Family Therapy

Most of us envision having a close knit family that can offer support and help meet our needs. But even the closest families sometimes experience ruptures where relationships become defined by tension instead of closeness, or ebbs and flows with how their familial dynamics are working. The health of our family of origin impacts our ability to have healthy relationships later on in life. It is important to seek help when it feels like the issues in your family are too big for you to handle and aren’t improving. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is have an unbiased person support us in mediating the concerns while ensuring each member of the family has emotionally safe space and feels heard and validated. Family therapy helps family members better understand each other, support one another and work through difficult situations. The skills learned can be lifelong. Let CW Therapy help create an emotionally safe space for your family to express concerns, and gain tools to communicate more effectively to get your needs met. 

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Family can include parents, primary caregivers or guardians, children (biological, step or adoptive), partners, grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. The family we have when we are born, or choose through the pivotal development stages of our life, significantly influences every aspect of our present and future: relationships, habits, vocabulary, customs and/or rituals, and the lens through which we observe the world and interact with it. 

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Some challenges that can be addressed in family therapy:

• Mental illness or behavioural issues of a family member

• Parenting difficulties or issues co-parenting

• Conflict between any members of the family and the impact on other members

• Difficulty with boundaries 

• Navigating changing relationships with maturing or adult children

• Major life transitions

• Experience of trauma 

• Family members feeling unsupported, unheard, invalidated etc.

 

Family therapy may look like:

• Talking about each person's hopes or goals

• Encouraging each person to have space to share their experiences and wholly listen to other(s)

• Clarifying each person's beliefs, values, needs, hopes and assumptions so that we move towards increased understanding

• Helping families stop blaming each other and begin exploring how everyone can work together to make positive changes

• Helping others understand the impact of their words and behaviours on other members of the family

• Helping explore and talk about the unique challenges the family is facing

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Treatment may include approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and education on communication skills and emotion regulation. There is no single path when it comes to family therapy. Therapy may last only a few sessions, or it may take more time for some. Often, the sooner families who are experiencing challenges access and receive help, the sooner you can get back to feeling connected with one another and the less likely ineffective coping or communicating habits develop.

 

Family therapy is offered in Burlington and Oakville. Virtual sessions are also available for all residents of Ontario.