Our family effects our thinking, our values, and effects every aspect of our lives. They teach us how to love, how to interact from the time we are born. If we are lucky enough to have a family that supports us, loves us, teaches us healthy connections, we are more likely to maintain this healthy relationship and pass it on to our children. (Let the cycle begin!) 

But if we are from a dysfunctional family, (whatever that reason may be), we struggle to understand ourselves as well as understanding others. If we are unfortunate to be connected to the later kind of a family, it is not a stationary situation. Cycles usually continue from generation to generation, but breaking the cycle can be ended. In breaking the cycle, you are ending it from being passed down to further generations.

Family therapy may be extended to:

1.       struggling whether it be due to any kind of addiction

2.       any major change that impacts the family

3.       divorce

4.       child or parent conflict

5.       different styles of parenting

6.       loss of  a family member/ or pet

7.       behavioral issues of children or teenagers

Outcomes of Family therapy:

Family therapy reduces the stress that is within the family and improves the interactions between the family members; father-son/ mother-daughter/ stepchildren with stepparent/ grandparents with grandchildren, etc. The members present may be as many as the entire family or simply just the mother and father who disagree on parenting styles. Through family therapy, members may:

1.       improve communication and understanding

2.       improve boundaries between each other

3.       reduce or possible eliminate family conflict

4.       construct empathy and understanding

5.       increases understanding

6.       fosters better daily interactions between members

Family therapy also extends to discovering the source of the problem. Such as; if a child is having a behavioral problem, it may be directly related to the parenting style of the parents. This may be directly effecting the child and his/her acting out. Many times the child is not even included in the therapy. Once the problem is identified and the family discovers the source of the problem, and changes, then the behaviors of the child will domino and change also.

Healthy family relationships begin with you wanting to make a change and then making the change….forever.