Family counseling is a type of psychotherapy that may have one or more objectives. It may help to promote better relationships and understanding within a family. It may be incident specific, as for example during a divorce, or the approaching death of a family member. Alternately, it may address the needs of the family when one family member suffers from a mental or physical illness that alters his or her behavior or habits in negative ways.
Counseling for families often occurs with all members of the family unit present. This may not always be the case. A family member who suffers from alcoholism or drug addiction might not attend sessions, and might actually be the reason why other family members seek out counseling.
Part of the goal of the therapist is to observe interactions between family members. Another part is to observe the perception of non-interacting family members. Thus if two family members get into an argument in a session, the therapist might want to know how the other family members are dealing with the disagreement or the way in which the two fighting members comport themselves.
In addition to observation, the therapist often helps the family reflect on better ways of communicating with each other. So family counseling may in part be instruction and encouragement. In fact, it often teaches family members new and more positive ways to communicate to replace old, negative communication patterns.
Observations may also be used to point out how poor communication, especially when particularly filled with strife, affects the behavior and happiness of children. Children benefit from the safe forum of a session. They may get to for discuss the things they don’t like about behavior of caregivers and/or siblings. Such discussion might not be permitted in the home setting.
As in group counseling, the therapist also acts as moderator in family counseling. He or she attempts to ensure that each family member gets fair time for expressing concerns and contributing to the conversation as to how the family can do better. Sometimes the therapist may identify one or more family members who need more than the counseling model, and might benefit from individual therapy. The personal issues of one member of a family may affect all other family members.
The therapist may identify that the family cannot progress to a better relationship format without some individuals receiving more help, and possibly medication. A family member with a bipolar chemistry may want to be a better parent, but may be physically unable to change radical mood swings without a combination of individual therapy and medication.
Family counseling may not take a long time to complete. Often families benefit from four to five sessions. Sometimes families require more help and might need 20-30 sessions to resolve significant or ongoing family issues.
For families, therapy often helps because it involves a disinterested third party who does not favor any one member of the family. This is generally why a therapist for one family member will not agree to be a counselor for the client’s family. Display of partiality can render the counseling ineffective.
Different theoretical models exist in family counseling. A therapist may work from a behavioral stance, from Gestalt principals, or from a combination of therapeutic approaches. Whatever the approach, the main goal continues to be to improve the relationship of each family member to the others, so that the family progresses as a harmonious unit.
