Family Counseling Services in Westmont, IL.

Kari Hunter is a licensed family therapist with over 25 years of experience. Whether your family has young children, teens, or adult children, Kari has worked with all types of problems. Families can benefit from family therapy when there is school performance problems, sibling rivalry, divorce or re-marriage transitions, or parenting differences. In many cases, insurance covers family therapy.

In family therapy I treat the dynamic of the relationship between family members. We all have a deep need to belong and feel accepted by others. This starts in our family of origin. If things are preventing us from feeling accepted by our families we seek other places to feel that connection. By helping each person feel heard, understood and accepted by their family members we can create significant change.

Life is complicated. It is hard to create and maintain healthy relationships with those we love the most. There are many different thoughts and feelings, from the past and present, that exist in all of our interactions with one another. It isn’t always simple, whether we are trying to effectively communicate feelings, establish rules for the household, navigate the waters of intimacy, guide our children toward a successful future or simply attempting to provide a healthy meal while working, studying, and cleaning. The world and our family lives are increasingly more complex. Though we all have the tools within ourselves and within our relationships to create thelives we want. Through our psychotherapy approaches whether parenting coaching, couples or...(view profile to read more)

Family life can be very difficult because of the number of personalities at work in one home. Acceptance is one of the many important keys to living in an open and safe home. Learning what roles are in play in the home and adopting new styles of interaction is also important. Power struggles tend to be one of the pitfalls to families who want to live in harmony. Learning to better communicate with openness and calmness allows for problem solving to take place.

In my family therapy approach, I focus on fostering open communication and understanding within the family unit. By creating a safe space, I encourage each member to express their feelings and perspectives without judgment. Utilizing techniques such as systemic exploration and narrative therapy, I help families identify underlying patterns, conflicts, and strengths. Together, we work towards resolving conflicts, improving relationships, and establishing healthier dynamics, empowering families to navigate challenges and thrive.

I'm a family man myself in a long term marriage where we raised two sons and now we're grandparents. I've " been there, done that" on so many family issues where respectfully resolving differences and conflict is needed for family growth. As a professional family therapist I enjoy helping families grow to enjoy themselves more fully. My approach is open, conversational, andgoal oriented. I work with families of older teens, young adults, families dealing with elder issues and with family businesses. I also see young families where the couple, the parents, need to find a new life pattern incorporating raising young children and while still enjoying their life as friends and lovers.

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.

Families are system all of their own - expectations, communication and parenting styles, and personalities of the family member will form complex layers of interactions and reaction. In family therapy, the nature of these relationships between children, parents, and siblings is explored. Family therapy can help with a variety of problems and situations, such as: * Parenting tweens & teens. * Finding balance in blended families. * Divorce / Marriage * Work Transitions * Children with emotional or behavior disruptions. * Substance Abuse We'll develop new strategies that work for your family to help you define your values, communicate better with one another & reduce conflict.

All families face serious challenges over a life time. Are you facing stressors that are affecting the entire family? Are you having trouble coming together to resolve issues that you and your family are facing? Your family can begin to learn how to mediate stress and begin to understand how a stressful situation can affect each family member. Together, we can learn ways that your family can use to get through a crisis. How a family manages a difficult experience, handles stress, reorganizes, and moves forward with life can influence current and long-term adjustment for family members and is important for the survival and well-being of the family unit.

Some of the benefits in seeking family therapy are: More meaningful relationships Better communication Ability to work through past or current hurts Be a better support system for each other Ability to set boundaries with self and others Gain a better understanding of each individual person Better ability to hold each other accountable Ability to keep families connected

Family therapy is not about shame and blame. It is a wonderful way to look at the system and how the system operates. There are strengths and weaknesses within all families. In family therapy focus is put on understanding family interactions and the forces that reinforce positive interaction or may be contributing to failure causing pain and hurt. In family therapy, family members becomes aware of unhealthy interactions and dynamics. They are then better able to recognize what needs to change and therefore improve the functioning of the family system.

Have you ever noticed how one person's problem in the family affects everyone? This is true in all families, even the Brady Bunch! One of the reasons this occurs is because our reactions to each other often serve to "keep the problem, the problem". Working together as a family in counseling gets people off the blame-game and on to ways of relating that bring the respect back. As a specialist in family systems counseling and clinical author in professional literature I enjoy working with families of all ages in a variety of interactive/experiential methods to help family members learn how to communicate and connect. The end result is increased harmony and productivity.

The family is a very important and formative group in society and the magnitude of the effects of family dynamics cannot go ignored. We look at the individual roles that each member plays in the family unit and we strive for every voice to be heard. We set family therapy rules, so that we can provide a respectful place to process family concerns, trauma, and other past situations.

Family therapy focuses on improving communication and interaction in family system. This counseling commonly involves, but is not limited to, identifying parental dynamics that effect children, or vice versa. Sessions can include the family as a whole, or focus on individual therapy for the child/adolescent. The core goal of family counseling is to improve the psychological health of the whole family. Families can benefit from counseling when dealing with issues such as sibling conflict, addiction, illness, depression, financial stress and many more.

We will help you adjust to family conflict and cope to help solve and bringing together family members and understanding each other to work through difficult feelings in various circumstances. Resolving the conflicts between family members can ease tensions and bring families peace. If you are unable to resolve family issues, please don't hesitate to ask for external help.

In dealing with families, I strive to help to improve communication and conflict resolution techniques. Often, members of familiies mean well, but express their needs and dis-satisfactions in a way that increases conflict and turmoil. In home conflicts often escalate and lead to withdrawal or explosive incidents. A calmer, problem resolution is possible in and office setting with a neutral party. In such a setting, we are usually able to effect better listening to one another and achieve the kind of understanding and acceptance that leads to greater family harmony.

Home Psych Services, P.C. provides home-based family therapy. We believe this is the most effective way to treat family problems by impacting these family problems where they usually start - in the home. We have multiple professionals including social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists that are able to address family problems from multiple different viewpoints. We are in the unique position of being able to observe how family problems play out in session in the actual environment where these problems started in the first place. This puts us in a unique position to diagnose and treat family problems.

Our family is here to help your family. Effective family therapy techniques involve the entire family in the diagnosis of problems as well as the short-term and long-term treatment options. Our goal is to help return the family to a healthy unit. Each individual family member is an extension of the family unit and cannot be treated for family issues with the exclusion of other members.

Family therapy is incredibly helpful for families experiencing stress, discord, arguments, grief and loss, as well as other life transitions. I provide family sessions for families who wish to process certain experiences, learn about patterns, and support one another through a difficult time. I allow each family member become understood as an individual as well as their role within the family dynamic/system, while we collaborate in finding effective solutions.

Is your family dealing with a major life transition, such as divorce or death of a loved one? Or is one family member dealing with something that is impacting the whole family? Family therapy is a very effective way of helping with either of these situations. When you see me for family therapy, we will create a plan together to help your unique situation through improving communication, problem-solving, and coping skills. Give me a call today for a free consultation and we can put together a preliminary plan over the telephone.