Family Counseling

"Family therapists see beyond the problematic patterns in the family to the potential healing power of family relationships.” ― Joseph A. Micucci

The family unit is the foundation of a person’s life and provides an integral influence on how we function in our relationships, experience connection, and view the world around us. Everyone begins their life in a family by connecting through a biological family, an adoptive family, or a foster family.

Our family has the most profound influence of how we communicate, forms our values, and creates our habits. As some people are fortunate to be raised in a healthy family, but statistics show that most families will experience dysfunction or a difficult issue at some point in their lives.

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In recent times family life has become complicated for many. There is a great emphasis on achievement, children spending increased time on screens, and the reality of divorce, co-parenting, and blended families. These factors have caused a deep chasm in connecting with our family members.

Some families have dysfunctions that are deeply ingrained by the loss of a parent, addiction, or issues experienced by a parent in their own family of origin. Research has shown evidence that family functioning and conflict has a direct effect on children’s behavior.

For adoptive families I provide attachment counseling through a systemic lens which assists the parent of children with developmental trauma from their early life. Attachment issues in children can be seen in many symptoms such as anxiety, depression, anger, grief, and disconnection in relationships.

There are times when individual issues affect the entire family, or when issues within a family affect each individual. These situations are what therapist’s refer to as systemic systems. Systemic understanding suggests that the perceived problem is often not the problem, but rather, the family dynamics need to change.

Family therapy is available to work through existing conflict and improve the family’s communication patterns. In addition a family may be experiencing a normal phase of life that feels challenging and they would like some additional support to walk through that time.

“Imbalanced systems,whether internal or external, will tend to polarize.” ― Richard C. Schwartz, Internal Family Systems Therapy

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