Family Counseling Services in Estero, FL.

As a family therapist, I approach a family as an absolutely fundamental - vital system. I work with a family from a multigenerational perspective using its wisdom and learning from attempted solutions – from what was not working. We are born to a family system, it is our practice field and a place where we grow, develop, mature, and also the place that we leave to apply everything that we absorbed and learned in our own family system. In a family therapy I guide family members to understand how their family works, what is each member’s role, potential, and benefit, how the family members balance each other, how to communicate, care, respect, appreciate, solve conflicts, and promote strengths.

Families are complicated. Sometimes those we love are the hardest to be around, often because of old hurts, personality differences, and poor communication. If you’re struggling with issues around family, I can help coach you through the challenges, teach you new strategies, and help you gain new insights. Whether you’re needing the accountability to set boundaries with difficult family members, or looking for new skills to heal relationships that are strained, I’m here to help. At Lion Counseling, our mission is to help you escape the cages that hold you back and become the lion God created you to be.

Families are a whole, we each play our part. When one member is broken, is the family whole? Do you know what words and deeds have constricted or brought freedom to family members? Are there blended family issues that cannot be mixed in even at high speed? What roles do you and other members play? What parts have been prescribed, what roles are played? Do you feel that you’re caught up in an old movie; same action, same words, and the same scene over and over again? When working with families, my main approach is Systems Therapy to strengthen the family unit. However, during treatment often times there is 1 or more family members that will need to be seen in individual therapy.

Everyone has a role in a family - whether it was a chosen role or assigned to you by your parents. Discovering your role, and whether you want to continue in the role is truly up to you. I can help with setting boundaries, and with those "walking on eggshells" relationships. Family relationships can be entrenched and hard to navigate. I can help untangle, understand and heal these relationships.

As a family therapist, I view most experiences through the lens of the systems we live our lives in. Healthy relationships are at the heart of a joyful life and living life to the fullest. When we all work together with your family, we will embrace, explore and celebrate the unique qualities that makes your family a place that can become a safe have for all. Raising a family can brings abundant gifts and challenges. In our time together, we'll use EMDR, Family Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy and Expressive Arts to cut through the conflict and challenges. I look forward to helping your family find its stride again.

Let’s define family! You get to decide. One definition – family is a group of loved ones working on the same targeted goals. There are families of all kinds – blended families, disjointed families, adult children working with their parents, youth and their parents, and so many more combinations that we could never list them all. One of the most frequent calls we receive is for family therapy, however after some discussion with you, it is often an individual within the family that first desires a change to get the family change rolling. Family therapy is similar to individual therapy or couples therapy, it just has more people. It could be any combination of 2 or more individuals working

Let me guess. One partner feels alone and like they don't matter and the other feels they are always being criticized and can't get anything right. The more one asks for the other to show up, the more the partner disappears physically and emotionally. You both bicker and fight and the idea of sitting and just hanging out seems elusive, if not impossible. Something like this? Often we crave connection but are blocked by the pain and the history that gets in the way. Small fights about little things become battles that highlight our struggle to have our basic relational needs met. I can help you get under the bickering to the parts crying out for connection- to an enriching relationship.

FAMILY, COUPLES, INTIMACY, AND SEX THERAPY AND PRE-MARTIAL COUNSELING Family Counseling Our family affects who we are and who we become, both for the better and for worse. We learn our vocabulary, our habits, our customs and rituals, and how to view and observe the world around us. Anyone seeking healthier, closer family relationships can benefit from family therapy. Common reasons for seeking family therapy include: Divorce Parent-child conflict Problems between siblings Domestic violence Unexpected or traumatic loss of a family member Family therapy is necessary to address family issues and heal a family’s wounds.

Most family therapists inadvertently create more chaos through their well-intentioned efforts to assist a family move through a change process. Why? Brains are inherently deregulated (all of us, may I add) and most talking and dialoguing misses brain-centric problems that need more intensive help. Many times the emotional trauma created by years of solving problems ineffectively can wreak havoc on the brain's parasympathetic nervous system, not ever giving the family a break from flight or fight thinking. Contact us for an innovative neuroscience solution to family dysfunction. Kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or 877-606-6161.