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Family Counseling

Family counseling deals with the family relationship problems by providing group therapy, individual counseling and mental health psychotherapy

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Family counseling is a type of Psychiatric therapy and psychoanalysis that may have one or more objectives. Family counseling can help to promote the better relationships and understanding within a family. It may be incident specific, as for example family counseling during a divorce, or the approaching death of a family member. Alternately family counseling 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 goes to negative ways.

Family counseling 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 family counseling. So family counseling may in part be an instruction and encouragement. In fact, family counseling often teaches family members new and more positive ways to communicate to replace old, negative communication patterns.

As in group counseling, the therapist also acts as moderator in family counseling. They 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 family 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, counseling 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 family counselor for the client’s family. Display of partiality can render family counseling ineffective. Different theoretical models exist in family counseling. A therapist may work from a behavioral instance, 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.

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