Family Counselling
Family Counselling is a talking therapy that helps families to explore and overcome any issues they may have.
£80 per session or £75 for zoom sessions
‘To create a professional, warm and caring experience where the family can feel safe to explore what is happening in your life’
What is family therapy/counselling?
Family therapy supports each family member to understand one another better, with the aim of changing negative behaviours and resolving conflicts. It is appropriate for all ages above 7 years old to attend the family counselling sessions.
Families can struggle at the best of times. If you think about it we are all unique individuals, with our own views, perspectives and experiences of life. If we then add the family dynamics of each relationship into the mix, this can become difficult at times. Each family member may be in a different life stage from the others. This is often when things become overwhelming within a family. Family therapy can support you through what is happening, and help to resolve the on-going issues.
If you think of a family unit like a wind chime, all the parts are connected to one another and if one piece of the chime moves it affects each moving part. This is similar to how family systems work.
The key ingredient for everyone to have a healthy relationship within the family is consistency of communication. We need to ensure we are all making quality time for one another to enable each person to feel connected and valued. If this is not happening within the family relationships, then it can create the feeling of isolation and loneliness. This can start to make family members feel disconnected from one another. These growing emotions can create bad patterns, and cycles of behaviours that can affect everyone.
What can have an effect on family relationships?
Our childhood family experiences can have an effect on our own perceptions of parenthood, and what parenting means to us. More often than not, the way we are parented, shapes our ideas of how we show love, our belief systems, values, boundaries, and patterns of behaviours. If our childhood experiences have involved any forms of abuse, or neglect in some way or another, this can have a detrimental impact on how we parent or interact in relationships with others.
Outside of our childhood experiences, there are many other issues we may have faced such as health issues, intimacy, miscarriages, sexual abuse, domestic violence, depression, anxiety, work related stresses, to name but a few examples. If this is the case, having some individual or couple sessions may prove beneficial before commencing family therapy.
How can family therapy help; what are the benefits?
Family therapy gives us the chance to express and explore our feelings in a safe, non-judgemental environment. Working alongside me as your family therapist, we can discuss difficulties and differences within the family dynamics, with the aim of improving communication and finding a way forward, together.
If we are going through something difficult ourselves, it can be quite easy to forget how other people are affected. With family therapy this can be addressed, giving members of the family a chance to express their concerns and communicate in a safe space.
My approach is to be inclusive and considerate of every member of the family, avoiding any sense of ‘ganging up’. I look to recognise an individual’s strengths in the family and build on these within the sessions.
Benefits of family therapy?
- I will support the family to open up, and understand each other’s perspective.
- We will work together to find what the main triggers are and how they have affected one another within the family unit.
- I can help to explore the family’s thoughts and feelings around personal experiences to improve the family relationships.
- We will look at the family’s relationship habits and behaviours so we can start to break these down together.
- I will support the family to begin to improve thought patterns, and behaviours via setting tasks between sessions.
How the process for having family therapy and counselling works?
I will meet with the parent(s) first for an initial consultation/assessment. This will give you the opportunity to meet with me, to ensure you feel that I am the right person to work with the family. I will gather some personal information that will identify the issues that the family are facing and what support family counselling/therapy sessions can offer.
In the following sessions, if appropriate, I may decide to see other members of the family individually to gain their perspective on the family relationships. Once this has been established, we will then work together as a family.
Throughout family work there can be a combination of session styles, whether that is seeing the parent(s), mother and child, father and child or the siblings together etc. We will explore the session dynamics based on the family’s progress and the best way forward with on-going family work.
I will advise the family about confidentiality of the sessions, data protection, and give you a counselling agreement to sign if you are happy to go ahead with the family therapy.
How do I make a family counselling appointment?
Once you have made contact with me, I will respond to you within 24 hours, and I will ensure that the family can access an initial appointment with me within two weeks of contacting me.
Each session is 50 minutes. Family counselling meetings are weekly to begin with. Once the family is happy in their progression, we can move the sessions to fortnightly. There will also be tasks that will be set for the family to work on in between the counselling sessions.
What If I have any more questions or queries?
If you would like any further information, or you are unsure about how I could support you, please feel free to give me a call. If you would prefer to e-mail me with any questions or queries that you may have please do not hesitate, and I will get back to you within 24 hours.