Family Therapy
Do You Worry About The Well-Being Of Your Teen Or Adolescent—As Well As The Health Of Your Family?
Have you noticed gradual changes in your adolescent’s behavior or attitude that are creating conflict between you, their siblings, or your partner/spouse? Is your teenager suddenly getting bad grades, sneaking out of the house, or staying up all night on the phone even though you try your best to keep them on track?
Perhaps you are the parent of an adolescent/teenager whose behavior has become deceitful or defiant, and you don’t understand where everything went wrong. Or maybe, over the years, you simply lost the connection you once had and just want to go back to the way things were.
When it comes to relationship issues and creating harmony in the household, any family—adoptive, traditional, same-sex, single-parent, blended, or intergenerational—can have difficulty achieving peace. Many times, symptoms of discord manifest in teenagers. Whether they are academic, behavioral, or emotional challenges, these problems can bubble to the surface and convince families that it is the child who needs help.
But the reality is that these symptoms are usually indicative of some sort of compromise in the way individuals communicate and interact within the family system. That doesn’t mean that what you are experiencing is your fault as a parent. It just means that the problem of one is a problem for all.
That is why we are here.
At Key Counseling Group, we understand that every family has the best intentions for harmony and peace—it just takes a little guidance and support sometimes. With our help, you can reduce conflict in the home, strengthen your family’s cohesion, and safeguard your teen’s well-being in the long run.
Every Family—No Matter How Healthy—Has To Navigate Conflict At Some Point
Let’s face it, people are imperfect, which means that every system that involves individuals coming together in any way and calling themselves a family will eventually experience adversity. That’s because all families consist of hierarchies, allegiances, roles, and patterns of communicating and interacting. And when expectations for or the consistency of those things become compromised, it can very easily create instability and, in turn, conflict.
Discord in the family can also result from differences in neurochemistry, personalities, genetics, and cultural and religious backgrounds. Differing expectations for the relationships, difficulty connecting with children, and larger systems—such as technology and social media—can often create division within a household as well.
Oftentimes, parents will look at their family’s problems as a product of a child’s bad behavior or the challenges they face, such as getting failing grades or not sleeping at night. The reality, however, is that everything is connected, and it’s not until one looks at the system as a whole that sustainable healing and growth can occur.
Unfortunately, most people are naturally so protective of each other and the family structure itself that it’s hard to see the challenges within one’s family system.
But just because your family is struggling doesn’t mean you have done something wrong as parents. It just means you could benefit from some compassionate support and impartial guidance so that the family unit can gain a better understanding of what’s really going on. Together with your therapist, you can develop new ways of communicating that will help you create richer connections and deeper bonds.
At Key Counseling Group, we are here to support your adolescent/teen as an individual and to help you work together as a team to resolve conflict, enable greater communication, and improve your interactions so you can enjoy greater connection and peace.
Therapy Can Foster Harmony And Understanding In Your Family
When a family experiences conflict or tension, it’s usually a response to one person’s behavior or attitude—typically that of an adolescent or teen. But more often than not, there is a larger issue at play. Working with a family counselor provides you with an objective facilitator who can illuminate the hidden dynamics that each person brings to the relationship.
Therapy offers you new ways of interacting and communicating while still honoring the traditions and values that are important to the family system. And most importantly, it gives you a safe space in which to define rules, explore roles, solve problems, and express thoughts and emotions in a way that is constructive and helpful.
Once all parties agree to therapy, there will be an introduction and assessment phase that provides us with an understanding of your family’s story. We’ll give you a space free of judgment or blame in which everyone can work together to identify issues that cause, perpetuate, or contribute to the challenges you are seeing in your home. After we assess your needs and the family’s dynamics, we’ll move on to preparing you for what to expect in subsequent sessions. Then, we will discuss the different interventions available and implement a treatment plan that best suits your situation.
We take a strategic, structural, and behavioral approach to family counseling that combines elements of attachment theory and intervention. That means we provide a set structure for assessing the presenting issues and how they impact your family—both as individual members and as a whole system. And using evidence-based interventions, we’ll collaborate to create a plan to resolve conflict, improve communication patterns, and rebuild connection so you can relate to each other in new ways.
Key Counseling Group regards your family unit as our client, meaning that we make sure each member feels supported, validated, and heard in sharing their perspectives. Our goal is to help everyone explore behavioral patterns, identify flawed ways of interacting, and develop solutions for deepening the relationship you have with one another.
We believe that every family has the power within them to heal and grow. You just need the support, guidance, and facilitation of a family therapist in order to manifest and implement the solutions that will change your lives for the better.
We know that you may feel powerless—even hopeless at this point. However, with the support of our family counselor, you can restore, rebuild, and enhance the connection you have with your loved ones. Working together, you can become closer, more harmonious, and certain that you have equipped your adolescent or teenager with what they need to be happier and more confident throughout their life. In the process, you’ll be modeling healthy relationships and what it means to take care of the people you love.
Perhaps you are considering family therapy but still have some concerns…
Does family counseling really work?
The truth is that the rewards of counseling depend on what you put into counseling. That’s because therapy requires the full participation and commitment of everyone involved in order for your family to get the most out of sessions. That said, collaborating as a unit provides a level of communal support that can be far more productive and effective than individual counseling. Working with a therapist offers you real answers, practical relationship skills, and concrete steps you can take to heal your family and protect your teen or adolescent.
I just want therapy to fix whatever is going on with my teen.
When you encounter conflict as a family, you need to overcome that adversity as a family because the symptoms of one represent a concern for all. We recognize that as a parent you are doing your best, which is why you are reading this page. We’re not here to tell you that you are bad or to place labels on your young one. We simply want to help all of you open your eyes to a new perspective that empowers you with more adaptive and productive ways of understanding, empathizing, interacting, and relating with each other.
How can we make time in all of our schedules for family therapy?
Although we ask that you meet with your family therapist occasionally in person, we offer online counseling services that can greatly improve the flexibility in scheduling appointments. All you need is a strong internet connection and the ability to get everyone together at the same time. Plus, our approach to family therapy is designed to be brief. We typically meet with families for about three months before transitioning to periodic check-ups with your counselor, so you’re not going to be in therapy forever.
We Want To Help Your Family Heal And Thrive
If you are stuck in a pattern of uncertainty, wondering what you can do to create peace in your household, we can help. Please email us or call 678-400-9477 for your free consultation and see how family therapy can create peace in your household while ensuring the healthy development of your child or teen.
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