You may not be quite familiar with family therapy if you never had any serious issue that impacted you all. It mainly refers to a situation when a family member has an ailment that makes a living together with a huge problem. However, it may not mean that your whole family is involved in the therapy. Family therapy mainly focuses on family dynamics.
You can rest assured that this short-term treatment focuses on specific goals. The therapist will explore the patterns and conflicts and find common ground to ease things out. Family therapy can help ease out troubled relationships between spouses, children-parents, and other members. So, let us find out every facet of family counseling today.
How Can It Help You?
Family therapy can help you if there are problems within your family. If the issues within your family are too large, then you and your family are candidates for family counseling. A family therapist can help you in various ways. They can help you manage conflicts, misunderstandings, and challenges. Below are some specific situations that need intervention:
- Irreversible conflicts between family members
- Substance abuse issues
- Mental Illness
- Financial problems
- Sibling rivalry
- Caring for a member with special needs
- Matters about extended family
- Death
- Infidelity
- Separation or Divorce
Approaches Towards Family Counseling
There are several approaches to family therapy that helps with the above situations. Let’s understand them in detail.
Palliative Approach
You can opt for hospice care, as it focuses on the comfort and well-being of the patient. This is relevant in situations in which a family member is seriously ill and is approaching the end-stage. It is essential when there may be no treatment for the disease, or the patients may not want to receive any more treatments.
It is one of the approaches that can give the other family members some respite. Such an arrangement is beneficial for families who need guidance. It will also help cope with grief and loss. It also reduces the burden concerning finances on the family. Medicaid and Medicare usually cover the expenses.
Systemic Family Therapy
Systemic therapy considers your family as a whole unit. In such a scenario, the condition or actions of one member can affect another. The therapist mainly aims to understand the processes within the family and how they influence one another and the outsiders. Moreover, the therapist also seeks to understand how the family dynamics change over time. This approach’s ultimate aim is to offer some solution or conclusion to the family. It involves all age groups and can be used for the various rungs of society. Additionally, it solves adult mental health issues, psychosexual difficulties, and alcohol abuse issues.
Structural Family Therapy
This approach or therapy is based on the fact that dysfunctional relations between youngsters and their parents mainly occur due to non-productive ways within the family. It is one of the most popular family therapies worldwide. It suggests that turmoil within the family can lead to stress and anxiety in children and teenagers. You will find the therapist undertaking family mapping to understand behaviors and interactions. The family map includes data like the family unit, genders, ages, and relationships.
The therapist also tries to find out the family rules, hierarchy, and behavior patterns. Additionally, in this kind of therapy, you will find the therapist using techniques like role-play and reframing to ease things between members. It mainly solves trauma-related cases, divorce, and single-parent families.
Brief Strategic Family Therapy
It is an evidence-based intervention used to correct dysfunctional patterns within the family. It mainly stresses youth behavior. The target population is adolescents. You will find the therapist to be highly problem-focused in this approach. You can expect solutions for conduct disorders, non-compliant behavior, and alcohol or drug use.
The Process of Family Therapy
Any family therapy session may include just one approach or all of the above. Most family therapies have specific goals. You cannot expect to reach the goal with one treatment at times
- There will be an initial session when the therapist likely asks you about the issue. You have to divulge the problems to your therapist.
- In preceding sessions, the therapist asks you several questions about the family history, members’ roles, parenting approaches, and coping skills. Through these sessions, your therapist will conclude the therapy method.
- In the case of a structural approach, the next step mainly includes a map.
- Lastly, the therapist will chalk out a plan. Moreover, he will take a few members or all into confidence. It will be up to you to carry out the tasks delineated by the therapist.
Family therapy is a basic form of mental therapy that trained psychologists. Working with a therapist can identify the worst patterns and correct them. It may not resolve all the issues but will equip you with the necessary coping mechanisms.
