What Is Family Therapy? How Can It Help Your Family?

When we think of therapy, what so often comes to mind is an individual and a counselor sitting in a room together. Our imaginations may even stretch to allow for a glimpse of couple’s therapy. However, an often-overlooked form of therapeutic engagement involves the whole family.

Family therapy can provide a variety of benefits to parents, children, siblings, and close members of any type of family unit.

Wondering if family therapy is right for you and your loved ones? Consider what family therapy is and how it can help your family resolve issues and form deeper, more meaningful relationships.

What Is Family Therapy?

Family therapy can involve any of the important people in your life. The main goal within sessions is to repair those important relationships, resolve conflicts, or improve communication between members.

Typically, these sessions are guided by a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has specialized knowledge about family dynamics. This form of counseling may be short-term depending on the needs of the group and usually last ninety minutes per meeting to allow everyone the chance to speak and connect.

What Family Therapy Is NOT

It’s important to set proper expectations when entering into family therapy.

Family therapy is not:

• A fix-all solution to your family’s problems.
• A space to safety ridicule or gang up on family members.
• A place where therapists blame parents for their children’s problems.
• A program that requires all members to attend sessions.
• A long-term therapeutic process.

Who Is Family Therapy For?

You may be wondering who family therapy is for.

While there is no set rule about who can attend, family therapy has been found to help those who:

• Have experienced a natural disaster or loss of home.
• Are going through a separation or divorce.
• Have been estranged for various reasons.
• Are moving out or going off to college.
• Have witnessed or directly experienced family trauma.
• Are becoming new parents or seeking to foster or adopt.
• Want help coping with a relative who has a serious mental illness.
• Are grieving the death of a loved one.
• Are in addiction treatment centers.
• Have children with disabilities.
• Need assistance working through financial stressors.
• Have experienced behavioral challenges.
• Have witnessed or experienced domestic violence.

That said, family therapy works well for anyone who wants to improve the undercurrents of their family circle, and it has been shown to help improve a number of areas.