What Is Family Therapy?

Family dynamics can be complex, and when challenges arise, seeking professional support can be a powerful step towards engaging in the family system skillfully. However, prospective clients may wonder: What exactly does Family Therapy entail? By better understanding what family therapy has to offer inclusive of risks and benefits of family therapy, this can help you determine the best course of treatment for your family’s unique needs.

Family Therapy: An Evidence-Based Approach

Family therapy is an in-depth process that explores the underlying emotional and psychological factors contributing to family distress. It is often long-term and may involve identifying unhelpful patterns in family functioning, further exploring how past traumatic life experiences may impact family dynamics, identifying how mental health challenges among individual family members could be affecting the system as a whole - and ways for the family system to best support their members. Family therapy can be beneficial for the following, although this is not an exhaustive list:

• Ongoing conflicts and long-standing family challenges.

• Mental health conditions and their possible impact on family functioning.

• Processing traumatic life experiences within the context of the family system.

• Attachment injuries and relationship difficulties within the family system.

• Parenting struggles, or navigating co-parenting relationships, informed by Attachment Theory.

• Sibling conflicts, and engaging in conflictual relationships more skillfully.

• Adjusting to major life changes (such as divorce, relocation, loss, etc.)

Family Therapy should entail evidence-based and informed modalities - some of which include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) Skills, Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), and Experiential Family Therapy, to help families gain insight, repair attachment wounds, become more skillful as a family system, and develop long-term strategies for building stronger, more resilient relationships.

Risks and Benefits of Family Therapy

When making an informed decision pertaining to Family Therapy, prospective clients should be apprised of the following risks and benefits of engaging in Family Therapy. 

Some benefits that can occur when engaging in Family Therapy include, but are not limited to: 

• Replacing negative patterns with positive ones, and building healthier ways to relate to other members in the family system. 

• Building of, and improvement in conflict resolution skills as they relate to the family system.

• Strengthening of the family system, and the family identity i.e., increasing the sense of connectedness with one another.

• Identification of underlying concerns of the family system that can be contributing to the identified problem.

• Identification of the needs within the family system, as well as the individual needs of the family members.

Some challenges that can occur when engaging in Family Therapy include, but are not limited to: 

• All family members who are involved in family therapy, are required to participate in the family's identified goal. If family members are all not committed to doing differently, or actively participating in the work, clinical gains may be impacted as a result. 

• As the family is participating in family therapy, information that may have been otherwise unknown to the family, may become disclosed by members in session.

• Family members may not experience the same level of privacy as they would come to expect in individual therapy i.e., being 1:1 with a clinician - due to the fact that their family is participating in sessions with them. 

Which Option Is Right for Your Family?

If your family is facing challenges that could benefit from a Registered Psychotherapist’s support, Family Therapy may be the right choice.

At Reflect And Renew Wellness, we specialize in Family Therapy services in Orillia, Ontario, Simcoe County, and the District of Muskoka. If your family system could benefit from Family Therapy, we are here to provide a safe and compassionate space to navigate challenges, strengthen family relationships, and building a stronger family system.

Book a Free, 15-minute Consultation Today!

Every family deserves support, understanding, and the opportunity to heal together. If you're ready to take the next step, we invite you to book a free, 15-minute, consultation with us. Contact Reflect And Renew Wellness today to find the right approach for your family.

We invite you to consider scheduling a free, 15-minute consultation by emailing Reflect and Renew Wellness at info@randrw.com. We look forward to supporting you, and your family.