We all start our lives in a family. So the main topic of interest in this article is family therapy. Our lives and our personalities are very much affected by our families. Most families are composed of blood relations, parents, and siblings. First, we will describe the most common types of families:
- Nuclear family:
The nuclear family is the most basic type of family. It contains two parents (a couple) and their offspring. The parents are raising the family of biological or adopted children.
- Extended family:
Just like extended family it also contains the parents, their children, and some other blood relations such as grandparents and their children as well.
- Stepfamily:
Stepfamily comes into existence when one divorced person gets married for the second time. Thus two new families become one new family. This family has two partners and their children from the previous partner.
- Childless family:
Some partners have a family having two of them only. They do not have any children or can not become parents due to biological difficulties. These partners live and work together. They sometimes take responsibility for any of their relatives’ children or have a pet.
- Single parent family:
This family involves only one parent and the children they are raising. The parent is either divorced, widowed, or not married. The parent is raising one or two children alone.
So there were the basic types of families in our society. Now the next point is why and when one family needs family therapy.
Whenever a person is going through a tough time in life or having a bad day, he needs the support of his family the most. The issues which contribute to family problems include, physical chronic health issues, lack of communication effectivity, finance issues, trust issues or emotional distress,
If the person is having mental health issues the other family members also suffer. To overcome such issues in life family therapy is also required.
Family therapy is the type of psychotherapy that involves all members of a nuclear, extended, step, or single-parent family.
This therapy is conducted by a professional psychologist or a licensed therapist.
This therapeutic treatment depends on the severity of the problem or family situation. Family therapy sessions teach you the skills to overcome stress, how to deepen family connections, and how the family members can help one another in their mental illness phase.
This therapy also helps to improve the quality of relationships with your parents, children, partner, or other family members. It may be beneficial in treating issues like financial problems, child-parent conflicts. Marital issues or substance abuse.
Family therapy is found helpful in dealing with specific situations in family life such as death, serious physical illness, or mental issues, issues in child growth and development. Solving all such issues help to maintain a healthy home environment.
If the person in the family is having serious mental or physical issues, he will need individual treatment along with family therapy.
Because family therapy will teach all family members the ways to cope with the illness of that member but individual therapy will assure the treatment effectiveness.
To understand this let us have an example;
If a person is suffering from mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder then the main focus of the therapist will be on their individual treatment. Along with individual treatment, they and their family will also be required to take family therapy sessions.
Techniques of family therapy:
Here are some useful family therapy techniques which are practiced most commonly.
- Psychoeducation:
It is the first step in every therapy in psychology. Psychoeducation means that the therapist teaches about everything that will happen within therapy. The therapist provides well-detailed information about the illness and how to treat it effectively, to all the family members. The primary goal of psychoeducation is to provide all the necessary information, training, and providing the support to get self-help.
- Structural family therapy:
This therapy focuses on the interactions between the family members that develop the problems. The therapist triggers the abnormal behavioral aspects of the family and then advises them on how to adapt to more useful behavioral aspects that will be helpful for the family. The focus of SFT is on changing the whole family’s dysfunctional structure rather than focusing on one person.
According to SFT, the well functional family is the one which responds and develops those behavioral attributes which suit the family needs.
- Strategic therapy:
Unlike other family therapies, a strategic therapist does not simply focus on how your problem started rather they tend to help you to find the best possible solutions to your problems. In the following steps, a strategic therapist finds the solution to the problem for their client.
4. Problem-solving
The first step of therapy is finding the best solution for a client’s problem. For some problems, it takes less time while other problems take a longer time to be solved. The therapist will suggest easily doable solutions to these problems.
5. Goal setting
After finding the solution to a client’s problem the next step for the therapist is to set some easy goals for keeping them self motivated. These goals are either short or long depending on the personality of the clients.
6. Planning to reach goals
When the goals are set, it is mandatory to have a plan in your mind to reach your goals. Without proper planning, the goals become harder to be reached. Here the therapist does the planning for his clients depending on the personality of the clients. If they like to work alone or in the form of a group this will be indicated by the choices of the clients.
7. Evaluation of performance
Setting a goal and providing a plan for the clients is not the end of the therapy. The therapist will have to take notice of the performance that the clients are showing. If they are having problems reaching their goals according to set plans then the therapist interferes and provides a new strategy for reaching goals.
8. Success rate
When all the family members have reached their goals as provided by the therapist then he will discuss their performance and success rate during all this process. At the end of the therapy, he will assist them to repeat the same process by themselves in the future.
9. Communication therapy:
As the name suggests that this therapy is for dealing with problems in communication among the family members/couples. As the root cause of many behavioral problems is due to lack of communication or lack of understanding during the communication. The therapist will find out the reason behind these communication problems. Either the problems are due to cultural differences, personality differences, or due to psychological issues. After analyzing the reason for the problems in communication the therapist will provide the family with the best possible strategies to overcome communication problems.
10. Transgenerational therapy:
This type of family involves extended family members. The transgenerational therapist examines the whole family’s interaction with one another. These family members involve parents, children, grandparents, and their children, etc. the interaction between the family members helps the therapist to grip the underlying issues between the family members. Therapists relate these current issues with upcoming issues in the family and suggest beneficial ways to overcome future problems.
11. Relationship counseling:
Counseling is the most important factor in any psychotherapy. So in family therapy it also has importance. Relationship counseling addressed all the issues between the couples, parent-child, partners, or other family members. The therapist listens to each one’s point of view, develops the understanding of the issues between them, and then provides relationship counseling which benefits both.
There are also other therapies that therapists use today. But the question is how to make sure that you and your family need therapy?
For this one has to acknowledge the family problems, what are the causes of most family problems? We will briefly discuss these common causes of family issues.
- Addiction:
If one or both the parents are addicted to drugs, substance abuse, or gambling then all the family suffers because of many issues.
- Unsupportive parents:
Another cause of family dysfunction is that the parents are not supportive, whether it is financial, physical, or emotional support. They don’t have time for their children, they do not listen to their problems. This leads to a dysfunctional family.
- Strict family:
When parents are way too strict for everything in life, it also leads to developing distress among the children. As the child may be right sometimes but parents never accept their opinion and force their opinion and actions to children. This also leads to a dysfunctional family and many psychological problems in children.
If you are having any issues in your family, then you definitely need to go to consult a family therapist as soon as possible.
It is expected that this article will help you have insight about family issues and some common family therapy techniques.