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a family mends their relationships in family therapy

Mending Relationships in a Family Therapy Program

If your family has been impacted by addiction, you may be struggling to work through painful issues and reconnect. A family therapy program can help every family member resolve the problems that create conflict and feel as though you’re all on the same team again. 

Each family is unique, and there are many approaches to therapy that can be productive. Call Promises Behavioral Health today at 844.875.5609 to learn more about the benefits of our family therapy program.

What Is a Family Counseling Program?

A family is a unit, and when one member goes through a difficult time, it affects the unit as a whole. Sometimes a family experiences difficult times together, such as during financial stress or a divorce. Just as stress can bring out the worst behaviors in an individual, it can also bring out the worst in families. 

Hurt feelings, resentments, miscommunications, and misunderstandings can create distance between people who love each other. Without the support or the skills to span that distance, family members sometimes become estranged.

Family counseling is when multiple members of the same family come to counseling together. It is common for the spouse and children of a person who is receiving addiction treatment to participate in family therapy together. 

However, sometimes the family member who could most benefit from counseling declines to participate. A family therapy program can still be effective when some members are absent. 

Therapy can help those members who are interested in healing and personal growth cope with challenges in a healthy way that does not compromise their own well-being.

What to Expect from a Family Counseling Program

During the first session, the therapist will spend time getting to know your family and the concerns that brought you to counseling. Each member will have an opportunity to speak about their perspective. It is normal to feel hesitant about sharing your honest truth in the early stages of counseling.

As your trust with the process and your therapist grows, everyone will feel more comfortable speaking from the heart. Remember that honest communication is necessary if genuine healing is to occur.

The therapist will gather information by asking questions. They may want to discuss family history and the coping skills the family currently uses to deal with challenges. After the first session, the therapist will create a treatment plan designed specifically for your family’s needs and goals.

Weekly or bi-weekly sessions may be recommended. The therapist may also wish to meet with families privately for individual counseling. It is common to include one-on-one counseling as part of the overall family therapy program.

Types of Family Therapy

Families come to counseling with different goals, different skill sets, and different problems. A skilled therapist understands how to choose the interventions that will be most helpful. The types of therapy most helpful for family groups include:

  • Family systems therapy — Examines how the family functions as a unit 
  • Functional family therapy — Short-term, intensive therapy for families with high-risk youth
  • Structural family therapy — Focuses on strengthening a family’s structure through improved communication
  • Psychoeducation — Helps families understand an illness, such as a substance use disorder or mental health disorder

Improving family relationships in therapy is not always an easy or straightforward process. Therapy often brings up old issues that have gone unresolved. It can also shine a light on the family’s dysfunction and make family members feel uncomfortable. 

Rest assured that the goal of a family counseling program is not to embarrass or blame any family member. It is to improve relationships and help each individual cope with whatever challenges the family is facing.

Mending Family Relationships in Therapy at Promises Behavioral Health

If your family has been through a difficult time related to one member’s addiction, a family therapy program can help everyone heal and move forward as a healthy, connected unit. Call Promises Behavioral Health today at 844.875.5609 and learn more about our family counseling program.

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