**This post was developed via a partnership with BetterHelp**
Family dynamics are often complex and difficult to navigate. Families can face crises, complications, obstacles, and strains for a whole plethora of reasons. Therapy is a tried and true method for addressing and working through family ups and downs. However, there are a lot of different kinds of therapy to choose from based on your family’s needs. Understanding the different practices and techniques used in family therapy can be important in selecting the right option for your own family. Here, we’ve listed a few kinds of family therapy that you may want to consider.
According to the National Library of Medicine, family therapy is “a structured form of psychotherapy that seeks to reduce distress and conflict by improving the systems of interactions between family members.” People may seek out family therapy for a wide range of concerns, such as addiction, marriage, grief, behaviour, and conflict.
In the therapy dynamic, family therapists serve a role to establish and maintain useful rapport between involved clients. They work to bring families to a common understanding of conflict, dissolve misunderstanding, control danger, and offer a test of reality for the family and their perception. They can act as a true parent in the therapy dynamic, offering emotional support and satisfaction while introducing emotions and attitudes to the interactions.
Functional Family Therapy
This kind of therapy is often used by therapists to address behaviour concerns in children. Using FFT, therapists can examine a family dynamic to uncover how it has contributed to a child’s behaviour. From there, FFT can help them identify how to improve communication, parenting, and overall reinforcement.
Play Therapy
Play therapy combines talk therapies with expressive, interactive therapeutic techniques that can result in effective treatment for anyone of any age, but especially children. In play therapy, a child is able to receive treatment through one of their primary modes of communication, play. Play allows children to develop skills such as complex thinking and creativity. As they play, children may mimic the environment occurring around them: interactions between parents, problem-solving, and career exploration. During play therapy, a counsellor may observe how a child plays to receive insight into how they think and feel. To learn more about play therapy, visit BetterHelp:https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/therapy/is-play-therapy-a-real-thing-and-does-it-really-work/.
Marriage Counseling/Couples Therapy
In marriage counseling, couples identify issues and conflicts under the guidance of a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. This form of therapy allows them to uncover areas to work on in different facets of their marriage, such as communication, parenting, and finances, thus helping to improve their unit’s dynamic overall.
Strategic Family Therapy
Strategic Family Therapy focuses on short-term counselling aimed at creating structural changes in the family dynamic. By prompting changes in behaviour, therapists can help families concerned with children’s behavioural issues based on the core belief that family plays a pivotal role in a child’s development.
Structural Family Therapy
This therapy type takes a deeper look at the family dynamic as a whole. A therapist may examine the hierarchies, boundaries, and relationships in a family unit to bring positive change to direct interactions between family members. Ideally, guided by a therapist, a family may uncover healthier alternatives to otherwise problematic patterns of relating to one another.
Choosing a Family Therapy
No two families are exactly the same. Therefore, therapeutic needs will always vary from family to family. Family therapy can be effective in helping members discover and address problematic interactions with one another, improving communication, resolving conflict, treating concerning behaviour, and more. With the help of a professional, you can help your family choose the best course of therapy for your needs, be they behaviour, parenting, communication, or grief.
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Clare
Hi, I'm Clare (Emmy's Mummy). A former Nanny and Mother of 2 - Emmy (born February 2010) and Harry (born October 2012). We are Essex based and share our adventures and misadventures of a busy crazy life.
