Family Therapy for Adult Families

In family therapy, “family” is often defined as any group of people who care for each other and can call themselves family. This could include parents and children, siblings, aunts/uncles, grandparents, cousins, caregivers, and friends. Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy and its goal is to help everyone in the family understand and support each other’s feelings and perspectives. Family therapy aims to help improve the interactional patterns and communication styles between family members. It will help families better understand how their relationships work as a unit and how the relationship dynamics impact the family's response to everything from major life events to simple tasks of daily living. Ultimately, when each person feels supported and works within their strengths, positive changes in relationships and in people's lives will hopefully result.

 

Family dynamics are complicated and are constantly evolving and changing over time as family circumstances naturally change. Consequently, family dysfunction is often a contributing factor to mental health difficulties for parents, children, and anyone else involved later in life. Systemic therapies view the family as a unit and aim to improve relationship dynamics within the system vs treating just one member in the family. Our family therapists look at family dynamics and concerns through the lens of Structural Family Therapy (SFT). SFT is a subset of family therapy that treats the entire family as a unit and works to create healthier, more effective behaviors, dynamics, patterns, and hierarchies within families. It looks at the interactional patterns within the family and uncovers habitual patterns, routines, or behaviors that may negatively impact the family system.  

 

There are many issues that can influence an adult family’s decision to seek family therapy. When these issues raise old resentments and hurts, members of a family may find themselves falling into old roles or may feel forced into those roles by others.  At Mindful Lotus, our goal is to create a safe space that your family can talk about what is affecting everyone involved, and to better examine what can be done to improve the family dynamics. We can help you to get to the root of your relational struggles, create a unique plan for moving forward, and take steps to experience the relationship you desire.