Family Therapy
Pugen Mediation offers family counselling and family therapy services to help families in Toronto best tackle their problems and learn to support each other as a family.
Family therapy is a kind of group therapy that helps a group of people who define themselves as a family unit to work towards understanding and supporting each other. The term family, in this context, could apply to:
- Parents and children
- Partners
- Grandparents
- Brothers and sisters
- Aunts and uncles
- Cousins
- Friends
- Caregivers
- Any group of people who care about each other, have an investment in one another and define themselves as a family
The definition of ‘family’ is intentionally broad, to recognise the many different structures that can meaningfully constitute a family beyond the nuclear, legal, or blood-related family unit.
What is the Goal of Family Therapy?
Family counselling helps families work towards understanding and supporting each other. Many families will find themselves overwhelmed, sad, angry, or simply struggling at some point.
With therapy, families can develop skills to communicate better and address these issues.
Family counselling can be useful for families who are:
- Seeking a closer relationship
- Coping with physical or mental illness
- Worried about the behaviour of their children
- Looking to foster or adopt children
- Separating or divorcing
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Family Therapy
How Does It Work?
Family therapy is a small-group therapy where a therapist meets with the family unit (however this is defined) together.
Counselling helps family members communicate and understand each other better in a safe, controlled space, guided by an experienced and compassionate therapist. It works by supporting individual members of the family to communicate clearly with each other in a space where they feel comfortable and able to express themselves.
A family therapist may:
- Talk about the hopes each participant has for therapeutic outcomes
- Encourage participants to talk about their experience and to listen to each other
- Clarify the beliefs, hopes, needs, values, and assumptions of each participant
- Help individuals understand the impacts of their words and actions on those in the family unit
- Help families talk about their challenges
- Support families as they work towards their own goals
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Really, family counselling is all about communication, and how to best facilitate it. It can be extremely helpful to make sure that families understand each other and know what everyone wants, needs, and worries about.
Family therapists will often use a number of techniques, including:
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Psychoeducation
- Structural-strategic therapy, where participants identify problems and develop practical solutions together
A therapist may decide that it will be useful to meet with family members individually, as well as in a group. There’s really no one size fits all model of family counselling, and it’s all up to what the therapist believes will be most useful.
Preparing For Family Therapy
It is important to do your research before choosing a family therapist. Family counselling is a delicate and often difficult experience, and as such you want to make sure you know you’re getting the best possible treatment for your specific issues.
Some things to consider when looking for a family therapist are:
- Education and experience
- Licensing rules in your province or region
- Location and availability
- Specialisations (does your therapist have experience with families of alcoholics, or grief, for instance?)
- Length and number of sessions
- Cost and insurance
Once you have this information and have booked a suitable therapist, it’s a good idea to think about exactly what you hope to gain from this experience. What are your goals? What questions do you have? What is your best-case scenario for counselling?
At Pugen Mediation, we help families articulate and explore these goals and aims in order to better understand and support each other as a family unit.