Family therapy helps family members improve communications and resolve conflicts. These sessions can teach you skills to strengthen family relations and get you through stressful times, even after you have completed your therapy sessions. Family therapy can help you improve troubled relationships with your spouse, children, or other family members. Specific issues such as marital or financial problems, or conflict between parents and children can be addressed. If a family member is dealing with substance abuse, a mental illness or a serious physical illness, the entire family is impacted. Your family can benefit from sessions together with an experienced family therapist to learn how to adjust to these types of situations.

Patterns of family behavior develop over time and can be difficult to change. Communication can seem to go round and round in circles until the intervention of a skilled neutral party, who is able to sort out the issues in a safe and confidential environment. The family members are more inclined to feel free to share, knowing everyone’s feelings will be protected and respected.

Family therapy typically brings several family members together for therapy sessions. However, a family member may also see a family therapist individually.

Sessions usually last about 50 minutes to an hour. The frequency and number of therapy sessions you’ll need will depend on your family’s particular situation and the therapist’s recommendation.

During family therapy, you can:

• Examine your family’s ability to solve problems and express thoughts and emotions
• Explore family roles, rules and behavior patterns to identify issues that contribute to conflict — and ways to work through these issues
• Identify your family’s strengths, such as caring for one another, and weaknesses, such as difficulty confiding in one another.

Family therapy can be useful in any family situation that causes stress, grief, anger or conflict. It can help you and your family members understand one another better and bring you closer together.

In family therapy your therapist will help by providing a variety of techniques to help your family specifically. Communication skills, conflict resolution, anger management and parenting techniques are just a few of the tools you may come away with at the end of your session. The implementation of these skills are what can lead your family to a new way of functioning. The positive transformation will build a stronger, happier family and an overall more happy and fulfilling life for everyone.