Family Counseling
Family is an important part of an individual’s life. It is the source of strength, happiness and peace and whenever there is stress within family members, it threatens everybody’s well being.
In this world where there is extreme competition in the professional sphere, our families are the comfort zone but sometimes due to strain family members do not feel loved, encouraged instead they feel neglected and isolated.
Family counseling can help to get rid of such conditions with the help of therapy sessions. Situations get worse when parents are facing divorce and children find it difficult to digest the fact.
Such situations can be controlled with family counseling. Sometimes sibling rivalry reaches nasty levels hurting individuals and family counseling can provide a remedy to the situation.
What is expected of Family Counseling?
The first thing is that all the family members will be heard at family counseling. Everybody will be given an opportunity to voice his/her grievances followed by the counselor acting as the mediator in a discussion to sort out the differences.
The counselor generally asks questions about your situation to address the actual issues bothering your family. Normally the family appears together for sessions because that is the best way to sort out differences.
However, at times the counselor meets family members individually to sort out certain matters. The number of sessions depends on the gravity of the issue. Family counseling benefits everybody because everybody gets an opportunity to speak about how she/he is feeling.
Sometimes just talking about feelings sorts problems between family members. Sometimes addressing particular issues which are stubborn helps in sorting matters. Not only discussing matters but also doing constructive activities together can build the lost bond.
There are exercises that help in controlling temper and anxiety affecting members. These help to stabilize one’s emotions so that family problems can be sorted. Family therapy has helped many families to avoid breaking down.
The biggest advantage of a family therapy is that unlike individual therapy, here the entire family is treated as a whole system which needs some mending to function properly. It deals with problems from a collective view point which helps in sorting out relationship problems.
Family therapy can benefit children and adults alike because the focus is more on the function pattern of the family. The Structural approaches take into account communication patterns within the family like the relationship between parents and also siblings.
The time of transition is generally challenging for a family where family counseling can be exceptionally helpful.
