This answer often looks different to each family that starts family therapy. However, some signs that your family might need to consider family counseling include frequent fights or misunderstandings, constant tension, experiencing loss, behavioral issues, marital issues, divorce, and blended family issues, among others.
In family therapy, therapists will often start by asking questions and assessing individual and family dynamics. From there, they may employ therapeutic techniques such as structured family therapy, CBT, strategic family therapy, and more depending on the present concerns and conflicts. From there, a therapist will work to open lines of communication between family members and facilitate emotional healing and growth.
The writer and preacher Frederick Buchner once stated, “You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.” We carry our families with us throughout our lives, whether or not we keep in close contact with them. Our formative years with our families influence how we see the world, how we interact with others, how we model our own intimate relationships. And so it’s essential that we keep families running as smoothly as possible because they have an impact throughout our lifetimes. That’s where family therapy can come into play.
Family therapy at Thriveworks in Odessa, TX is a safe way for family members to express their feelings about what’s working, and what isn’t, at home. The licensed family therapists at Thriveworks can then help family members find solutions to their individual and collective problems with evidence-based, highly effective, psychotherapy approaches. Reach out today for help.
How to Decide If Family Counseling Is Right for You?
Most individuals who have been in counseling before understand how helpful therapy sessions can be, no matter what you’re going through. But how do you convince reluctant family members that you can all benefit from seeing a family therapist at Thriveworks in Odessa, TX? If any of the following stressors are present under your roof or in your family at-large, then family therapy will probably be incredibly useful:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD)
- Bereavement
- Marriage conflict
- Financial difficulties
- Emotional or verbal abuse
- Chronic illness
- Caregiver burnout
- Special needs children
- Eating disorders
- Alienation
- Behavioral problems and “acting out”
- Substance abuse or addiction
- Blended family difficulties
- Long-lasting grievances and grudges
- Constant fighting and/or tension at home
To convince hesitant family members, just assure them that family therapy at Thriveworks in Odessa, TX is usually brief, solution-focused, and highly effective. The overwhelming majority of families who participate in family therapy sessions walk away with valuable resources to tackle life’s problems together in a healthier way.
How Does Family Therapy Work?
The licensed family therapists at Thriveworks in Odessa, TX use a variety of activities and therapeutic exercises to put everyone at their ease and open the door to emotional insights. Those insights might include learning how to do the following:
- Be more emotionally forthcoming
- Reduce tension at home
- Forgive, or ask for forgiveness
- Reinforce your family’s strengths
- Manage anger
- Empathize with each other
- Listen to each other’s perspectives
- Recognize implicit rules and codes of behavior
- Make healthy boundaries
- Improve communication with neutral or “I” language
- Recognize emotional triggers
- Rebuild trust in each other
Family therapists at Thriveworks in Odessa, TX can also help identify individual family members who may need additional support in the form of substance abuse counseling, depression counseling, anxiety counseling, psychiatric treatment, or something else.
Schedule Family Therapy at Thriveworks in Odessa, TX
Don’t wait until you and your family members are estranged to start a relationship with a licensed family therapist at Thriveworks in Odessa, TX. Our therapists can help you now before you’re in crisis. When you call the Thriveworks office during our extended business hours, you can reach a human being, not a voicemail, who can answer all your questions and schedule your initial appointment. We can usually get you in to see a top-rated, highly qualified, fully licensed family therapist within the week of your call.
Show your family how much you care by booking a family therapy session at Thriveworks in Odessa, TX. We look forward to hearing from you!