Family therapy means more than how many people are in the room for treatment. Being a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I am trained to see beyond individual complaints and to look at how family members interact, and to see the whole of the family system. For example, sometimes when a child is refusing to go to school, she may actually be worried about leaving her mother home alone.
I see parents who need help with their little kids, or acting out adolescents. I work with adults who aren’t getting along with their elderly parents, or have unresolved conflicts with their grown siblings. I see parents of grown children who are worried about them, as well as blended families, single parent families, and LGBT families. In short, I see just about every combination of family members you can imagine.
The key to creating change is to see the family as an interlocking system that is stuck. I am not looking for a culprit or even a “crazy,” I am looking for how to restructure the relationships so that change is possible. Sometimes this entails doing a genogram (a family diagram) so that I can see the patterns more clearly and enable you to find a more effictive way of relating to each other.
Getting Started:
Get Out of My Life: The Bestselling Guide to Living with Teenagers. (2014) by Tony Wolf and Suzanne Franks.
It’s Not Fair, Jeremy Spencer’s Parents Let Him Stay up All Night!: A Guide to the Tougher Parts of Parenting. (1996) by Anthony E. Wolf
Dance of Anger: A Woman’s Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships. (2014) by Harriet Lerner.
You’re Wearing That?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation. (2006) by Deborah Tannen.
The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy http://www.aamft.org