Family Therapy
Family Therapy
Family Sessions vs. Family Therapy
When an individual child or adolescent is seen, there might be some family sessions involved since they are minor clients with limited control over their environment
Adult clients may ask their partner or a family member to join some sessions due to some conflict that needs to be processed in a safe space
Family therapy is when the entire family comes in and the family is seen as the "client" rather than any one individual person
Family therapy might occur with the whole family or parts of the family, but the distinction is that three or more people are coming to therapy together to work through their system's functioning
Why might someone choose family therapy?
There is a lot of conflict within the family and it has become difficult to navigate and function as a unit
There was or will be a change in the family structure (i.e. someone died, a divorce, a move, someone went to prison, a new marriage, etc.)
One of the family members has a mental health or substance use disorder that has disrupted the functioning of the family
Can I be in family therapy and individual counseling at the same time?
Absolutely! It's not a hard and fast rule, but I usually will not counsel individual clients if I see also see their family. In these cases, I will likely refer you (or whatever person in the unit that needs/wants individual services) to someone else for individual counseling. With that being said, there might be times where I "break up" the family and have sessions with certain people only that week. Usually these will be dyads (two people) or triads (three people) and not individually, though.
Who can be a part of family therapy?
I don't define "family," you do! So the people involved may look different depending on your needs and the needs of what you consider family. It might be a parent/guardian and child, multiple parents/guardians and a child, parent/guardian and multiple children, two or more siblings, extended family members, or multi-generational family members. It could even be a close friend group with three or more persons. Each situation will vary and it will depend on the needs of the clients seeking help.