solution.
Going Through a Traumatic Experience
Family therapy is a good way for a family to cope with the emotional trauma of losing a loved one, sustaining a life-threatening injury, going through a divorce, relocating, or battling addiction. Individual therapy and family therapy may also be beneficial to family members who have undergone trauma in one way or the other.
Having a Blended Family
When two separate family units decide to merge, it is called a blended family. For example, this might happen when a divorced individual with children marries someone who also already has children. Additionally, a blended family may be a reference to a situation where someone without children marries a parent and the pair subsequently has more kids, creating half-siblings.
When you have a blended family, it’s important to consider how it will affect your child. It might be hard for a child to adjust when there are numerous parents from prior relationships still in his or her life.
In most situations, this results in the child being perplexed, sometimes with a sense of conflicting loyalties. These difficulties might be helped with family therapy. Family therapy can offer a simple method for families to voice concerns and make connections with the assistance of a mental health counselor.
Children Struggling in School
A family therapist might be able to help you determine the actual source of your child’s academic issues. There are a variety of reasons why a kid might be having difficulties in school. It is possible that your child is being harassed by another student, or that the conflicts at home are stressing him or her out at school.
Therapists at Marriage Couples Counseling in New York, have years of specialized education to assist them in identifying these variables and then giving tailored solutions to address those issues.
Types of Family Therapy and How They Can Help
Structural family therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, strategic, and systemic family therapy are the four most common types of family therapists applied by experts. When looking for a therapist, choose an expert that specializes in your family’s particular area of concern.
Emotionally Focused Therapy
Emotionally focused therapy is a structured therapy that facilitates important conversations you should have with your partner or family members when you are feeling disconnected. This type of therapy focuses on emotions whether you suppress them or are unaware of how they are truly affecting you and your relationships with others. Through the process of understanding the struggles in your relationship, restructuring your interactions, and learning to communicate with one another, you and your family members will have the right tools for a lifetime of growth and love.
Structural Family Therapy
Individual problems or mental health disorders are considered in structural family therapy as indications of a malfunctioning family unit. The objective of structural family therapy is to alter the entire family structure by fostering good communication and establishing the necessary boundaries between members of the family.
Systemic Family Therapy
Systemic family therapy takes a different approach to diagnose and treat mental illness and antisocial behaviors. An individual’s mental health condition or harmful behavior is perceived as a symptom of the entire family unit in systemic family therapy.
This therapy focuses on individuals in the family who are thought to be engaging in behaviors that further enable the undesirable pattern. Altering the family structure, belief patterns, and interactions has been shown to benefit the entire family in this approach to family therapy.
Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy
According to cognitive-behavioral family therapy, the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of each family member impact one another in a circular pattern, resulting in maladaptive core beliefs.
Core beliefs are generally conscious and unconscious negative ideas about oneself that each member of the family has. These fundamental assumptions influence individual interactions and, as a result, affect connections with other family members.
The therapist will assist family members in recognizing their patterns, as well as help them understand how their patterns influence their treatment of one another. In the end, it disrupts these negative cycles and generates positive ones that foster a healthier family connection.
Strategic Family Therapy
Strategic family therapy, on the other hand, focuses on short-term solutions rather than long-term difficulties. It is a problem-solving approach that aims to help the family communicate and resolve issues. The therapist may cultivate debates during a family session, for example, to help the family think about their difficulties and begin to resolve them as a united group.
Marriage Couples Counseling Can Help Your Family
Is your relationship on the rocks? We at Marriage Couples Counseling In New York City can help. We can assist you and your family members in identifying the specific issues and developing a strategy for resolving the difficulties.
We take pleasure in a more personalized approach to family therapy, which enables us to serve every family in their peculiarity while also engaging each member individually. Contact us immediately or call us at (212) 673-4618 to discuss your options for resolving your marriage or family difficulties.
