For families with children, family therapy may be a way to help with anxiety, depression, trauma, or other issues.
The term family therapy is a broad one, and it doesn’t just have to include families with children. For example, sometimes families, including adult children or adult siblings, will go to therapy together to deal with past issues or work on how to strengthen their relationships going forward.
Specific reasons for family therapy might include going through a big transition or serious illness, a mental health condition, behavioral problems, marital issues, problems in communication, financial issues, or the presence of a substance use disorder.
The following are five things to know about family therapy in general.
1. The Basics
Family therapy is a type of counseling, also known as talk therapy or psychotherapy, that can be used as a way to resolve conflicts and improve communication.
Family therapy can be provided by a licensed therapist, clinical social worker, or psychologist.
Therapists who provide family therapy may be credentialed by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy but don’t have to be.
Most of the time, family therapy is short-term, and it can include everyone who’s part of the family or maybe only a few who are willing to participate.
Family therapy views psychological problems and treatment in terms of family member interactions.
In family therapy, the underlying philosophy is that families are an interconnected unit, and psychological functioning is influenced by every member of the family. For instance, Therapy Quest in Phoenix, AZ, offers individualized and innovative counseling services aimed at healing trauma, anxiety, depression, and relationship issues, emphasizing the interconnected nature of family dynamics.
2. Types of Family Therapy
There are many types of family therapy, and some examples include the following:
- Family-based behavioral treatment: In this type of therapy, parents change their own behavior to set a positive example, with the goal of helping their children then change their behaviors. This therapy includes training parents, so they learn skills for problem-solving and child management.
- Family-based behavioral treatment parent-only: Parents are a key part of therapy for their children, and in family-based therapy that only includes the parent, the parent works on modeling, implementing consequences, identifying rewards, and practicing mindfulness for how they’re reinforcing the behavior of their children.
- Functional family therapy: This family-based therapy was designed to help young people with behavioral issues, and it can be an effective approach for adolescents with substance use disorders. The goal is to motivate teens and their families to eliminate household negativity and for each member of the family to build skills to reduce problematic behaviors.
- Multidimensional family therapy: This approach addresses the individual as well as the family and environmental factors influencing youth behavioral issues. The core philosophy underlying this approach is that adolescent behavioral problems are caused by a lot of factors, and treatment needs to come from a place of compassion and respect. Young people in this type of family therapy will work on problem-solving, coping, and decision-making.
- Multisystemic therapy: This evidence-based and family-focused approach to therapy is for young people with antisocial behaviors or substance use problems. Multisystemic therapy looks at these problematic behaviors within the context of all the areas of influence in the young person’s life, such as family, peers, school, and the community.
- Structural family therapy: This approach is based on the idea that children and teens’ behavioral and emotional concerns are linked and connected to dysfunctional structures in the family.
- Brief strategic family therapy: In this therapeutic approach, there’s usually a limit on the number of sessions?it’s often around 12. The goal is identifying and restructuring interactions in the family, leading to problematic behavior of a child, teen, or even a young adult. A therapist doing brief strategic family therapy might work on building positive patterns and facilitating changes to family behaviors that aren’t beneficial for a young person.
- Psychoeducation: This type of therapy helps everyone in a family learn more about mental health conditions and the effects they have on the relationships within the family. Psychoeducation also explores evidence-based treatments for mental health conditions.
3. What to Expect
Family therapies will often have certain goals, such as helping the family learn better problem-solving skills, exploring interactions of family members with each other, and identifying and then improving unhealthy patterns of communication.
During the first therapy sessions, the therapist will go over the issue that brought you there, and the therapist will usually provide everyone the chance to talk about what they feel the problems are for the family.
Over the next few sessions, the therapist will get more information to understand your family and how it works. The therapist will want to learn more about family roles and history, the approaches to discipline or parenting, and the coping skills the family currently uses.
Some therapists will use a structural approach, and if so, the therapist will map out the structure of your family to explore the hierarchy, boundaries, and authority.
Family therapists, from this point, can begin to create a treatment plan.
4. Finding a Therapist
You can ask a primary care provider if they can refer you to a therapist. You can also get in touch with local mental health organizations and ask for suggestions.
When you’re comparing different therapists, you want to learn more about their education, experience, licensing, and credentials. You also want to learn more about the length and number of sessions that will be expected and how much it will cost.
5. Behavioral and Emotional Disorders In Children
It’s been touched on throughout, but one reason for family therapy is dealing with behavioral and emotional disorders in children. For example, children with ADHD tend to have more mental health problems than other children, and it impacts their family functioning. Therapeutic interventions can help improve parental effectiveness. As a parent, you can also learn how to put strategies in place to help your child function better at home and school.
If a child struggles with anxiety, therapy can help parents learn more about what their child is going through and how they can most effectively help them.
Therapy can generally help a child and also improve the family environment. Even though you might initially go to family therapy to help a child’s particular challenges, the entire family is likely to end up benefitting.
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