Couples / Family
Couples and Family Counseling | Parenting Children, Adolescents and Young Adults
Couples and Family Counseling
Difficulties in family relationships are common and often occur around the parent-child or extended family relationships. Family counseling seeks to understand the multiple relationships between parents, children, extended family and outside relationships. Family relationships can be very complex and often includes understanding many layers of interaction.
Parents may seek help with strategies for a difficult child who struggles with problems in school - only to find that the solution may involve learning new parenting techniques or that others in the immediate family may be struggling as well. In most families, problems do not stay isolated. One problem in a parent-child relationship can have dramatic impact on all of the relationships in the family.
It is important to understand that seeking help with one member may require changes in other areas of family interaction for improvement. While total family involvement can be very beneficial, it is not always necessary for every family member to participate in family counseling. Individual family members can benefit from the positive changes in others who are in counseling. Often one parent or both parents can work effectively to create change in family behaviors or parent-child patterns. If there is a commitment from at least one member of the family to change, then that individual can have a potential effect to improve the dynamics in the total family interaction.
Some common reasons families seek help include:
Acting out children with anger or discipline issues
Children experiencing trouble at school or in peer relationships
A child or parent suffering with depression, anxiety or another chronic illness
Issues around parenting roles and division of responsibility
Inconsistent or conflicting parenting techniques
Issues with drugs or alcohol
Issues before or after a divorce
Trouble in step families or the blending of two families together
Out of control adolescents or teens
Conflict between parents
Financial issues
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