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All you need to know about Family Therapy
Relationships between two people is a two-way street and requires a lot of work and empathy from both the parties involved. This fact is even more apparent when we take a look at the average Indian family. Indian families often do not have a two-way street of communication and lack some amount of empathy, this is because of years and years of socialization in families that has always placed an importance on respecting the elders, regardless of what emotions their words may bring in the other members of their family. Family dynamics are often complicated and need internal resolution and personal growth from every member of the family for the family to emotionally and mentally thrive. Family therapists are therapists who specialize in dealing with problems and conflicts that relate to families. Families that are having trouble understanding and communicating with each other can choose to reach out to family therapists to possibly learn how to effectively make everyone heard.
Family therapists may help in ways as such,
Improving Communication: Family therapy helps improve communication between members of the family. This can reduce misunderstandings and conflicts in the family by placing an importance on allowing people to speak so they can better understand their emotions.
Understanding Family Dynamics: Therapists can help family members understand how certain behaviors impact each other. Understanding interactions can also help establish healthy boundaries within the family, which increases the overall comfort in the family.
Family therapists may combine elements from different therapy methods to best meet their clients needs.
Some forms of family therapy include:
Functional family therapy: This method of therapy is often used to help families with children who are having trouble with their infants behavior. It assesses family dynamics that give rise to the problematic behavior. This approach improves communications and teaches parents various skills that will help them deal with future behavioral issues.
Couples therapy: This method of therapy involves couples or romantic partners. Couples therapists are well versed in identifying issues between partners and suggesting reasonable solutions to said issues. Couples therapy often targets issues such as communication, trust, sexual interactions etc.
Strategic family therapy: This is a short-term family therapy that focuses on making positive structural and behavioural changes in the family environment. It’s based on the foundation that the family plays the most important role in the life and development of children. Therapists may use this therapy form for families with children who have behavioural issues.
Structural family therapy: This method of therapy targets internal branches of relationships within the family such as boundaries and hierarchies within the family. It focuses on direct interactions among your family members as the primary way to bring about positive change.
While it can be overwhelming to acknowledge and seek help for family issues, it’s important that you do. Family therapy can help you better understand and work together to help the family to live a healthy life. Family conflicts can be very volatile and often need urgent care and empathy to overcome these issues. People must not underestimate the effect these conflicts can have on the entire family and must choose to resolve the conflicts.
If you would like one of our therapists at ImPerfect to assist you with family therapy, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team (link team page). Remember, long lasting change takes time in therapy, reaching out at the earliest makes a difference!